Primary facts & unfacts

I never enjoy primaries where good Republicans are pitted against each other in the spring for a nomination to oppose the Democrats in the fall, so I don't usually take sides. But since I'm often asked my preference in the GOP's upcoming June 24 election, and since a state Senate candidate recently claimed my support without permission, here's a rundown of the contested races.

* I am neutral in the governor's race. Mike Kopp, Scott Gessler, Bob Beauprez, and Tom Tancredo are all much preferable to John Hickenlooper, the incumbent - though I doubt Tancredo's electability.

* I support Congressman Doug Lamborn in his CD-5 primary.

* I support Michael Fields in the HD-37 primary, my own state representative district.

* I support Tony Sanchez in the SD-22 primary, Jefferson County.

* I am neutral in all other legislative primaries, including SD-19, Jefferson County, where I'm friendly with both Lang Sias, the 2012 nominee, and Laura Woods, the newcomer. I've accepted Woods's apology for mistakenly listing me as a supporter in a recent mailing. Either could serve well in the state Senate; may the best candidate win.

Michael Fields for HD-37

Colorado State House District 37 in Centennial, where I've lived for 40 years, has been ably represented by Rep. Spencer Swalm since 2006. Now that he is term-limited, the safely Republican district faces a spirited primary between Jack Tate, an engineer in his 50s, and Michael Fields, a young lawyer and schoolteacher who's not yet 30.

They are two good men, and the voters can't go wrong. But when balloting begins for the June 24 primary, Fields will get my vote.

Michael's thoughtful, well-researched position papers on conservative approaches to education reform and other issues impress me. His time as a staffer in both the US Senate and the Colorado General Assembly gives him a lot more experience with the legislative process than Jack.

I like it that Fields is youthful and that he has lived the black experience, being the son of an African-American professor whose own father was a distinguished pastor. Talking with Michael about race issues, though, as I've done and as Rep. Swalm did before endorsing him a month ago, you find he's crystal clear that equal opportunity doesn't mean equal outcomes and that past injustices to blacks don't justify an endless victim narrative.

Like former Sen. Bill Armstrong, himself elected to the State House in his mid-twenties, and who has also endorsed Fields, Michael has the potential to begin serving with distinction from the day he takes office--and to become part of the new face of the Republican Party in years to come.

To win in the 21st century, conservatives must forge an optimistic, forward-looking, right-minded coalition of all colors and all ages. Michael Fields, well prepared and solidly grounded on America's freedom principles, embodies that. I hope you will join me in supporting him for House District 37.

To compare the candidates, go to www.fieldsforcolorado.com and www.jacktate.org. I think you will come to the same conclusion that I have.

Bill would enshrine abortion in Colo. law

My wife and I sent this urgent email to all 100 members of the Colorado General Assembly today. The bill has cleared Senate committee and now awaits floor action. Please join Donna and me in raising your voice against Senate Bill 175. Dear Legislator:

We are gravely concerned about SB-175, "Concerning Freedom from Government Interference in an Individual's Reproductive Health Care Decisions."

Please oppose this unwise, unnecessary, ill-considered, extreme, and inhumane bill.

Persons of goodwill can disagree about how widely and easily available abortion should be under law. But a great many Americans would agree with the general approach taken by Bill and Hillary Clinton years ago - that abortion should be "safe, legal, and rare." SB-175 does not meet that standard.

With its simplistic, far-reaching legislative declaration and policy pronouncement, it ignores the millions of us who believe that two lives, not one, are in the balance when a woman is pregnant. It rules out any kind of reasonable regulation, restriction, or compromise seeking to make abortions safe and rare.

While it's true that one legislature cannot bind the next, and that a repeal or modification of SB-175 (were it to become law) is entirely possible a year from now, it's also true that the law is a teacher and that your vote on such a law is an index of character. To vote for this bill is to go on record for an extreme, intolerant, inhumane, and indeed brutal posture of government in our state. To vote against it is an act of courage and conscience.

Please vote no on SB-175.

John Carson for CU Regent

When the 6th Congressional District Republican Assembly convenes on April 5, there will be a contest for the nomination to University of Colorado Board of Regents. I am supporting John Carson. His education reform achievements as president of the Douglas County School Board have had national impact. His candidacy is distinguished by a strong determination to fight for intellectual diversity and true academic freedom in CU's halls of learning. Carson will carry on the visionary work begun on this issue by retiring 6th CD Regent Jim Geddes.

Please join me in doing everything you can to see John nominated and elected. Colorado needs Carson! You can learn more and get involved by going to www.CarsonforCURegent.com.

On the right: Who needs to learn what?

Soul-searching time on the center-right. The unorganized movement of fed-up citizens called Tea Party (not as another political party, but invoking the spirit of 1773 at Boston Harbor) has no way of choosing its tactics or learning a new style. It's just a frustrated outpouring of civic energy and urgency. So if there's any learning to be done, the Republican organization (sometimes called the establishment, but that's an unhelpful pejorative) must learn how to harness this movement's determination and passion. Only in that way can our side build a winning coalition to stop the Obama collectivist wave.

Thus when my friend Mike Rosen wrote a warning in his Denver Post column the other day,"Tea Party must learn to embrace coalition politics," based on things some Tea Party activists have said that are reckless, self-defeating, or apocalyptic, I'll grant he had a point "up to a point."

But the only institutional vehicle capable of learning anything or leading anything, in this moment of tremendous opportunity as America senses the greatest upsurge of populist fervor in half a century, is the skeletal structure of the GOP.

The adapting that we all know is needed has to come from them, not from the fed-up citizens movement. Here's the Rosen column. Tell me what you think.

http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_24469443/tea-party-must-learn-embrace-coalition-politics