Speaking to a modest crowd at Rotary Park, Schwartz, a 45-year resident of the Western Slope, said public lands face increasing risks, such as the resurgence of the Sagebrush Rebellion and the Republican push to transfer federally owned lands to states.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will be the battleground when it comes to keeping public land public,\u201d Schwartz said. \u201cThese lands are our economy, our future and our heritage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michael Fortney, Tipton\u2019s campaign manager, disputed Schwartz\u2019s view of the congressional member\u2019s record on public lands.<\/p>\n
\u201cGail Schwartz is a typical politician that can\u2019t seem to stop herself from flat out lying,\u201d Fortney said in a statement to the Herald. \u201cCongressman Tipton has always been a champion for public lands like passing bills to protect Hermosa Creek and Chimney Rock. Gail\u2019s time in the state Senate left her constituents jobless with higher utility bills. It\u2019s sad that she has nothing to run on so she has decided to spend the last six months lying.\u201d<\/p>\n
In her speech at Rotary Park, Schwartz vowed to reform the General Mining Act of 1872 to ensure companies pay their fair share of the cost of reclamation while protecting natural resources. She also issued support for the Environmental Protection Agency in its effort to clean up mine sites north of Silverton that are responsible for degrading water quality in the Animas River.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the EPA is the only agency in these basins,\u201d she said, \u201cwe\u2019re going to protect their funding.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schwartz then called into question the track record of her opponent, incumbent Republican congressman Scott Tipton, for siding with industry interests. She said Tipton voted to cut the Land and Water Conservation Fund by 90 percent.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has continually undermined the ability to protect public lands,\u201d she said. \u201cI will not have my votes sold to the largest donor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schwartz was joined by Durango city councilors Sweetie Marbury and Dick White, as well as former U.S. Senator Mark Udall, who said the Democratic challenger aligns with the interests of Colorado\u2019s diverse population.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe not only has cowboy boots,\u201d Udall said, \u201cshe also has hiking boots.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Speaking to a modest crowd at Rotary Park, Schwartz, a 45-year resident of the Western Slope, said public lands face increasing risks, such as the resurgence of the Sagebrush Rebellion and the Republican push to transfer federally owned lands to states. \u201cWe will be the battleground when it comes to keeping public land public,\u201d Schwartz […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":70293,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,266,13,265],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-70292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-election","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-politics"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70292","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=70292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70292"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=70292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}