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Things get lively in 5th District

7 Republicans vying to replace Hefley in GOP stronghold

Dick Foster and Joe Garner, Rocky Mountain News

Published May 1, 2006 at midnight

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COLORADO SPRINGS - The political sap is rising among El Paso County Republicans this spring.

Seven GOP hopefuls are jostling to fill the void that will be created when U.S. Rep. Joel Hefley retires at the end of this session. Hefley, 71, has represented the 5th Congressional District for 10 terms, frequently with little more than token Democratic opposition in the general elections.

"The opportunity hasn't come open for 20 years, and so anyone with any political ambition realizes that this is their shot at the brass ring," said El Paso County Commissioner Dennis Hisey, a conservative Republican who is watching the race from the sidelines.

Hisey said the number of candidates is "beyond ridiculous."

"The concern is that the vote will be split up so many different ways that a moderate will get in," he said. "What I'm calling a moderate would be a conservative anywhere but El Paso County. Even if one of them gets in, I could live with that, but they wouldn't be my first choice."

Republican stronghold

The district includes five rural counties in the central Rockies, but El Paso County, with its concentration of military installations, high- tech defense contractors and headquarters of evangelical Christian groups, accounts for almost 90 percent of the district's population. The district is 77 percent white and 20 percent of residents are veterans.

"We are conservative here, too, but we don't lean as far as they do in El Paso County," said Lillian Wissel, GOP chair in Park County.

"I don't think there is one candidate standing out among the others," she said. "It's too hard to call the race with so many running."

The mantra is that the more conservative the Republican, the better the Republican for El Paso County, and the rest of the district will be pulled to the right.

"I'd like so see someone with Joel Hefley's values follow him," said Paula Hamilton, a teacher who's a registered Republican. "He's a conservative. He's pro-life. He's supported the military."

The congressional seat will offer job security for almost any Republican who emerges from the pack at the May 19 district assembly and the Aug. 8 primary to win the nomination.

One of the strongest of Republican strongholds in the nation since the district was created in 1972, no Democrat has ever held the seat, although two are running this year.

Hence the large field fighting for the job, said Colorado College political science professor Robert Loevy.

"It's the size of the prize," said Loevy. "This is one of the safest Republican seats in the country. Literally, although it's not actually true, this is for a 20- or 25- or 30-year term if a person wants to sit there that long.

"This is ticket to the House of Representatives where, if you can just be that first guy who gets in there and becomes the incumbent, it's going to be like civil service," Loevy said.

The seven GOP candidates are all men in midlife who have sampled public office or public service, and now want to go to Washington.

They are John Anderson, a former El Paso County sheriff; Duncan Bremer, a lawyer and former county commissioner; Patrick Carter, the CEO of a family-owned business who is making his first political race; Jeff Crank, a former administrative director for Hefley who has the congressman's endorsement; Doug Lamborn, a lawyer and state senator; Lionel Rivera, Colorado Springs' first Hispanic mayor; and Bentley Rayburn, an Air Force Academy graduate and recently retired major general.

All take reliably Republican stands - lower taxes, less government, more individual freedom, support for a strong military and family values.

Each is searching for a base of support, whether it be from the military, local business leaders or the large conservative religious community, said Loevy.

"The trick is finding an electorate that you can reach and that will turn out for you. That's what makes it so difficult to predict which one will win, because you can't tell which way the vote will split with so many candidates," said Loevy.

"Often, the major candidates will split up the votes, and if a minor candidate can find an issue to appeal to a dedicated part of the electorate, they can take these elections and surprise everyone."

Five of the candidates are seeking the nomination though the traditional route of party caucuses and the upcoming assembly, while two are circulating petitions to claim a place on the primary ballot.

Process complicated

The process can get complicated, however, because a candidate who fails to win 30 percent of the votes cast at the assembly for a ballot position can still petition onto the ballot, if he has received at least 10 percent of the votes cast at the assembly.

