{"id":69500,"date":"2017-07-06T16:44:21","date_gmt":"2017-07-06T22:44:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/steamboat-springs-democrat-will-challenge-scott-tipton-for-house-seat\/"},"modified":"2017-07-06T22:44:21","modified_gmt":"2017-07-06T22:44:21","slug":"steamboat-springs-democrat-will-challenge-scott-tipton-for-house-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/steamboat-springs-democrat-will-challenge-scott-tipton-for-house-seat\/","title":{"rendered":"Steamboat Springs Democrat will challenge Scott Tipton for House seat"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Bush\"
Bush<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

DENVER \u2013 A Steamboat Springs Democrat has thrown her hat into the ring for the 2018 congressional race against U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Colorado.<\/p>\n

State Rep. Diane Mitsch Bush<\/a> announced Thursday that she intends to challenge Tipton for Colorado\u2019s 3rd Congressional District seat.<\/p>\n

Bush said in a statement that her main motivation for a congressional run is Tipton\u2019s vote on the American Health Care Act, which could take health insurance coverage away from an estimated 23 million Americans by 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people of southern and western Colorado can no longer afford to be represented by someone who votes to take away our health care and line the pockets of rich folks,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Protection of the nation\u2019s public lands, defeating attacks on employees\u2019 rights and reforming the college loan system so it\u2019s \u201ceasier not harder for those with student loans to pay them off\u201d would also be her priorities in Congress, she said.<\/p>\n

Bush added that during her five sessions in the Legislature and her six years as a Routt County commissioner, she has focused on working with Republicans on issues important to rural Colorado. Currently, she is the chairwoman of the Legislature\u2019s House Transportation Committee and vice-chairwoman of the Agriculture Committee.<\/p>\n

As an example of understanding the needs of rural Coloradans, Bush pointed to a series of transportation service grants she secured during her time as a county commissioner. The grants funded a pilot commuting program for people who worked in Steamboat but couldn\u2019t afford to live in town.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs you well know, in most of our mountain communities a lot of people can\u2019t afford to live where the jobs are and they are commuting on treacherous roads, and I was able to get the South Routt Vanpool Service established and running,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She highlighted work she has done across the aisle in the Legislature, including with Sen. Don Coram, R-Montrose.<\/p>\n

This includes measures to cut red tape for small hydroelectric producers and a defeated effort to defray the cost of health insurance for Coloradans who fall into the gray area between qualifying for government subsidies and being able to afford private insurance.<\/p>\n

In 2017, Bush was a driving force behind House Bill 1242, the Legislature\u2019s major transportation funding overhaul measure, which would have asked voters to approve the use of a sales tax increase and existing state funds to generate hundreds of millions of dollars annually over the next 20 years to fix Colorado\u2019s roads.<\/p>\n

HB 1242 was eventually killed by fiscally conservative Republicans in the Senate Finance Committee, despite sponsorship from Senate President Kevin Grantham, R-Ca\u00f1on City.<\/p>\n

Bush said she hopes to bring the same focus and dedication she has brought to the people of Routt and Eagle counties to the nation\u2019s capital if elected in 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time to turn Congress into a body that works for the people, not against them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

As part of her campaign, Bush will hold a series of town hall-style meetings, starting with one in Pueblo on Thursday and a stop at 5:30 p.m. Friday at the Durango Public Library.<\/p>\n

The Durango meeting will consist of a brief statement from the Bush followed by an opportunity for attendees to ask questions about her history in politics and goals for Congress.<\/p>\n

lperkins@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rep. Diane Mitsch Bush wants Congress to \u2018work for the people\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":69501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[94,14,21,13,28,23,945],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-69500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado-state-government","tag-colorado-state-house-of-representatives","tag-cortez","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-u-s-rep-scott-tipton","tag-united-states-government"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69500","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=69500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69500"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=69500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}