By JOHN LA PORTE, Times News Editor
Fort Morgan Times
Posted:08/14/2009 10:37:21 AM MDT
So far, so good.
While Cory Gardner readily admits, “We've got a lot of work ahead of us” in his campaign for the Fourth Congressional District, he is encouraged by the early signs.
The Yuma Republican who is trying to replace “State Rep.” with “U.S. Rep.” and unseat Democrat Betsy Markey said at a Thursday fundraiser that he is one of 13 candidates nationwide named to his party's Young Guns program.
And while no figures were immediately available from a Thursday evening fundraiser near Fort Morgan, he said his campaign raised $200,000 in its recently ended first quarter.
Gardner is running against Democratic incumbent Betsy Markey, who unseated powerful Republican Marilyn Musgrave of Fort Morgan last year.
Markey is already running some television and radio ads, he pointed out. “I think that gives you the idea that they're a little bit worried about us,” he added.
“Together we will win in 2010,” Gardner told a small group of supporters at the fundraiser put on by Matt Laws at the rural home of Frank Di Rico.
He recalled receiving a telephone call from his 5-year-old daughter, and when he asked her if her mother knew she had called, she said, “No, Daddy, I just wanted to talk to you.”
He said he realized then that it was time to fight for her future and for children like her.
In 2010, people have the opportunity to say, “Enough is enough” to policies coming out of Washington increasing debt and government control and wanting to be America's doctor.
Gardner said he wished he could say problems the country is having are all Democrats' fault but “we have been part of the problem.”
It is time, he said, to say that the people will stop the government spending and strangling business with regulation.
The Fourth Congressional District is largely comprised of people who want to be left alone to run their businesses and raise their families, Gardner said.
Republicans cannot just be a party of opposition, he stated; they must have solutions to problems.
Addressing health care, Gardner said that opponents to the Democrats' plans have been characterized as evilmongers.
“No one is opposed to quality, affordable health care,” he stated.
However, Gardner offered several alternatives to heavy government controls to make it affordable:
• Cap medical malpractice lawsuits.
• Take advantage of technology like electronic medical records. Use of such technology in Grand Junction, he said, helped improve preventative care and reduce costs.
• Let people buy insurance that fits their needs and is portable.
• Offer tax credits for people who cannot afford insurance.
• Take advantage of high-risk pools.
“Every one of those solutions is a free-market solution,” Gardner declared.
He added that he would not support legislation that took away freedom, interfered with doctor-patient relationships and drove up debt.
Gardner said that what he said in Di Rico's living room were the same things he would say in Washington, D.C.: “I don't go out there to do anything but represent the people of this state and this country.”
Coming from a family with century-old roots in Yuma, Gardner grew up in the farm implement business and works in that business and a small law practice in his home town.
“I'm as comfortable in the corn field as I am in the board room,” he said. “No one represents the fourth better than I do.”
— Contact John La Porte at news@fmtimes.com.
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