{"id":99396,"date":"2018-06-05T10:02:42","date_gmt":"2018-06-05T16:02:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/three-democrats-looking-to-topple-rep-scott-tipton-debate-in-durango\/"},"modified":"2018-06-05T10:02:42","modified_gmt":"2018-06-05T16:02:42","slug":"three-democrats-looking-to-topple-rep-scott-tipton-debate-in-durango","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/three-democrats-looking-to-topple-rep-scott-tipton-debate-in-durango\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Democrats looking to \u2018topple\u2019 Rep. Scott Tipton debate in Durango"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Three
Three Democrats running for the U.S. House seat in Colorado\u2019s 3rd Congressional District debated Monday in Durango. The candidates, from left, are Karl Hanlon, Diane Mitsch Bush and Arn Menconi.<\/span>Patrick Armijo\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Three Democrats competing to upend U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, a Cortez Republican, in November talked about impeachment during a debate Monday at the Durango Public Library, but the subject wasn\u2019t confined to President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

Diane Mitsch Bush, who represented Routt County in the Colorado General Assembly from 2013 to 2017; Karl Hanlon, a Carbondale rancher and water attorney who served as chief legal adviser to the city of Glenwood Springs; and Arn Menconi, a former Eagle County commissioner and a social justice advocate, are facing off in the primary election for Congressional District 3.<\/p>\n

Menconi, the most recent entry into the race, brought up Trump during the debate.<\/p>\n

The best way to deal with Scott Pruitt, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, who has been questioned about ethical lapses and rollbacks in environmental regulations, Menconi said, would be to impeach the president.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t worry about incrementalism when the house is on fire,\u201d he told a full room of more than 250 people.<\/p>\n

Mitsch Bush said science must be returned to guiding regulatory actions at the EPA. She referred to the Gold King Mine spill in August 2015, saying mining firms have to be made responsible for the legacy of tailings and other environmental hazards left behind.<\/p>\n

Instead of impeaching Trump, Hanlon said Pruitt has more than earned an impeachment effort.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is a sitting Cabinet member. He can be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Impeachment, as controversial of a subject as that is, did not dominate the debate. There was room for other issues.<\/p>\n

Health care<\/div>\n

Health care, Hanlon said, is \u201ca fundamental right\u201d and advocates for \u201cuniversal access for every single person.\u201d He said when people are forced to decide to make decisions on whether to pay for food, rent or health care, it is time to make changes now in health policy.<\/p>\n

Mitsch Bush supported a Democratic plan introduced in Congress to extend Medicare to everyone. But she wanted certain amendments to better serve rural areas, such as covering costs for ambulance expenses.<\/p>\n

Menconi, who also backed Medicare for all, noted Proposition 69, which would have provided universal health care in Colorado, drew almost no support from prominent Democrats when it appeared on the ballot in 2016 and fell to crushing defeat \u2013 with 79 percent opposed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere was the Democratic leadership when they had an opportunity to make a difference?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

And, he added, it is ridiculous to ask people who make $15 to $20 an hour to pay for health insurance plans that range from $1,500 to $2,000 a month.<\/p>\n

Campaign-finance reform<\/div>\n

Menconi asked the audience for a show of hands of people who had supported Bernie Sanders for president, and then asked how many thought he had been cheated of a fair chance in the primaries.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to be skeptical of the DNC (Democratic National Committee) and the DCCC (Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee) and their roles in the process,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have to make sure our house is clean before we criticize the other party.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hanlon pressed for campaign-finance reform, but he also said it is important to protect an independent Justice Department and judiciary branch to ensure campaigns are run cleanly and above board.<\/p>\n

Mitsch Bush said the Citizens United ruling that equates campaign donations to free speech has to be reversed legislatively and called for a strengthening of the Voting Rights Act.<\/p>\n

At the end of the debate, which was hosted by Indivisible Durango and La Plata County Democrats, more common ground was found: Everyone in the room joined in a spirited chant of \u201ctopple Tipton.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

candidate calls for impeachment of Trump<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":99397,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[266,265,23],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-99396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-election","tag-politics","tag-u-s-rep-scott-tipton"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99396","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=99396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99396"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=99396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}