election year

[ilanarama]

This morning Britt and I went down to the courthouse to hear Bill Ritter speak; for those of you who are non-Coloradoans, he is our most likely Democratic candidate for governor in the upcoming election. The big label that's always attached to his name is that he's a "conservative" Democrat, which is apparently media-speak for "he opposes abortion," because as far as we could tell none of his other positions are at all out of line with the general sentiment of state Democrats. And, in fact, the newspapers have all been tsk-tsking about how the Dems are uneasy about supporting him because of his opinion on abortion.

But after hearing him speak - and you can bet that the abortion issue was raised in the question-and-answer period - I am totally behind him (as is the rest of the local Dem party). He said that although he personally opposes abortion, he will not seek to change state abortion law, and that he opposes any effort to criminalize women or doctors involved in abortion. He stated that the common ground we all have is a desire to reduce unwanted pregnancies, and he supports responsible sex education (as opposed to abstinence-only programs), better access to health care for women (including emergency contraception, which really surprised me), and funding for family-planning programs.

His website has zero information on his positions on environmental and energy issues, but he answered all the questions to my satisfaction - he seems to be a strong environmentalist and an advocate for alternate energy (which are my big issues), and tonight at a fundraiser that we had dithered about but decided to attend after hearing him, I'll talk to him about putting these positions out there as well, because I think environmental protection is actually an issue with strong bipartisan support in Colorado.

Anyway, the half-dozen of you on my flist who are Colorado people ought to check him out and consider supporting him with your dollars and votes.

Comments

[adjudicated.livejournal.com]

Oh, he's had my support from the get-go. I've long been aware of him -- as you know, he's the former DA for Denver (unrelated, but I have a raging crush on his successor Mitch Morrissey -- God, he is hot! Guh.) and I think he would be a good choice for Colorado. Better than Beauprez, anyhow. I'm not a Beauprez fan.

(Y) Thumbs up!