Five of the six Republican candidates for Colorado’s Third Congressional District (CD3) attended a public forum in Durango Tuesday, June 4. Candidate Jeff Herd was not present, reportedly due to a scheduling conflict.
Russ Andrews, Ron Hanks, Curtis McCrackin, Lew Webb and Stephen Varela answered a series of questions, two of which The Sopris Sun highlighted, in part, below. The primary takes place on June 25.
Describe your priorities regarding Western Slope water infrastructure, including influencing change to the Colorado River Compact?
Hanks took issue with California not storing more of its water, and for tearing down dams — on the Klamath River, for instance. “Now that’s on the North end and it’s a little outside of the irrigation area … but it just goes to show you that the mindset is totally skewed from the downriver users.” He said that having reservoirs in Colorado makes sense, “but we also can start talking about this at the federal level with other representatives about storage in their states … I think it will take a series of years to build it up, but that’s probably the best way we can manage what’s happening, what’s gone wrong.”
McCrackin said that he would look at both water conservation as well as storage. “And I don’t think that you have to dam up a river, you can collect snow — that’s what we do on the Grand Mesa,” where he lives, he said. “There are about 300 to 400 lakes … behind my house.” As far as conservation, he considered what property owners can do individually. “If you put a conservation easement on your ground, you can actually tie the irrigation water to your ground and you can keep it there in perpetuity … I think that will allow you to keep your water — or our water — on our ground.”
“We just need to keep more of our water here in Colorado,” echoed Webb. “We have to remember Colorado is a headwater state. We don’t have hardly any water coming in, if any, other than rain and snow.” He said that creating more storage infrastructure is necessary. At the same time, he noted, “We can’t change the fact that our water is worth more downstream monetarily … That compact makes pretty good sense as long as we keep more water here in Colorado.”
Andrews also advocated for more reservoirs in California. Earlier in the debate, he called out Front Range counties for dictating Colorado’s water policy. “We have 64 counties in the state,” he said. “In 52 of those counties we produce the energy, we produce the water, we produce the food and the recreation; and the other 12 are parasites. And those parasites think that they can dictate to us how we’re supposed to live our lives. I think we need to stop that.”
Varela said that if he gets into office he would propose creating desalination plants and have Arizona, California and Nevada pay for them. “If we do that, we can have more water up here … It can be a healthier river, our farmers and ranchers in ag can have more water to utilize and we can put Colorado first.” He acknowledged that desalination would be expensive. “However, it is going to be long-term sustainability,” he claimed.
What are your thoughts on the conflict in Gaza?
Hanks said that he has first-hand experience and knows “the Arab mindset and the Muslim mindset” after serving in the military — first in 1986 when stationed in the Mediterranean. He said that he is not anti-Arab or anti-Muslim, but “Israel needs its qualitative military edge.” He added that the military aid is a financial benefit to the U.S. because American companies manufacture defense weapons and artillery.
“They [Israel] have been fighting guerrilla warfare for as long as I’ve been alive,” said McCrackin. “I think what happened on Oct. 7 was kind of like what happened here on Sept. 11.” He continued, “We have to do everything in our power to try and stop that from happening time and time again.”
Webb said that it’s because of his Christian faith that he believes the U.S. should wholeheartedly support Israel. “In Genesis … it talks about that anybody who helps Israel is blessed. So I take my position on Israel — and only Israel — as being something that we have to support. We have to take care of our ally.”
Andrews began by criticizing protesting university students, calling them children and “guaranteeing” that they couldn’t find Gaza on a map. “I will do anything I can to help Israel. It starts, however, with us building up our own military and I think that Israel also needs to start jumpstarting its own defense systems.” He suggested, based on an article he’d read, that Gaza could be a place to produce arms, providing jobs. He also called Gaza a beautiful place that would be filled with hotels if there was a “rational” government there.
Varela said that the issues in Israel and the Middle East stem from Iran, which “is fighting proxy wars in these countries.” He continued, “Too often in politics, too often in government do we worry more and more about the symptom and we forget the cause. If we eliminated the cause where this is coming from, we wouldn’t be talking about this today.” While serving in Iraq, he said that an improvised explosive device that hit their vehicle was “more than likely manufactured by the Iranians.”
Mutual support, mostly
Before closing comments, the candidates were asked if they would support the Republican CD3 candidate should they not be nominated. All said yes, with the exception of Hank who said it depends on who that would be.