By Daniel Smith
By the time you read this, the results of the state’s open primary election will be known and the armchair political quarterbacks will have aired their opinion, critics will have done their finger-pointing and griping about who lost and why – and the electorate will have had their say about who makes the November ballot in just four months.
By Daniel Smith
The political season usually gets in gear in March of election years with local caucuses, district and state assemblies as well as primary balloting to determine who gets on the November election ballot.
In the Fifth Congressional District, thus far there are three Democrats and three Republicans lined up to challenge Republican incumbent Doug Lamborn. More candidates are possible before the March 20 filing deadline.
The Democrats include Stephanie Rose Spaulding, a Colorado College professor and pastor; Betty Field, a former non-profit director and local activist; and Lori Furstenberg, a recent candidate who is a retail store owner. All are relative political newcomers and residents of Colorado Springs, seat of the lion’s share of district influence because of its population size.
The Republican challengers consist of more politically experienced candidates, including State Senator Owen Hill, El Paso County Commissioner Darryl Glenn, Bill Rhea, a former Texas district judge and missionary, and Lamborn, the ten-year incumbent.
Hill is considered a rising force in the GOP ranks while Glenn ran unsuccessfully against U.S. Senator Michael Bennet last election cycle.
Rhea describes himself as the “distinctly centrist” Republican candidate for the congressional race.
Lamborn is a hard-core Republican in a majority GOP district that is considered “safe” in some political assessments, but he has faced primary challengers often before, and even criticism from within his own party ranks.
Lamborn stood in opposition to the creation of Browns Canyon National Monument, stating at the time of the debate over the decade-long local effort to preserve the area that all interests, including extractive industries and ranchers, had not been fully represented.
By Daniel Smith
Until the recent horrific tragedy in Charlottsville, Virginia, brought renewed attention to issues of race, diversity and white supremacist groups’ self-empowerment to demonstrate their hateful, devisive agenda, Salida had been in the national news over a shocking immigration incident.
At the end of July, eight German exchange students headed for residents’ homes in Salida, as other students had in previous years, were stopped at Denver International Airport by immigration authorities, detained overnight in holding cells away from the airport and deported back to Germany the next day.
Pressed for reasons for the unprecedented action, immigration officials insisted the student were coming in and “taking work away from U.S. citizens” – illegal since they had no work visas.
Susan Masterson, who has coordinated the exchange program for a number of years, was quoted saying she reached out to State Rep. Jim Wilson, Fifth District Congressman Doug Lamborn, Governor John Hickenlooper and Senator Michael Bennet. No one could stop the unceremonious deportations of the students.
Immigration officials said they were trying to enter on tourist visas, which was illegal, but it’s unclear just what “jobs” the students would take from U.S. citizens while here for just four weeks. It was the first time any such complication had arisen in the rewarding exchange program here.
Masterson was quoted as saying she felt the student’s treatment was definitely a result of the Trump administration’s contentious rulings regarding illegal and legal immigration. She said Lamborn’s staff did all they could, to no avail.
By Christopher Kolomitz
Farewell Campy
SALIDA – Laurence Campton, a well known Salidan, died April 13 at the age of 95. Known as “Campy” throughout the community, Campton moved to the area in 1949 and had just celebrated his 75th wedding anniversary with wife Daisy. He survived imprisonment during World War II, was the 1959 FIBArk down-river race champion and in the early 1950s and ‘60s served as the manager of the Salida Chamber of Commerce, The Mountain Mail reported. He retired from the Chaffee County Road and Bridge Department in 1984 and a few months later began a 21-year stint as the county veteran service officer.
Big Changes at the USPS
On Feb. 23, after a five-month study, the U.S. Postal Service announced it would be consolidating 223 centers across the country sometime after May 15
In Colorado, post offices in Salida, Alamosa, Durango and Colorado Springs will be affected by the decision. What this means for Colorado Central subscribers is that the magazine (and all other mail sent from Salida for that matter) will first be re-routed to Denver for sorting and then delivered back to Salida (sounds more efficient to us, right?). Normally, locals get the magazine the next day but the new rules will add several more days to the delivery time. Our Front Range subscribers may see their copies sooner but we‘re not holding our breath.
Helicopter Stranded on Mountain
A Colorado Army National Guard helicopter that was diverted from a rescue effort June 15 on Mt. Shavano to another on Little Bear Peak in the Sangre De Cristo Range, made a precautionary landing after striking the mountain and will have to be removed in pieces, according to an AP story.
The CH-47 Chinook was originally dispatched from Ft. Carson to help rescue a 40-year-old Denver man who was suffering from altitude sickness on the ridge between Mt. Shavano and Mt. Tabeguache in Chaffee County. It was then diverted to assist an 18-year-old from Highlands Ranch who suffered a fatal fall from a rock face while attempting to climb Little Bear Peak.