PUEBLO – Third Congressional District Rep. Scott Tipton and his challenger, Gail Schwartz, argued about public lands, renewable energy and others issues before a sparse crowd at Hoag Hall on the Colorado State University-Pueblo campus Thursday night.
Tipton, a three-term Republican, defended his record over six years when Schwartz accused him of doing nothing and “quietly” leaving two key congressional committees to serve on the Financial Services Committee.
“You left natural resources and agriculture, committees critical to the 3rd District,” she said.
In turn, he accused Democrat Schwartz of causing the loss of 1,100 mining jobs in the 3rd Congressional District in 2010 when, as a state senator, she helped pass a renewable energy bill.
Schwartz said the bill, SB252, has actually spurred $3.6 billion in economic activity and renewable energy will save consumers $400 million in the next 25 years.
Tipton continued to hammer at that law.
“Union members have to take a look at her record,” he said. “The University of Colorado and The Denver Post agreed she has killed 1,100 plus coal jobs.
“That bill did not have bipartisan support, not in committee, not in the House,” he said. “If you are a union member, remember what she told those coal miners that she would stand up for them.”
He also said that Schwartz did not support the construction of the Keystone Pipeline, which would have helped union members in Pueblo.
“Two fifty-two didn’t choke any jobs,” Schwartz said, returning to the coal argument. “The natural gas industry and the free market is what created the impasse in our coal industry.”
With Chieftain Managing Editor Steve Henson acting as moderator, the two sparred back and forth over those policies and what Tipton called a lie with Schwartz’s contention that Tipton is systematically selling off public lands so energy companies can explore them.
Schwartz repeated her contention that Tipton’s bills are a pattern of forcing the lands into state hands, and when states can’t afford the land, they will sell it to fossil fuel energy interests, a large contributor to Tipton, she said.
Schwartz said Tipton is part of a do-nothing Congress and promised “in 2010, 2012 and 2014,” to represent the 3rd District. “I know I don’t feel represented.”
Tipton reminded the audience, made up mostly of Schwartz supporters, that there are two houses of Congress and that the House of Representatives passed 691 bills, 11 of which he sponsored and four that became law.
“They all had bipartisan support,” he said of his bills.
Schwartz said Tipton has done nothing to enhance conditions for workers in the district, “who constantly say they never see Scott Tipton in the district.”
“Let’s support American steel and stand up for fair trade deals, unlike the Trans-Pacific Partnership, that benefit Americans,” she said. “Let’s invest in roads and expand broadband.”
Schwartz said Tipton voted to close down the government and voted repeatedly to repeal the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare.
Tipton said that the act was not affordable, and that some people were paying premiums that virtually amounted to another mortgage, “not to mention deductibles and co-pays.”
