Colorado Springs Gazette - Republicans Show United Front in Colorado Springs Stop

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By Megan Schrader

Republicans showed a united front Wednesday as the candidates still standing after the June 28 primary joined their opponents in a GOP rally with eight stops from Pueblo to Greeley.

Unsuccessful gubernatorial candidates Scott Gessler and Mike Kopp introduced primary winner Bob Beauprez in Colorado Springs with glowing endorsements and a call for Republicans to take back the governor's office from Democrat John Hickenlooper.

"You can't just win El Paso County," said Gessler, the current Secretary of State. "You have got to crush it in El Paso County."

Gessler and Kopp urged a small crowd at the El Paso County Republican Headquarters, 205 Sutton Ln., to get out the votes to help Beauprez and U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner in his campaign for U.S. Senate.

The county boasts 146,523 active Republican voters, about 30,000 more than any other county in the state.

"I was good enough in math at school to understand that if it weren't for El Paso County I wouldn't be here right now," Beauprez said.

He won the primary by 13,447 votes over his nearest opponent Tom Tancredo. In El Paso County he led the four-way race with 9,725 votes more than Tancredo .

Tancredo was not at Wednesday's event in Colorado Springs, but he made other stops along the way in support of Beauprez.

"The message you send from El Paso County may well be the determining factor for whether or not Colorado becomes a red state again," Beauprez said. "We've got work to do."

Beauprez introduced his running mate, Douglas County Commissioner Jill Repella, who said she is ready to move on from local government and have an impact at the state level.

"It's been too long that I sit back as a local elected official and I cringe every time I watch things happen at the state that hinders our ability as a local community to move our economy forward," Repella said.

She has climbed the local political ladder, beginning on the Douglas County School Board while her three children were in school and serving on several county advisory committees.

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