A Tale of Two Candidates

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” This famous opening line from the Charles Dickens novel, “The Tale of Two Cities,” can really summarize the current political landscape in Colorado.

Tonight I had the opportunity to visit a couple of events leading up to the Colorado State Assembly. The first, an event labeled “Meet and Greet,” put on by candidate for Governor Victor Marx, and the second, an event titled, “An Evening Reception with Scott Bottoms.”

If you are outside of Colorado you may think, “what does it matter who gets on the primary ballot in the Colorado GOP, and in most circumstances, that may be the case. However, Colorado has been a focal point for the last decade or so as we have turned from a traditionally purple state politically to a deep blue, democrat stronghold over the past 20 years. Dark money and smear campaigns have become the normal campaign strategy. Colorado has been known as the model state to shift the political foundation from conservative to liberal.

The last time there has been a republican governor was Bill Owens from 1999 to 2007 and the only Colorado republican governor in the last 50 years.

This year, as one of the most extremely left leaning governors Colorado has ever had in office, Jared Polis, finishes up his second term, Colorado finds itself at a crossroads. Continue down the same road of extreme erosions of conservative values, or elect a leader that will fight for the conservative values that many of us still believe in. First amendment rights. Second amendment rights. Protecting the unborn. Voter integrity. No taxation without representation. This list goes on.

Right now, all eyes are on Colorado as the two main candidates go head to head to be top line on the primary ballot.

Candidate 1 - Victor Marx

It’s not very hard to know who Victor Marx is if you live in Colorado. It seems that every other ad on social media is a VM ad. Combine that with the “Victor Marx” army. If you have not been to politically involved, you may watch a reel, or see someone you know supporting him, but I am one who would prefer to form my own opinion by hearing his words myself, and being in the same room. So I made the drive to Pueblo, Colorado tonight to hopefully get the opportunity “Meet and Greet” the candidate who says, “Were in this race to win it!”

Not only did I not get the opportunity to “Meet” or “Greet” him, I don’t think there was an opportunity for any of the 300 or so people in the room to even shake his hand.

When I first arrived at his event, held in a brewery, I noticed the energy. The event was full of energy, full of excitement and full of happy people everywhere. The event was packed. Making it hard to move, as most people did not want to give up their spot. After a little finagling, my sister and I who went with me, were able to get to about 6 or 7 rows back in the standing room only space. There were plenty of conversations going on all over the room and I was able to have a brief conversation with a local couple there to support their candidate.

After a few minutes of video presentation, a group of campaign managers, local politicians, and close friends gave some words of support for Marx before he was introduced as Colorado’s “Next Governor.” Then, just like in “The Wizard of Oz” when the wizard came out from behind the curtain, the door at the side of the room opened, and the celebrity candidate entered to a cheering crowd.

For a little over 30 minutes, Marx told stories of his upbringing and why he decided to run for office. He also shared what he believed was going to win the governors seat in Colorado. By gaining the independent vote, and raising a bunch of money. I will give it Marx. He really did have the crowd fired up. In fact there is one thing I know in sales, and that is, “enthusiasm sells!” Well, there was plenty of enthusiasm.

The one thing I was hoping to hear tonight from Marx was something about what he was going to do about our state when he gets into office, but nothing of real substance came from the night.

Colorado has been going through 2nd amendment battles at the state legislature and is a very hot topic right now. Some people have asked him what he would do to protect our second amendment rights and in consistent form, instead of telling people what he will do, he completes a subtle slight of hand by slightly changing the words, and showing his concealed handgun. “This is what I think of the second amendment,” he says. With a big smile on his face and a cheering crowd.

As a second amendment supporter, Im not interested in whether or not he has a gun on his person, but rather what is he going to do to protect my rights. Since the beginning of this campaign, I have wondered, “what is going to do though.”

Rather than give any substance, there is deflection and almost a mockery of real work that needs to be done.

There were many things that stood out to me. Like the young and energetic crowd, or the enthusiastic crowd, but two things that were very notable for me were what seemed like a real lack of understanding of the process and very little respect for the undecided delegates that were in attendance. At one point, Marx asked the crowd for a show of hands, how many people were new delegates. I was impressed by how many hands went up. Many people who have not been involved politically are now getting involved. Good on Victor Marx for recruiting new blood.

However, I was very concerned when he told the crowd that there were still some delegates in the room who were undecided and that he welcomed them, but then he told the room that it was pretty obvious who we were because we weren’t clapping or cheering and that security was watching us and he could have us removed. This seemed a little like he didn’t care too much about those who were undecided and a little more about if he was getting cheered on by his fan club.

No questions. Lots of cheering. No real substance. An exit out the side door as soon as he was done speaking. No handshakes. No pictures. No answering questions. Plenty of celebrity arrogance and very little connection with the people who will decide.

So much for a meet and greet!

Candidate 2 - Scott Bottoms

After getting my fill of the Victor Marx Rhetoric, we headed about 5 miles up the road to the evening reception that Scott Bottoms was hosting. When we arrived, he was in the middle of speaking to a crowd similar to the size of the Marx crowd. I don’t know how long he had been going but he was right in the middle of it.

Some of the topics I heard him talk about were Tabor, abortion, trafficking, freeing Tina Peters, back door taxes by way of fees and voter integrity. He did not just say we have a problem with these things, but he explained what he was going to do about it. As opposed to Victor Marx, Bottoms had real substance, a real plan and specific details as to what he was going to do.

Bottoms talked about how he was looking forward to getting rid of corrupt judges and appointing good judges. When he finally finished talking, Bottoms opened the floor to questions. Not afraid to answer any questions that was thrown at him, and he answered questions for about thirty minutes.

After listening to the Q&A, for about 30 minutes, we left to attend another event that was being put on by candidate that recently dropped out of the race to run for Colorado State GOP chair. Joe Oltmann. Joe has put his full endorsement behind Scott, and I wanted to speak to him about his plans for the GOP moving forward. More on that in another article.

After spending about an hour at Joe’s event, we headed back to Scotts event where we found him still answering questions to a group of about 15 people surrounding him. As we moved through the event for the next hour or so, I watched as Bottoms continued to answer questions for another hour.

What impressed me the most about the entire evening was when the night was winding down, and the crowd had shrunk to about 50 people, Bottoms got everyone’s attention and he prayed a public prayer for the release of Tina Peters. He was emotional when described the difference between how most of us are able to go to dinner with our families while she sits in a prison cell for trying to expose election fraud.

My observation from the night. Two candidates. Two completely different styles. One who seems to be about himself and his celebrity status. The other, a man who looks like he cares about the people, their concerns and his state.

What Colorado needs is a Governor who knows what to do. Not a man who decided to get in the fight 5 years too late.

My vote is for Scott Bottoms. A man who cares about the people, is willing to listen to their concerns and is not afraid to shake their hand.

My vote is for Scott Bottoms. A man who has a plan. A man who stood up to fight when it wasn’t popular.