August 06, 2012 05:02 PM UTC

Adams State Preps For Wednesday's Tipton vs. Pace Debate

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• by: Colorado Pols

As the Pueblo Chieftain reports, Wednesday is a big day for normally sleepy Alamosa. Adams State University hosts the first debate matchup that night between GOP freshman incumbent CD-3 Rep. Scott Tipton, and challenger Sal Pace of Pueblo, a state representative. We expect many questions about this race–still considered the biggest congressional pickup opportunity for Democrats in Colorado, though GOP Rep. Mike Coffman’s CD-6 race against Joe Miklosi is increasingly on the radar–to either be answered at this debate, or at least clarified.

The first: can Tipton, whose oratorical skills have not (to put it mildly) been a strong point during his term in office, survive two hours against his energetic and well-spoken challenger?

Tipton, a freshman Republican from Cortez, is a solid supporter of the House GOP agenda in his first 18 months in office. As promised, he’s repeatedly voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, voted to extend the decade-old tax cuts approved during President George W. Bush’s administration and voted to repeal the Dodd-Frank regulations that are intended to rein in Wall Street abuses.

“I wasn’t in Washington to create these problems,” Tipton told a largely Republican audience in Pueblo a week ago. “But I’m doing my best to solve them.” Pace, a two-term Democratic lawmaker from Pueblo, sees those same issues differently. He charges that Tipton and other House Republicans are protecting the wealthy from paying a higher share of taxes and intend to privatize Medicare in the future.

He sent out a list of major legislation Friday that remains undone, including not renewing the Farm Bill or extending a federal tax credit for Vestas and other wind-power producers.

A poll follows.

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