Wolf drops GOP Senate bid

Former Delta County commissioner to try to unseat Salazar for House seat instead

By Lynn Bartels, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published December 6, 2007 at 12:22 p.m.
Updated December 6, 2007 at 12:22 p.m.

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Delta County Commissioner Wayne Wolf has dropped his longshot bid to become a U.S. senator and now is seeking the Republican nomination in the 3rd Congressional District.

Wolf said his decision to try to defeat U.S. Rep. John Salazar, D-Manassa, has received "plenty of support" on the Western Slope and in southern Colorado.

"I've gotten a really enthusiastic response from the party," Wolf said today.

That's a much different response than he received this fall when he said he intended to challenge Bob Schaffer for the Republican nomination to the U.S. Senate.

Dick Wadhams, chairman of the Colorado Republican Party, dismissed Wolf's candidacy, saying the amount of money Schaffer had raised and the campaign he had built made him the "de facto nominee."

Wolf, a fifth-generation Coloradan who lives on a ranch near Cedaredge, said he believes Congress needs more people who pay attention to local government.

The 57-year-old said federal election rules have put some counties in the position of possibly having to replace equipment they recently purchased.

Wolf also said that the feds have imposed stricter-than-necessary rules for municipal water supplies, costing those towns millions of dollars.

Wolf, who has been a part-time teacher for much of his career, was particularly critical of President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act, which he called costly to school districts and "unrealistic."

"When Washington doesn't talk to the people who are actually implementing the policies, it ends up costing the local taxpayers," he said.

"Right now there is a feeling that congressmen really don't listen to the people. People in my area would say that I do listen."

Salazar is listening, Wolf said, but to the wrong people.

Wolf said he believes that Salazar is siding with "fringe" environmentalists and is taking too much campaign money from unions.

Salazar's campaign was not available for comment.

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