{"id":37891,"date":"2022-10-14T04:45:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-14T10:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/our-view-vote-for-bennet-champion-for-southwest\/"},"modified":"2022-10-14T10:45:00","modified_gmt":"2022-10-14T10:45:00","slug":"our-view-vote-for-bennet-champion-for-southwest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/our-view-vote-for-bennet-champion-for-southwest\/","title":{"rendered":"Our View: Vote for Bennet: Champion for Southwest"},"content":{"rendered":"

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One thing is undeniable about U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet. The guy is a workhorse.<\/p>\n

An accidental politician, too. Maybe this is why he\u2019s worked harder than many over 13-plus years with accomplishments that include improving broadband access through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, expanding the child tax credit for a year and securing $4 billion for Colorado River water conservation in the Inflation Reduction Act. Items that hit home in the Southwest.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to mention Bennet\u2019s more quiet body of work that doesn\u2019t result in one\u2019s name in lights. Serving on committees, helping constituents, negotiating policy and funding, and co-sponsoring \u2013 or putting his touch on \u2013 dozens of bills signed into law. Bennet\u2019s holding out hope for his stalled Colorado Outdoor Recreation Economy Act, which would grant protections to roughly 400,000 acres of federal land in Colorado.<\/p>\n

And Camp Hale is now a national monument in large part to his unwavering dedication.<\/p>\n

Along with U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, Bennet also introduced the Dolores River National Conservation Area and Special Management Area Act in the Senate to protect this glorious stretch.<\/p>\n

Whether leading the pack or working behind the scenes, he gets stuff done for Colorado. We are endorsing Bennet for U.S. Senate.<\/p>\n

A Marist poll this month has Bennet leading challenger Republican Joe O\u2019Dea by seven points, 48 to 41. Running his campaign as if he were 20 points behind, Bennet is beating the street, reiterating his record, working for constituents\u2019 votes. Again.<\/p>\n

Before taking the Senate seat, Bennet was Denver public schools superintendent, an ideal farm-team kind of job. A stellar superintendent must understand the interiors of systems, work well with people and be accountable for measurements of outcomes \u2013 good or bad.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Dea heads a successful construction company. If elected, to counter inflation, O\u2019Dea said he\u2019d \u201cfree up the natural gas market,\u201d by exporting liquid natural gas to Asia and Europe. He\u2019d also wrangle the exhaustive permit process.<\/p>\n

Curiously, O\u2019Dea said he wants federal funding for local police to hire more officers and reduce crime. He certainly has some good ideas.<\/p>\n

On green energy, O\u2019Dea prefers a \u201cprudent approach\u201d without enough renewables in place yet.<\/p>\n

On affordable housing, O\u2019Dea wants \u201cgovernment out of the way\u201d to reduce costs and incentivize builders.<\/p>\n

But in talking with him, O\u2019Dea was a different version than the O\u2019Dea on his campaign website. A page on his site, \u201cPro-Life Leaders Endorse Joe O\u2019Dea,\u201d includes a letter of support from high-profile conservatives. \u201cAs Donald Trump\u2019s U.S. Attorney in Colorado said, \u2018Joe\u2019s a rock-solid conservative.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

In our meeting, O\u2019Dea said he\u2019s a \u201ccentrist moderate Republican,\u201d \u201cmore in the middle\u201d and \u201cmore libertarian.\u201d O\u2019Dea\u2019s self-described political persuasions are worlds away from those of a \u201crock-solid conservative.\u201d He can\u2019t be both. They represent wildly different bases.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Dea never met his biological mother. The letter also states, \u201cJoe speaks with courage and conviction on the need to help more mothers make the same courageous decision his own mother did \u2013 to adopt.\u201d Mothers? Why not fathers?<\/p>\n

Also in the letter on abortion, \u201cJoe does not support a ban in the case of rape, incest, or the life of the mother or early in the pregnancy. . . Joe\u2019s views \u2013 which include strong and much needed restrictions on abortion \u2013 have much in common with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

This signals more than moderate. Who exactly is O\u2019Dea? We\u2019re not sure where the dial points between moderate and true-blue conservative.<\/p>\n

Bennet is easier to know through his legislative work. Easier to trust. Vote \u201cyes\u201d for Bennet for U.S. Senate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

thing is undeniable about U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet. The guy is a workhorse. An accidental politician, too. Maybe this is why he\u2019s worked harder than many over 13-plus years with accomplishments that include improving broadband access through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, expanding the child tax credit for a year and securing $4 billion for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37892,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[125],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-37891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-newsletter-opinion"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37891","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=37891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37891"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=37891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}