In case you missed it, John Hickenlooper swung through the High Country and the Roaring Fork Valley this week and met with Coloradans to talk about health care, saving the post office, and Senator Cory Gardner’s failure to support the CORE Act.
In Avon, Hickenlooper joined state Senator Kerry Donovan and state Representative Dylan Roberts to talk about his plan to expand access to coverage and lower health care costs by building on the Affordable Care Act. Meanwhile, Senator Gardner is being dragged for wanting to repeal the ACA without having a comprehensive plan to replace it.
Front Page of the Vail Daily
The Vail Daily wrote:
Hickenlooper, a Democrat and former Colorado governor, touted his role in expanding Medicaid in the state and setting up health insurance exchanges to cover more Coloradans, arguing the federal government needs to take a leadership role to improve the Affordable Care Act and create a public option to expand access to health care and reduce patient costs.
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“The bottom line is (Cory Gardner) continues to support Donald Trump’s lawsuit to repeal the Affordable Care Act, to eviscerate it, to dismantle it,” Hickenlooper said. “He said he has a bill that would provide protections for people with preexisting medical conditions, but that has been debunked. There is nothing in that bill that will give people protections if they have preexisting conditions if the Affordable Care Act is repealed.”
Read more in the Vail Daily.
Hickenlooper then made his way to Carbondale with Senator Michael Bennet and met with Coloradans who are passionate about protecting public lands. At the foot of Carbondale’s Mount Sopris and the Thompson Divide, Hickenlooper called out Senator Gardner for refusing to support a decade-in-the-making bill to protect 400,000 acres of Colorado public lands.
The Aspen Times wrote:
Former Colorado governor and current U.S. senate candidate John Hickenlooper claimed Wednesday during a campaign stop in Carbondale that his opponent, Republican incumbent Cory Gardner, is a phony environmentalist.
Hickenlooper said “the coolest thing of all” about the legislation is it was “homegrown” rather than written in Washington, D.C.
“There are nine counties that have land in the CORE Act that is to be protected and the county commissioners, for the lands in their county, every one of them supported the CORE Act,” Hickenlooper said. “So how the hell can Cory Gardner be against it? Well, we know, it’s because (Senate majority leader) Mitch McConnell doesn’t think we need more public lands, because Donald Trump doesn’t think we need more public lands, because the oil and gas industry doesn’t think we need more public lands. That’s the food chain, that’s the pecking order for that.”
Aspen Daily News wrote:
Surrounded by hay bales and with Mount Sopris providing a picturesque backdrop to any campaign event, former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet recounted their shared decade or so working alongside the Thompson Divide Coalition and other grassroots advocates in what eventually became known as the CORE Act.
Read more in The Aspen Times and the Aspen Daily News.
The next stop was in Basalt where Hickenlooper and Senator Bennet joined postal workers and activists in support of the post office and to advocate for vote by mail. The United States Postal Service has been under attack by the Trump administration despite it being a lifeline for Americans in rural areas who depend on medication to come through the mail.
KREX Grand Junction wrote:
They also appeared at a post office in Basalt to advocate for Colorado’s vote by mail system. Vote by mail has now become a major issue nationwide at President Donald Trump raises concerns about this system.
“The postal service is so important to rural America. It’s a lifeline in many cases,” Hickenlooper said. “Deliveries of prescription drugs, things like that, that are essential to people in rural communities.”
In Washington a $25 billion post office bill has already passed the House but remains stalled in the Senate. Hickenlooper says regardless, vote by mail in Colorado remains secure and efficient.
“That doesn’t shake things up in Colorado because we understand how vote by mail works,” Hickenlooper said. “We understand that we have these continuous audits to make sure that there’s no fraudulent voting. Cory Gardner first got elected to the Senate in 2014 which was our first year of vote by mail.”
Read or watch more from KREX Grand Junction.
Finally, Hickenlooper made a stop in Dillon to rally voters with state Representative Julie McCluskie and other Democratic candidates who will be on the ballot in Summit County. He warned Coloradans that Senator Gardner never was an independent voice for Colorado — instead he is a rubber stamp for President Trump.
Summit Daily wrote:
Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper wants you to know that he is not Sen. Cory Gardner’s friend.
“Cory Gardner is no friend of mine,” Hickenlooper said while speaking at the Dillon Amphitheater on Thursday, Sept. 3. “It’s almost like he’s been studying at the lab of Donald Trump. He says a lie long enough, people begin to believe it.”
Hickenlooper was speaking at a meet-and-greet event for Democratic Party candidates that will appear on Summit County’s November ballot. He was joined by State Rep. Julie McCluskie; Summit County Commissioner candidates Josh Blanchard, Elisabeth Lawrence and Tamara Pogue; and state Senate candidate Karl Hanlon.
The main message from all the candidates at the event: get out and vote. In his speech, Hickenlooper urged longtime voters to help get others connected in the race.
“I’m running for the Senate, and I’m running as hard as I’ve ever run for anything in my life,” he said. “This is that moment — for all of us — what we’ve taken for granted is now at risk.”
Read more in the Summit Daily.
