We can\u2019t say we\u2019ve seen election workers in full-body armor or doing any fancy martial arts moves. But they\u2019ve learned a thing or two on how to react to emergency situations along with simple de-escalation tactics. A new state law makes it unlawful to threaten, coerce or intimidate election officials, and interfere with duties or retaliate.<\/p>\n
This training and protection was needed. The good news is, we haven\u2019t heard of any hostile behavior to the degree of real concern. Elections have been smooth. We\u2019re hopeful this means election conspiracy theories started by former President Donald Trump after the 2020 election are in the rearview mirror, where they belong. We\u2019re returning to the normalcy of running strong races with accurate results. Our trust and faith and in the election process is intact.<\/p>\n
As Secretary of State Jena Griswold likes to say, Colorado\u2019s election model is the best in the nation. Our state\u2019s hybrid model of mail and in-person balloting shows that if you give Coloradans the opportunity to vote, they will eagerly do so.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no denying QAnon supporters and election deniers scored seats around the country. Yet, that red tsunami of GOP wins didn\u2019t wash ashore. We\u2019re not hearing cries to storm to the Capitol or talk of a civil war. Candidates paid the price to hold onto that relationship with Trump \u2013 personally, professionally and historically\u2013 as he loses his sheen and influence.<\/p>\n
Our 3rd Congressional District may be the exception, though. As of this writing, incumbent Lauren Boebert is slightly ahead of Adam Frisch. It\u2019s a wakeup call. No matter how this race goes down, one thing is certain. Boebert underperformed and Frisch was seriously underestimated.<\/p>\n
National election forecasters said Boebert would handily hold onto the safely Republican seat. Last month, when Frisch released internal polling that showed the two in a statistical dead heat, with Boebert pulling 47% support to his 45% and another 7% undecided, we questioned his numbers. Discounted him. But he was right all along.<\/p>\n
Frisch gave Boebert a real run for her money.<\/p>\n
We hope she realizes this. If Boebert\u2019s prayers at election parties are answered, we hope she doesn\u2019t gloat, and is circumspect about that CD3 needs and wants. In the two weeks before the election, we noticed a slight change in her. Boebert seemed more serious. More tempered. For her, that is.<\/p>\n
She denied a request for an interview with The Durango Herald<\/em> and The Journal<\/em>, but agreed to answer questions via email \u2013 or her communication\u2019s people did \u2013 for a story earlier this month. Boebert\u2019s answers lined out \u201cthe top five issues facing Southwest Colorado.\u201d<\/p>\n Her caustic attitude shone through with digs against Gov. Jared Polis and the Biden administration. Surprisingly, she didn\u2019t mention Nancy Pelosi.<\/p>\n Boebert\u2019s points included the economy and inflation, energy, water, border security and drugs, and housing. She took credit for the Pine River Indian Irrigation Project that provides irrigation to the Southern Ute Indians, although she voted against the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022, which designated the $10 million funding to the project. No surprise there.<\/p>\n We hope Boebert has matured enough to see that she\u2019s Trump and Marjorie Taylor-Greene\u2019s megaphone and pawn. It\u2019s time that she acts as her own person. The election numbers show, she can be replaced.<\/p>\n We\u2019re all tired of the chaos. It\u2019s time to move on. We\u2019ll continue to hold Boebert accountable and press her to do real work for CD3 if she is, in fact, the winner of this race.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" can\u2019t say we\u2019ve seen election workers in full-body armor or doing any fancy martial arts moves. But they\u2019ve learned a thing or two on how to react to emergency situations along with simple de-escalation tactics. A new state law makes it unlawful to threaten, coerce or intimidate election officials, and interfere with duties or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[125],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-37321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-newsletter-opinion"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37321\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37321"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=37321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}