November 07, 2013 07:48 PM UTC

"Moderate" Tipton Grilled, Pueblo Style

• 2 Comments
• by: kwtree

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

UPDATE: Tipton town hall videos now posted at

http://www.youtube.com/user/socoteacher/videos

It was not a happy night for Scott Tipton. He came to Pueblo, ready to make nice and woo himself some moderate voters of all political stripes. He attempted to sell himself as a renewable energy environmentalist, a compassionate conservative, a thoughtful guy on immigration, and a job creator.   He was short on specifics, but managed to hit every single GOP-approved talking point. The audience was polite, but skeptical, and the tough questions kept coming.

Tipton began by portraying himself as a bipartisan, moderate Republican, a true conservationist, touting his hydroelectric project bill, and legislation to prevent property owners in national forests from selling their water rights to the Federal government. I'm not well-informed on these issues, but Tipton managed to seem almost "green" on water rights and  hydro development. He lost that green hue later on, while promoting the Keystone pipeline as a job creating miracle.

Then, Tipton got grilled like a Pueblo chile.

Alvin Rivera asked him about the Republican obstructionism, and challenged him about the Republican blocking of every item on Obama's agenda. Rivera called this obstructionism "racist".

An unidentified woman asked him about the furloughs of government workers, and why anyone would want to work for the government now. Tipton's response was to extol the virtues of "small, efficient" government.

I questioned him about his public statements and voting record on a house immigration bill Hr 1722, in which he advocated for more border security, and specifically prohibited spending any monies implementing any help for "dreamers". It includes no amnesty, no path to citizenship, and a guest worker program. Guest worker programs offer convenient cheap zip in, zip out labor forces, but no health care or social services, and of course, no vote, since they will never be citizens.

Theresa Trujillo asked repeatedly how he would vote on a a path to citizenship, and if he would in fact vote for a comprehensive immigration bill, which has been passed by the Senate and stalled in the house for five months.

He didn't answer. Or rather, he asked us if we would want to "incentivize" businesses to hire immigrants, who, by law, would not be covered for health care under the Affordable Care Act. He brought up Ronald Reagan. He said we have a broken system. He claims that 52% of immigrants choose not to be American citizens.  He claimed that there were no "legal immigrants" at any of his town hall meetings, and bemoaned the lack of their voices. No-one challenged him on it. Immigration is not one of the "issues" Tipton promotes on his congressional website.

A young "dreamer", Carla, said, "I am a dreamer. What are you going to do for me?" Tipton maundered on about how he would like a sensible, compassionate immigration policy that beefs up border security, and doesn't include a path to citizenship. He said, "thoughtful, step by step process" several times. Trujillo challenged him on it, stating that the Senate bill 744 has been stalled in the House for five months, including during the shutdown.

Several self-identified Republicans stood to ask that the Republican party start nominating "electable people", by which I think they mean moderates, not Tea Partiers..

Albert Becco asked him about jobs, Fair Trade laws, the Trans Pacific Partnership, and tax rates, including the question of China's manipulating currency. Becco's point was to ask what Tipton would do to protect "American jobs" and infrastructure. Tipton claimed that when he voted for the House Resolution 678, “ Hydropower Development and Rural Jobs Act," that this was a jobs bill.

He claimed that the Connect for Health Colorado website discriminates against rural Coloradans, that when they put in a rural zip code they are charged twice as much.

He promoted a new tax code which would "close loopholes", but wouldn't say which ones. When questioned, he said, "all tax loopholes" should be examined.

The camerawoman, yours truly, provided most of the snark at this town hall.  Mr. Tipton made it a point to be calm and civil.  His audience responded in kind, with cool politeness, but very pointed questions. Tipton's responses uniformly peddled the standard Republican talking points,while providing almost no  concrete information on policies.