live in boebert's district? (Durango, Montrose: legal, move, activities)

[suzco]

Mike, if this is too political, please remove it

In Boebert's District, as Elsewhere, Democrats Surge into GOP Primary

Claudia Cunningham had never voted for a Republican in her life. She swore she couldn’t or her father would roll over in his grave. But ahead of the Colorado primary on Tuesday, she did the once-unthinkable: registered as unaffiliated so that she could vote in the GOP primary against her congresswoman, Lauren Boebert.

So did Ward Hauenstein, the mayor pro tem of Aspen; Sara Sanderman, a teacher from Glenwood Springs; Christopher Arndt, a writer and financier in Telluride; Gayle Frazzetta, a primary care doctor in Montrose; and Karen Zink, a nurse practitioner south of Durango.

Driven by fears of extremism and worries about what they see as an authoritarianism embodied in Boebert, thousands of Democrats in the sprawling 3rd Congressional District of Colorado have rushed to shore up her Republican challenger, state Sen. Don Coram. Their aim is not to do what best for Democrats but what they think is best for democracy. . .

What do you think about this, what did you do? - (fwiw I switched to independent a few years ago when the change was made to let us vote in either primary if registered independent, just to cut down on campaign phone calls from party)

[Mike from back east]

I'll leave it here a while so our regular Colorado members can post any thoughts but it won't be long until non-regulars start piling on at which time I'll move it to elections forum.

[brightdoglover]

Originally Posted by suzco

Mike, if this is too political, please remove it

In Boebert's District, as Elsewhere, Democrats Surge into GOP Primary
What do you think about this, what did you do? - (fwiw I switched to independent a few years ago when the change was made to let us vote in either primary if registered independent, just to cut down on campaign phone calls from party)

This Independent is voting in the GOP primary and has sent money. Not to Boebert. Apparently, my county has an unusual number of unaffiliated voters even though the county reliably votes blue in the national. (Our County, CD3)

[Colorado Rambler]

Yeah, sorry to say, I live in Boebert's district. Both my roommate and I were registered Democrats, but we switched to Independents so that we could vote against Boebert in the primaries.

Boebert has completely gone over the top. She has encouraged the formation of various "Patriots" groups here in rural Colorado including the town that I now live in. The local biker gang has decided to re-image themselves and now call themselves the Montezuma County Patriots. They have been mostly involved in driving around in downtown on Saturdays either on their bikes or in trucks flying the Trump flag. These so-called "Patriots" have a strong interest in breaking up peaceful marches by the members of the local Episcopalian Church who were in support of BLM, gay and trans people, etc.

The Patriots got into the act by brandishing their second amendment rights at the Episcopalians and jeering at them, called them names I'm not allowed to use here and even attacking one or two parishioners (who were NOT displaying their second amendment rights) - very nasty and upsetting to many if not most people who live here.

Of course, Boebart supports this biker gang and praises them for their deeds. I really hope that we can vote her out in the midterms.

[cowboyxjon]

I don’t like it, but I don’t see any way to avoid it. It’s legal to do so, even though I’ve seen examples going to the other extreme - trying to get the ‘least electable’ candidates onto the ballot, so that they can be defeated in November. To me, that’s like playing with fire. What if the plan fails and you are now represented by that fringe candidate you were so sure would not win?

I’m not a fan of open primaries even though I’m registered as an unaffiliated in Colorado. The whole point was that I did NOT want to align with a party, so by extension of that, I should not have access to activities that are related to parties. I’ve always felt as though if someone is interested enough in what is going on within a political party to the point where they want to help choose candidates who appear on the ballot during the general election, they should join the party.

Just my opinion. Obviously it doesn’t matter, as open primaries exist here. And even if they didn’t, anyone who really wanted to do so could change their party affiliation anyway so that they could participate in primaries.

[suzco]

Originally Posted by brightdoglover

This Independent is voting in the GOP primary and has sent money. Not to Boebert. Apparently, my county has an unusual number of unaffiliated voters even though the county reliably votes blue in the national. (Our County, CD3)

Originally Posted by Colorado Rambler

Yeah, sorry to say, I live in Boebert's district.. . . I really hope that we can vote her out in the midterms.

as all I can do is hope, not vote (not in her district, of course) it's good to hear you're doing your parts to try to make it happen

[cowboyxjon]

Originally Posted by suzco

as all I can do is hope, not vote (not in her district, of course) it's good to hear you're doing your parts to try to make it happen

Honest question: if the shoe were on the other foot and Republicans were organizing something like this to try to remove a popular Democratic candidate, would you still support it?

Like I said in my post, what’s going on is legal, but I don’t know if I like it and would necessarily support it.

(I don’t live in her district either, so her name won’t be on my ballot)

[suzco]

Originally Posted by cowboyxjon

Honest question: if the shoe were on the other foot and Republicans were organizing something like this to try to remove a popular Democratic candidate, would you still support it?
Like I said in my post, what’s going on is legal, but I don’t know if I like it and would necessarily support it.

(I don’t live in her district either, so her name won’t be on my ballot)

I don't know if i like it or not either; that's mostly why i asked the question, hoping to hear from our colorado posters who are in the situation, and have had to decide what to do, as well as what all coloradans on the forum think.

( In what post did you say "what’s going on is legal, but I don’t know if I like it and would necessarily support it." I haven't seen it - have a link?)

[brightdoglover]

Although I've never voted R in my life (all in Massachusetts) I have no qualm about voting for the moderate, reasonable R who is primarying Boebert. It's just a fact that no D will ever win in this district, plus those who are running are weak candidates. I hear a lot of people say they vote the person, not the party, and I see nothing wrong with voting *against* a seditionist.

[cowboyxjon]

Originally Posted by suzco

I don't know if i like it or not either; that's mostly why i asked the question, hoping to hear from our colorado posters who are in the situation, and have had to decide what to do, as well as what all coloradans on the forum think.

( In what post did you say "what’s going on is legal, but I don’t know if I like it and would necessarily support it." I haven't seen it - have a link?)

Yeah, I feel like this could set/is setting a weird precedent. Politics is nasty lately and I’m not sure this helps.

I don’t have a specific source that I was trying to cite, but what I meant by that is that unaffiliated voters who may usually lean Democratic but are choosing to vote in the Republican primary is perfectly legal. An unaffiliated voter can choose a ballot and send it back in. As much as (I think I) disagree with the strategy (it just seems like you’re doing something in bad faith, you know?), it’s legal to pick a ballot and send it back.