{"id":37763,"date":"2022-10-18T21:04:34","date_gmt":"2022-10-19T03:04:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/u-s-house-candidate-adam-frisch-wants-to-bring-back-getting-stuff-done\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:39:57","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:39:57","slug":"u-s-house-candidate-adam-frisch-wants-to-bring-back-getting-stuff-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/u-s-house-candidate-adam-frisch-wants-to-bring-back-getting-stuff-done\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. House candidate Adam Frisch wants to bring back \u2018getting stuff done\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Adam
Adam Frisch is the Democratic nominee for Colorado\u2019s 3rd Congressional District. (Courtesy of Adam for Colorado)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Adam Frisch was working in the World Trade Center in February 1993 when a truck bomb exploded in the parking garage, a terrorist attack now viewed as a precursor to Sept. 11. Twenty years later, he crossed the finish line at the 2013 Boston Marathon just 15 minutes before the first bomb went off on Boylston Street.<\/p>\n

These brushes with tragedy \u2013 what Frisch described as \u201ca couple of near misses\u201d \u2013 were a motivating factor in his decision to move from New York City to Aspen, and later to run as a Democrat against incumbent Republican Lauren Boebert to represent Colorado\u2019s 3rd district in Congress.<\/p>\n

\n

About this series<\/h4>\n

The Durango Herald has requested an interview with U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert about her bid for reelection, but she has not yet agreed to an interview or responded to questions posed to her campaign.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a little naive, I\u2019m not completely naive, but at least here there\u2019s a big opportunity just to have a normal conversation with people and let them know I\u2019m here to listen,\u201d Frisch told The Durango Herald<\/em> during a Zoom interview.<\/p>\n

Frisch said he didn\u2019t plan on a career in politics; he doesn\u2019t have a bathroom mirror above his sink because he doesn\u2019t like to look at himself, which he said might make some people think he\u2019s in the \u201cwrong profession.\u201d He launched his run for the congressional seat because, as he put it, he has \u201ca history of standing up when I think it\u2019s important to stand up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frisch said he has come to believe that \u201cthe biggest issue facing Southwest Colorado is we don\u2019t have a representative who is actually focused on the job,\u201d referring to Boebert. He said he views her priority as \u201cyelling and screaming and not really fighting on behalf of even the people that voted for her,\u201d acting as part of what he calls the \u201canger-tainment\u201d industry in American politics in which he said extremists on the right and the left engage in bad-faith conversations to divide constituents.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s proposed 39 bills and legislation \u2013 zero have gotten out of committee,\u201d he said of Boebert. According to the Library of Congress\u2019 official website, Boebert has sponsored 40 bills that have not passed the House of Representatives as of Friday.<\/p>\n

Frisch, who describes himself as a \u201cmoderate, pragmatic Democrat\u201d and was registered as an unaffiliated voter in Colorado for 20 years, said his goal in Congress would be to \u201crepresent everyone in the District, not just the Democratic Party.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Adam
Adam Frisch speaks while debating U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Silt, on Sept. 10 during a Club 20 Western Colorado Candidate Debates at Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction. (William Woody for Colorado Newsline, file)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cI always tell people \u2026 if there was a \u2018Get Stuff Done\u2019 Party, I\u2019d be in the \u2018Get Stuff Done\u2019 Party,\u201d he said. \u201cBut that \u2018Get Stuff Done\u2019 Party is not doing very well right now, and we\u2019re all suffering for it and so is Southwest Colorado.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frisch said some of his biggest concerns in Southwest Colorado are the lack of affordable housing, water shortages and rural access to quality health care and education.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no top-secret issues,\u201d Frisch said. \u201cThey\u2019re all fairly constant, been on the plate for a while, but it\u2019s really listening to people to try to build consensus because at the end of the day, no matter what happens in November, when there\u2019s a new House and a new Senate, the only (legislation) that\u2019s going to get passed by definition is going to be bipartisan.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Frisch, a key step in addressing any given issue facing Southwest Colorado is to put federal taxpayer money \u201cin the hands of local leaders.\u201d He said leaders at the county and community levels are better equipped to distribute the funding and that people in Denver and Washington, D.C., should not be making those decisions about what the 3rd Congressional District needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the biggest jobs that a representative needs to do when they go to D.C. is trying to figure out how to bring home the district\u2019s taxpayer money \u2013 that are paid into there from individuals and businesses \u2013 and try to have that money come back and reinvested in that community,\u201d Frisch said.<\/p>\n

Frisch acknowledged that some voters might worry he would struggle to relate to some of his constituents as their representative, particularly because he lives in the resort community of Aspen and not closer to some of the district\u2019s lower-income towns.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s some very valid concerns about, \u2018How can a mountain town guy connect with all of us ranchers and farmers, and those of us who kind of live in a more traditional rural community?\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s all fair, and I just try to address it right away.\u201d<\/p>\n

He cited his early childhood on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana, where his father had worked as a public health professional, and his teenage years doing farm work to help out his grandfather\u2019s cattle trading business as evidence that he has \u201ca little bit of a diverse background.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the campaign trail, Frisch has some company: his 16-year-old son, who has taken a year off of high school to run the volunteer coordination team. Frisch said the two of them have been driving the family\u2019s 19-foot camper trailer all over the state, racking up nearly 10,000 miles since the primary elections ended July 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen times get tough or you start missing a lot of people back home, (having my son with me), that part\u2019s fun,\u201d Frisch said.<\/p>\n

He also said the camper, which is decked out to look like a campaign billboard, is helpful for him and his son when it comes to gauging who the electorate will be voting for.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had about 85 thumbs-up and 65 middle fingers,\u201d Frisch said. \u201cSo we feel like we have some good polling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kate Corliss is an intern for The Durango Herald and The Journal in Cortez and a student at American University in Washington, D.C. She can be reached at kcorliss@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Boebert\u2019s Democratic challenger talks bipartisan collaboration, life on the campaign trail<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37293,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[981,28,367],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-37763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado-3rd-congressional-district","tag-headlines","tag-u-s-rep-lauren-boebert"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37763","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=37763"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83778,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37763\/revisions\/83778"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37763"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=37763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}