Gubernatorial candidate Walker Stapleton was meeting voters in Greeley, Fort Morgan and Sterling on Monday as his campaign rolled out his Rural Colorado Priorities Plan.<\/p>\n
The Republican from Denver said if he is elected governor, he will tackle rural broadband internet needs and connect his administration to the state\u2019s farmers and ranchers.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs governor, I will be a voice for rural Colorado,\u201d Stapleton said in a statement. \u201cI will pursue policies that promote rural economic development and ensure there is abundant economic opportunity for our children. Colorado succeeds when communities along the Front Range, Western Slope and Eastern Plains have vibrant economies, and I will make sure rural Colorado is never forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said rural counties fall behind at the competitive disadvantage of slow internet connections. He said he would create a rural broadband task force and streamline the process and funding for extending broadband to rural communities.<\/p>\n
\u201cColoradans deserves access to quality broadband no matter where they live,\u201d Stapleton said.<\/p>\n
He acknowledged progress in the Legislature this year in Senate Bill 2, which he supported, to steer existing government money and grants to rural communities.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs governor, I will be an unwavering ally of our farmers and ranchers,\u201d he said. \u201cI will defend our agricultural sector by supporting fair trade and continue Colorado\u2019s all-of-the-above energy approach so our agriculture community has access to cheap, reliable energy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Polis campaign was not impressed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis \u2018plan\u2019 is mostly platitudes and it\u2019s taken over a year to release,\u201d said spokeswoman Mara Sheldon. \u201cIt\u2019s no surprise that this meager document makes no mention of rural communities\u2019 health care needs, teacher shortage or the outdoor recreation economy \u2013 because Treasurer Stapleton would rather not talk about his misguided policies to rob Coloradans of their health care, take funding out of public schools or sell our public lands off to polluting special interests.<\/p>\n
\u201cJared unveiled his rural economic development nearly a year ago and has put forward detailed plans to grow the outdoor recreation industry, address our state\u2019s water needs, expand rural high-speed internet, make health care more affordable for rural families and end the teacher shortage in rural communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last November, Polis wrote an op-ed in the Summit Daily outlining his plan to extend high-speed internet to rural communities. He also wrote an op-ed in the Aspen Times about health care. Polis also has unveiled his Keep Colorado Wild plan.<\/p>\n
Stapleton\u2019s camp fired back.<\/p>\n
\u201cCongressman Polis\u2019 policies are so bad for rural Colorado he didn\u2019t even bother showing up to the Club 20 debate to defend his radical agenda to rural voters,\u201d said Stapleton spokesman Jerrod Dobkin, referring to last weekend\u2019s gathering in Grand Junction. \u201cFrom his government-run health care program to his attempts to raise taxes and utility bills on hardworking Coloradans, rural Colorado simply can\u2019t afford Congressman Polis.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Stapleton releases plan; Polis asks, what took so long?<\/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":[266,28,774,265],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-60414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-election","tag-headlines","tag-political-candidates","tag-politics"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60414","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=60414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60414\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60414"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=60414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}