by Alec Williams
On Saturday Sept. 10 the city of Grand Junction became the stage for a series of debates between Colorado candidates for Senate and Congress known as the Club 20 Debates. Voters will decide on their representatives come November, but on Saturday Grand Junction citizens were given the chance to see the candidates face off. The event was held inside Grand Junction’s Two Rivers Convention Center and began with an hour long debate between incumbent candidate Congressman Scott Tipton and the Democrat’s Gail Schwartz. The two candidates were asked questions ranging from Western Slope job growth to the Zika virus. The panelists included business representatives from AARP, Xcel Energy, TownSquare Media and Alpine Bank. The debates themselves were moderated by CMU’s own university president, Tim Foster.
Debates between candidates was not the only event of the night, a debate was also held discussing Amendment 69,
also known as ColoradoCare, a law that would mirror the national Affordable Care Act, paying for certain healthcare benefits. The law will also be on the ballots in November among the candidates.
The evening concluded with debates from congressional candidates, including third- party Libertarian candidate Lily Williams. Williams was able to join major party candidates as the Libertarian Party reached one percent of the registered voters in Colorado, which is Club 20’s required threshold. Democratic incumbent Senator Michael Bennet faced off against Williams and Republican candidate Darryl Glenn.
Bennet began the debates on the defensive, “Don’t come tell me I’m responsible for 1,200 jobs leaving this community,” Bennet said on the weakening energy community. “Michael Bennet has done a good job representing Washington,” Glenn said. “He has not done a good job of representing you.” Most of the attacks were from the major party candidates while Williams took shots at both sides. Voters will be able to decide on the candidates Nov. 8.