Among the five planning to present themselves to the district assembly, Anderson offers himself as the moderate because he contends that Roe vs. Wade "has to exist in law" to permit abortions if the mother's health requires the procedure or if the pregnancy is the result of rape. Anderson also would not support a federal constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman.

"My political leaning always has been to the right of center," Anderson said, "but I would be more accurately described in this race as a moderate.

"The other candidates are extreme social conservatives who are driving people away from the Republican Party," he said. "The farther to the right this party allows its pendulum to be swung, the smaller the party will become."

But the four others going the assembly route are leapfrogging over one another to land on the lily pad farthest to the political right.

Carter, a veteran of military service like Rivera and Rayburn, is running as the political outsider, but as the business owner who has met payrolls.

He ranks himself with Bremer, Crank and Lamborn as the true conservatives among the five going to the assembly May 19.

"I have not been corrupted by the public-sector mindset," Carter said. "I have no intention of becoming a career politician. I tend to look at private-sector solutions before I look to government solutions."

Bremer and Lamborn, the two lawyers in the field, take the opposite tack from Crank, running on their records as county commissioner and state senator respectively.

"The breath and depth of my experience is more than what the other candidates have," Bremer said. "I have what the other candidates have, plus."

The senior of the candidates at 63, Bremer touts his work on a range of local, state and federal issues, from water rights to welfare reform.

At campaign appearances, he rides the coattails of his brother, L. Paul Bremer, who was the civil administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq in 2003-04, with lines like this: "I went to Baghdad and visited with my brother, who was trying to run that place."

Lamborn, the other lawyer, differentiates himself as "the only one who can prove I'm socially conservative and fiscally conservative because I have a voting record. I have a second difference: I've never supported a tax increase, and I think that's resounding with people."

Support for the Bush administration is solid across the field, especially on the war on terror, but Bremer said he wishes "the president would take a stronger stand to limit federal spending" and Lamborn said he differs on the issue of amnesty for illegal immigrants.

Crank, wielding his endorsements from Hefley, U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo and two presidents of Focus on the Family, presents himself as primed for leadership, contending he is the only candidate with "federal legislative experience."

Crank got strong applause at a candidate forum last week with the tested line, "I want to take the IRS by its roots and rip it out."

Predictably, in a district that is one of the nation's arsenals, all five who are going to the assembly support the war in Iraq.

"I think we need to realize that we will be in the Middle East as a stabilizing force for years, if not decades, to come," Anderson said.

Crank said the president's "leadership in the war on terror has kept the nation safe."

Lamborn said the nation "has to be prepared to fight the war on terror for as long as it takes because these people are dangerous."

Immigration is an issue in which some of the candidates carefully separate themselves from Bush.

"Improving border security is a front-burner issue," Bremer said, "while amnesty is a back-burner issue."

Both Rivera and Rayburn have highlighted their military experience as a plus in a district laden with five major installations, 29,000 active duty personnel and thousands of retirees.

Rivera, who retired from Fort Carson as an Army captain, touts his experience handling the nuts-and-bolts needs of local military leaders for the past nine years as a Colorado Springs City Council member, the last three as mayor.

"All politics is local," said Rivera. "The strong relationships I have built personally with military and business leaders will help me when I get to Washington, D.C."

Rayburn believes his 30 years in the military would provide perspective to a Congress now suffering from "a real dearth of military experience."

The Air Force Academy graduate has deep family roots in the district. His family owns mountain property in the area and his uncle founded the Christian youth ministry Young Life here.

He says staying the course in Iraq must be the nation's top priority.

"This is going to be a long war, and we're going to need leadership in Congress," said Rayburn. "Leadership is all about making sure that the American people keep focused."

With about three weeks to go before the assembly and three months to go before the primary, Sallie Clark, the Republican chair of the El Paso County commission, said she considers the race still "fairly cordial."

"I'm not hearing the major issues discussed yet," Clark said. "I'm still hearing, 'I'm a lifelong Republican, and I'm a conservative, so vote for me.' "

or 719-633-4442 or 303-892-5421

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