Letters

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Mar 2, 2008

5TH DISTRICT

Lamborn best positioned

to represent voters

I loved Gazette columnist Barry Noreen's common-sense article in Wednesday's paper ("It's hard to see why Lamborn has 2 GOP challengers").

The question these challengers should be asking is, "How will entering the race benefit the Republican Party?" Jeff Crank's Web site has disparaging and juvenile insults directed toward Rep. Doug Lamborn. That is not clean campaigning and does nothing to build party unity. The mud-slinging from Crank supporters and insults on the Web site far outweigh anything I've ever heard from Lamborn supporters.

We're already getting precisely what the other candidates are talking about. Lamborn is a credible, competent, hard-working, resolute and energetic leader. He 's managed to get himself on the Armed Services Committee as a freshman member of Congress and was working on the Leadville water problem long before it hit the news recently. His record is solid and speaks volumes; look for yourself.

Lisa Taskerud

Colorado Springs

Crank has spent his life

working for the people

Barry Noreen is right to say that Jeff Crank and Bentley Rayburn share Doug Lamborn's conservative principles, but that doesn't mean that there aren't real differences between them, or that the challengers shouldn't bother running. On the contrary, in the 5th Congressional District voters can afford to look beyond platforms and consider intangibles such as charm, understanding, articulateness and persuasiveness. Republicans can afford to insist on the best.

I respect all three candidates for their conservative positions, but I think Jeff Crank would make the most effective congressman. Crank has spent his life working on behalf of the people of Colorado, both in the private sector (as senior vice president of the Chamber of Commerce) and in the public sector (as senior legislative assistant to former Rep. Joel Hefley). He possesses a profound understanding of the important issues, and as everybody who has met him knows, his wit and good humor can soften the hardest hearts. We deserve a congressman like Crank, and we shouldn't settle for anything less.

Daniel Cole

Colorado Springs

Crank dances

to Chamber's tune

My opinion on Barry Noreen's column regarding Rep. Doug Lamborn's challengers is an overwhelming "Outstanding." He has expressed the difficulty accurately and in consonance with many of us who are befuddled by Republican challengers to a congressman who already has gained committee positions. Lamborn also has two years on the seniority ladder.

Jeff Crank's candidacy lies mostly in his stated support from the Chamber of Commerce. That endorsement, in my opinion, is political code for support of the immigration amnesty concept. The McCain/ Kennedy bill that was defeated in Congress was fully endorsed and supported by the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce. The party line for the Chambers of Commerce has not changed that I am aware of.

Crank may say that he opposes "amnesty," but we all know that when and if elected, he will, like most endorsed politicians, change stripes when the markers are called in. These politicians do not accept the fact that their real endorsers are the people who elected them, not powerful special interests.

Bernard L. Minetti

Monument

Rayburn would represent us

with new energy

We all know the only reason Rep. Doug Lamborn won two years ago was because the Club for Growth spent big bucks on radio ads in a really nasty campaign against Jeff Crank and Lionel Rivera. And Bentley Rayburn, who had just gotten out of the Air Force, got into the primary race late, but finished a strong third out of the six who were competing.

I've heard all three of this year's candidates speak a few times and I've gotten pretty well acquainted with Rayburn. Any one of the three (Rayburn, Crank or Lamborn) would make an OK congressman. But I've lived in this district for 40 years and I'm tired of having an OK congressman, always just a backbencher, who usually votes right but the rest of the time sits there like a bump on a log. And that's what Lamborn is.

For a change, we have an opportunity to elect an outstanding congressman, one who will be a leader in the House as he was in every phase of his Air Force career. We have a chance to end up with some clout for once to accomplish things to help our district and also to help our country. And that would be with Bentley Rayburn.

Earl Asbury

Colorado Springs

SEEKING ANSWERS

Why didn't authorities

protect little girl?

I am the grandmother of Aliz Vick, who was only 2 1/2-years-old when she was killed, allegedly by her foster mother, Jules Cuneo, on Oct. 10, 2007. An anonymous caller reported to El Paso County Department of Human Services that the foster mother, who weighed 300 pounds, was abusing my granddaughter by sitting on her. The anonymous caller apparently recorded this abuse on baby monitor, which was picking up audio from the foster mother's baby monitor. I also understand that she sent as letter to DHS, reporting this abuse and pleading with DHS to do something about it.