Posted by
NOTLEGALROADKILLYET on Wednesday, August 30, 2006 10:31:50 AM
In this time of polarized politics, I am an unusual political activist. I am not a one or two issue individual. While I have views on the hot button issues of the single issue voters, I have never once cast a vote for or against a candidate because of his stand on one of those issues.
There are two things that will turn me against a Republican, and only two things. The first is ethics. In my life, I have only voted for one Republican who I knew had lied to me, and that was GHW Bush. I did so then with great reluctance, and only because I felt the two alternatives were worse and I didn't not want to pull a 1976 again.
The other thing that turns me off is single issue candidates. Once those folks are elected, they don't have a rounded view of their constituent's needs and believe they were elected to serve only those folks who share their view.
I was a 5th District delegate this year, and I had a heck of a time deciding who to support. I was predisposed to support Lamborn, but I didn't like what I was reading about him in the G-T. They were painting him as a one issue (Pro-Life) State Senator. The G-T led me to believe that 25% of the bills Lamborn had sponsored were Pro-Life bills an that few had passed. I decided to support Crank.
Inevitably, Lamborn called me-he tried for a month before he finally got me, which wasn't his fault. I told him that I was supporting Crank and why. He said that he was a lot less one sided than the G-T was making him out to be and asked if he could send me a list of the bills he had submitted. I got the list. It demonstrated that Lamborn had indeed been a well rounded State Senator, and he got my vote at the assembly.
I am troubled that a few county Republicans are publicly supporting his Democratic opponent. I think it might be useful if they did what I did. Talk to the campaign and ask for a list of the bills he sponsored over the twelve years he was in the legislature. I think they will find, as I did, that Lamborn is not the single issue candidate he has been made out to be.