{"id":69541,"date":"2017-07-11T13:47:51","date_gmt":"2017-07-11T19:47:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/republican-candidate-for-governor-visits-cortez\/"},"modified":"2017-07-11T19:47:51","modified_gmt":"2017-07-11T19:47:51","slug":"republican-candidate-for-governor-visits-cortez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/republican-candidate-for-governor-visits-cortez\/","title":{"rendered":"Republican candidate for governor visits Cortez"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Republican
Republican George Brauchler is running for Colorado governor. He met Monday with local Republicans at Fiesta Mexicana in Cortez.<\/span>Jim Mimiaga\/The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Republican George Brauchler, a district attorney and military man, is running for Colorado governor. He visited Cortez on Monday to pitch his experience and plans to the Montezuma County Republicans over nachos at Fiesta Mexicana.<\/p>\n

Brauchler, 47, may be the most high-profile candidate in the campaign to replace Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper, who is term-limited.<\/p>\n

The 18th Judicial District Attorney since 2013, he has an office with 88 prosecutors and 20 investigators that serve Arapahoe, Douglas, Elbert and Lincoln counties, with a combined 1 million residents. As assistant DA, he prosecuted the perpetrators of the Columbine high school and as DA he prosecuted James Holmes, who was convicted in the Aurora theater massacre.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also a colonel in the Colorado Army National Guard and served in the U.S. Army Reserve from 1996-2015. He served as chief military justice for Fort Carson and northern Iraq.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy am I running for governor? Because the Colorado I\u2019m about to turn over to my kids is not the one I inherited from my parents,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel like I\u2019m in a position to do something about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

His conservative beliefs, dedication to states\u2019 rights and budget scrutiny will lead the way. Colorado roads are in bad shape, he said. \u201cOur highway structure is neglected, and I don\u2019t believe we need a sales tax to fix roads. It takes fiscal management and leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n

Money spent by Colorado on environmental assessments instead of pavement, and state incentives like a $5,000 rebate for electric cars, shows \u201cthe state has rejected prioritization of money,\u201d Brauchler said. He favors gasoline taxes.<\/p>\n

He wants Washington, D.C., out of classrooms, and more state control and trade schools. \u201cI want to de-emphasize the federal influence on our schools because the more we invite them into our state, the more decisions they will make,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Vocational schools are needed to fuel the economy and provide skilled labor jobs, he said. \u201cIn Colorado, 57 percent of those who graduate high school go on to college. What are we doing for the other 43 percent?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said Denver-area construction leaders say they won\u2019t be able to fill labor jobs with the current state population. \u201cThey are going to have to recruit from outside the state,\u201d he said. He proposed reducing certification requirements so experts in technical trades can become instructors.<\/p>\n

Brauchler also hopes to decentralize government by spreading agencies across the state. \u201cWhy is Colorado Parks and Wildlife headquarters in downtown Denver?\u201d he said. \u201cSell the building and relocate to Craig or Cortez, where there is actual hunting, and hire local people who believe in hunting and conservation.\u201d Spreading the agencies around \u201cpromotes rural economic development, creates a better product and gets all of Colorado involved in the process,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

On health care, he said Medicaid has not been used as intended, and he would prefer the state receive block grants from the federal government to run the program. \u201cWe have a moral obligation to take care of those who can\u2019t take care of themselves,\u201d he said. \u201cBut with one in four on Medicaid, 44 percent of whom are able-bodied working adults, it has moved from a safety net to a hammock,\u201d he said. \u201cEntitlements like Medicaid put a strain on our state budget.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republican candidates in the race also include Doug Robinson<\/a>, a former investment banker and Victor Mitchell<\/a> an entrepreneur and businessman.<\/p>\n

Democratic candidates include former Colorado Sen. Mike Johnston<\/a>; U.S. Rep. Jared Polis<\/a>; former state treasurer Cary Kennedy; <\/a>and businessman Noel Ginsburg.<\/a> U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter dropped out of the race Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brauchler says Colorado needs conservative leadership<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":69542,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[266,28,29,265],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-69541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-election","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-politics"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69541","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=69541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69541"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=69541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}