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John Andrews has to be the bravest man who ever entered politics. He's not a public speaker, not a glad-hander, not a campaigner at all. He must feel mortal terror every time he gets on the stump. Yet he gamely proceeds, even though he gets beaten like a gong every time he appears anywhere near Roy Romer.
Romer will win, no matter what Andrews does, no matter what I do, which is to vote Libertarian, of course. Libertarians have a deep and abiding mistrust of government. A majority of Coloradans must share that mistrust -- why else would tax and term limitation measures fare so well in the public-opinion polls? -- so I don't understand why Libertarians are considered a fringe movement.
Back in the mainstream, there's the senate contest. We get to pick between the Larry Mizel candidate and the Jane Fonda candidate. When I find a coin, I'll make up my mind here, and I hope the coin lands on its edge.
Attorney General is simple. Gale Norton deserves to lose for bringing a sleazy Willie Horton-style campaign to Colorado. Rejecting her will mean fewer offensive commercials in the next election, whereas if she wins, we'll see more misleading racist drivel. In the interest of wholesome TV, vote against her.
Besides that, Duane Woodward has tried to apply the law to those companies which poison us for profit. That's a refreshing change, and it probably explains why Colorado Republicans more or less drove Woodward out of the party.
Dick Sargent will get my vote for treasurer. For one, he's not an incumbent. For another, he's got a lot of good ideas. And I am susceptible to attention; I hear from him once in a while.
As for amendments, we might as well pass the tax-limitation measure. Let's get it over with. We'll get one on the ballot every two years until one passes, and this one is about as sensible as they're likely to get. If the horrors that its opponents predict come to pass, we can always repeal it. So why not give it a try?
Term limitation has a superficial charm. But retired
legislators don't become normal citizens who must suffer
under the laws they made; they turn into lobbyists. The
whole thing reminds me of proposals to purify television
programming, even though every set ever made has an
off
switch. The power is already in our hands; we
can limit terms quite effectively by voting the rascals
out.
But if Salida is anything like the real world, it is the local races that are most important this year.
Some good things have happened here in the past four years -- Arkansas River Headwaters State Park, renovation of an old steam power plant into a theater, new fairgrounds, downtown improvement, public radio repeaters.
Each of these resulted from low-level grassroots activism. Washington and Denver were involved at various points in some projects, but the initiative and energy were all local.
The federal and state governments have become largely irrelevant to the endless struggle to make communities more fit to live and work in. Forget about senators and governors, and look closely at county commissioners and school boards. These days, they're much more important.
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