Blog: Tapia vs. Tipton Debate at Club 20

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Tipton, Challenger Tapia Hit Broad Range of Issues By Gary Harmon from The Grand Junction Sentinel The two major candidates running to represent Colorado's 3rd Congressional District each took aim at Washington, D.C., in their first debate before about 400 people at the Club 20 fall meeting. U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Colo., is seeking his third term and facing a challenge by former state Sen. Abel Tapia, a Pueblo Democrat who characterized Tipton as a part of an ideology-driven majority party in the House. " I hear that passion over and over," Tapia said after Tipton said he would defend western Colorado in Washington, D.C. "but it has seemed to be party first. We're left behind because we have to vote as a bloc." Not so, said Tipton. "I took on my party leadership" on the issue of payment in lieu of taxes from the federal government to local governments with vast swaths of untaxable federal land in their jurisdictions, Tipton said. The payments had been zeroed out as part of a budget package offered by Republicans, but were restored, Tipton said. It could be that users of federal lands "may have to come to the table and provide more assistance," Tapia said. Tapia and Tipton sparred twice on "Waters of the United States" rules proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which Tipton called "the biggest water grab in American history." The issue, said Tapia, is that "Congress should brought something forward. They didn't bring anything forward, they just argued back and forth and then just walked away." Responded Tipton: "Nobody asked for the new rules and regulations." Tipton pressed Tapia on another EPA-related issue, new air quality regulations that critics say will shut down coal mining. "I can't say yes or no," on the proposed rules, Tapia said. "There's a lot to that, and I was a coal miner." Tapia, former chairman of the Colorado Legislature's Joint Budget Committee, blamed much of the nation's budget woes on spending in other parts of the world, especially on wars. "We spent a lot of money not in our country but in other countries, "Tapia said. "We have to put the United States first." Much of the key to restoring the Western Slope economy and that of the United States is in energy development, Tipton said, noting that an estimated 8,000 Mesa County residents now work in places such as North Dakota, where the energy business is booming. Both candidates declared the immigration system broken, with Tapia noting that he is familiar with someone brought illegally as a child to the United States and who now has a master's degree in architecture. "And I can't hire him. He is illegal. His number will come up in 2018. He's in limbo." The immigration system can be addressed after the United States secures its borders, Tipton said, calling immigration a national security issue. The United States "is the greatest nation on Earth," Tapia said. "We should be No.1 in job creation. We should be No.1 in education. I don't like what I see in terms of partisan bickering." The United States once "built the biggest ships and built the fastest cars," but does so no longer because of regulations and rules, Tipton said. "The federal government has literally become a stumbling block."

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