Colorado's 4th Congressional District special election debate at the Grizzly Rose on Saturday featured two political novices, a guy who doesn't want to win and an empty chair set aside for the presumed favorite in the race.
Republican Greg Lopez was a no-show at the debate, sponsored by the Republican Women of Weld and the Lincoln Club of Colorado, a decision libertarian candidate Hannah Goodman called a travesty.
"I disapprove of taking your ball and going home when things don't seem to be going your way," she said to a crowd of 200 or so packed into the venerable country-western bar in Adams County, just over the Denver line. "What an example for the youth today."
Republican Women of Weld Vice President Tammy Klein said Lopez, a former mayor of Parker and past unsuccessful candidate for governor, backed out a day before the event after he asked the organization to endorse him in the race and it declined.
"We think it's inappropriate (to give an endorsement)," Klein said, noting that four candidates across the political spectrum had been invited to debate in the race to fill out the rest of former U.S. Rep. Ken Buck's term.
Buck resigned from Congress in March, triggering a special election on June 25 to fill his seat until the new congressional term starts in January. That's also the date for Colorado's eight congressional primary contests. The 4th District, encompassing the Eastern Plains along with populous Douglas County, is one of Colorado's most reliably Republican strongholds.
Trisha Calvarese is the Democrats' nominee to run in the district's special election. She's also vying to get on the district's November ballot to face one of six Republicans, including U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert.
The 37-year-old labor advocate, who lives in Highlands Ranch and spent some of her youth in Sterling, said she has debated Lopez twice before.
"I didn't mean to debate him so hard to scare him," she told The Denver Post after the debate.
The reaction to Lopez's absence was not positive among the Republican faithful who had come to see him debate.
"You should get in front of everyone you can — these are his people," said Lori Garcia Sander, a Republican who is running for a state house seat in the 4th District. "I was disappointed."
There were two other Republican debates Saturday afternoon at the Grizzly Rose. Former state lawmaker Janak Joshi sparred with state Rep. Gabe Evans in the 8th Congressional District, while five of six candidates in the 4th District — Boebert had declined an invitation weeks ago — tussled on stage.
A request for comment from the Lopez campaign was not immediately returned Saturday. He is running only to fill out Buck's term and will not appear on the June 25 primary ballot.
Calvarese, the Democrat, said she supports continued financial support for Ukraine in its war with Russia, a position a large chunk of the Republican Party has turned against.
"We need to support our democratic allies," she said.
Her father's union benefits, she said, helped him afford medicine when he was diagnosed with cancer. She has picked up the endorsement of the Colorado AFL-CIO.
"I got four more years with my father because he could get his medication," Calvarese said. "I'm pro-families. I'm pro-people who work for a living. That's what I'm stepping up for."
Because a big portion of the voters in the 4th District are unaffiliated, Calvarese said a Democrat can win. The district even spent a brief moment under Democratic representation when Betsy Markey held the seat from 2009 to 2011.
Goodman took the opposite tack on the question of U.S. aid to Ukraine — or aid to any other country for that matter. Overall, she said she would support reducing the federal budget dramatically and lowering taxes to let people keep more of the money they earn.
"I would shave down that budget as much as I could shave it down," she said.
The last candidate on stage Saturday in the special election race was Frank Atwood of the Approval Voting Party. He touted the benefits of approval voting, in which voters can choose multiple candidates rather than having to decide between the "lesser of two evils" from the major parties.
But he plainly declared he has no desire to actually win.
"My wife has told me she'll divorce me if I win," Atwood said. "I have no intention of winning."
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