I'm not the first to say it, but I'm sure as hell going to repeat it. We can be competitive in every district this year. Sure, we're not going to win every district, some of them won't even be close, but there isn't one that we couldn't make close if we chose too. These special election results that keep coming in show it to be true. This is going to be an election where democrats can win in any district where they put the resources in. Obviously special elections are just that, special, but when a democrats win in some of the reddest parts of the country, it's indicative of how many other races can be won by the blue team. I'd like to talk to you about one district in particular, a campaign that excites me enough that I'm moving back home to Colorado full time to work on it. The district is CO-05, and the candidate is Hal Bidlack.
Many of you will remember the last Democrat who ran in CO-05, Jay Fawcett. He ran a great campaign and, unfortunately lost to Doug Lamborn, who has proven to be one of the most, if not the very most, conservative member of the House. And at 59 to 41, it was hardly a squeaker. But Fawcett still did an incredible job laying the groundwork for Democrats in a district that we haven't won since it was created in 1972. In 2004, Joel Heffley, the Republican incumbent, won the district 71 to 27, with Bush winning by similar margins. That's an improvement of 12 points. Granted, it helped that the race didn't have an incumbent in 2006, and it was a pretty good year for democrats in general. But those factors have only improved this year.
If there's anything better then running in an open race, it's running against an incumbent that no one likes, and Doug Lamborn may be that guy. One of the clearest indicators of the distaste that many Republicans in the district have for Lamborn is the fact that he has not one, but two primary challengers. Right now it looks like he's going to pull through the primary, but there's no guarantees at this point. In 2006, he just barely broke through with 27%. He has also shown himself to be pretty ineffective as a congressman. According to the rankings at Congress.org, he is the 411th most powerful person in the House of Representatives.
His one real accomplishment has been working to get a new veterans cemetery approved in Colorado Springs, but he couldn't even do that without John Salazar's help. You heard that right, the only way that Lamborn can get anything done is when Democrats help him. All in all, not a whole lot of love is lost on Doug Lamborn, and with several groups ranking him as tied for most conservative member of the House of Representatives, it's not hard to tie him to certain other politician with dismal approval ratings.
But none of that would matter if we didn't have a great candidate. As it happens, one has stepped up to run in this toughest districts. His name is Hal Bidlack. It's hard to even know where to start in explaining why he's perfect for both my home district (I spent the first 19 years of my life there) and for Congress.
The most obvious element is his military service. While Lamborn, his likely opponent, doesn't have a lick of military service, LTC Bidlack recently retired after over 20 years in the Air Force. He has served as a military policeman and taught at the Air Force Academy. And although he doesn't like to mention it too often lest he sound like he's grandstanding, he was literally in the pentagon the morning of September 11, 2001. He's a man that understands the military, and he's a man that understands that the war in Iraq needs to end. He has also come out in favor of the improved GI Bill.
And then there's his historical perspective. Hal Bidlack is one of the nations foremost experts on the life of Alexander Hamilton and his understanding of the constitution is incredibly advanced. He realizes the many wrongs that have been committed against this country's founding documents like few others can. One of his main issues has been privacy and the need to counteract the horrid abuses of the Bush administration. And privacy isn't the only area where his experience helps him counteract the last 7 years. He also served in the National Security Council as Director of Global Environmental Policy under President Clinton and in the State Department as Deputy Director of Security Programs under the first Bush.
No doubt, the demographics in CO-05 are tough. Voter registration puts the district has approximately 70,000 democrats, 110,000 independents, and 160,000 republicans. With four important military bases (NORAD, the Air Force Academy, Ft. Carson, and Peterson Air Force Base), it's also a veteran heavy district. And as the base for James Dobson's Focus on the Family, fundamentalist Christians hold a great deal of influence. (It was also the home of National Association of Evangelicals head Ted Haggard until he lost his pastorship in one of those oh-so-common republican sex scandals.)
But the situation as it might look at first glance. Those independents are, like independents throughout the country, more likely to lean democrat then ever, and many of those republicans are RINOs that have no problem whatsoever voting for a dem. As to veterans, more and more veterans are moving to democrats. It's no secret that Obama has received more campaign money from members of the military then any of other remaining major candidates. Even the evangelical vote isn't as bad as it might be. I grew up around a lot of very conservative Christians, and many of them are starting to see things like the environment and poverty as moral issues that move them towards democrats.
Additionally, there isn't going to be a lot to pull the most conservative of Christians to the polls. The republican candidate for senate has had some very real problems with his base over his claiming that there weren't any forced abortions in the Marianas, even after the evidence became clear that he was wrong. James Dobson was one of the first conservative Christian leaders to mention a lack of support from his constituents for McCain during the primaries.
It's going to be a tough slog, but CO-05 is, like so many other districts nationwide, winnable. And it's only one example (it just happens to be the one I'm going to be working on). I'd love to hear about the districts you've been watching. And, in case your interested, you can give to the Bidlack campaign here.