Wednesday night, Western Colorado Independent Voters held a forum in Glenwood Springs for the Democratic primary candidates whose names appear on the ballot this month.
Participating were former Colorado State Rep. Diane Mitsch Bush, former Eagle County Commissioner Arn Menconi, and a campaign representative for Glenwood Springs municipal and water attorney Karl Hanlon, who could not attend due to work commitments.
The forum, held at the Glenwood Springs Library, presented many questions, but one underlying one took precedent – How will a Democrat win over unaffiliated voters in Colorado's 3rd Congressional District?
In 2016, Colorado voters supported Proposition 108, which effectively allows unaffiliated voters a voice during the primary election cycle; a first in Colorado state history.
Without question, whichever Democrat remains standing following the June 26 primary vote, he or she will then face the mountainous task of defeating incumbent U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton. The Republican has represented the district since 2011 and in 2016 defeated Democratic challenger Gail Schwartz by nearly 50,000 votes.
When asked, "If elected to Congress, what would you do to make America's election system more democratic?" Menconi answered that elections need to utilize paper ballots and questioned the authenticity of other voting methods such as voting machines used in Ohio.
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Mitsch Bush, on the other hand. called for the end Citizens United, which, according to the former state representative and Routt County commissioner, has created not a democracy but rather a "dollarocracy."
Hanlon's campaign manager, Nathan Steele (fielding questions on behalf of the Hanlon campaign) also agreed with Bush that Citizens United must end immediately.
After the first question the moderator from the Western Colorado Independent Voters opened the floor to public questions, which covered a variety of issues directly facing Colorado's 3rd Congressional District.
"We need an economy that
