Federal Senate Primary Colorado Candidates

[davewilson]

I've received my "Official Republican Ballot" for the primary election. There are five Republican primary candidates for US Senate:


Darryl Glenn
Ryan L. Frasier
Robert Blaha
Jack Graham
John Keyser


Are there any recommendations for any of the guys based on 2nd Amendment stance or anything else?

In examining their web sites, Graham seems to be weak on gun rights -- he was a Dem two years ago and has never been a member of a pro-gun organization.

Colorado Springs Gazette has a brief article on the positions the candidates have expressed:

http://gazette.com/second-amendment-rights-top-agenda-of-u.s.-senate-candidates-debate-in-colorado-springs/article/1574214

[asmo]

The only reason Glenn is on the ballot is due to an out-fricken-standing stump speech at the state convention (I was there, it was awesome).

He is very weak on guns, and is only running for the power.

[Aloha_Shooter]

I have had very good experience with Darryl Glenn as my County Commissioner. Very solid conservative, including gun rights. Glenn may not have a favorite gun (neither do I) or shoot a lot but he has been a strong supporter of the 2A.

[Zundfolge]

The only reason Glenn is on the ballot is due to an out-fricken-standing stump speech at the state convention (I was there, it was awesome).

He is very weak on guns, and is only running for the power.

I have had very good experience with Darryl Glenn as my County Commissioner. Very solid conservative, including gun rights. Glenn may not have a favorite gun (neither do I) or shoot a lot but he has been a strong supporter of the 2A.

This is why I think we're doomed. Two people who as far as I've seen from discussions on this forum are both reasonable intellects and yet have come to completely opposite views of the same guy.

At any rate, the only one I have my mind made up about is Graham ...He's a big no. He's a Democrat pretending to be a Republican (you're going to be seeing more of this in Colorado politics in the coming years. It's one of the tactics the Dems used in California to destroy the Republican Party there).

[DavieD55]

The only reason Glenn is on the ballot is due to an out-fricken-standing stump speech at the state convention (I was there, it was awesome).

He is very weak on guns, and is only running for the power.

I was there also, The best possible candidate only received 17% of the delegate vote.

[asmo]

I have had very good experience with Darryl Glenn as my County Commissioner. Very solid conservative, including gun rights. Glenn may not have a favorite gun (neither do I) or shoot a lot but he has been a strong supporter of the 2A.

My comment on Glenn being soft on guns comes from a conversation I had with him at the convention. When I asked him about his 2A stance and what we could do to strengthen 2A in Colorado, despite Hickenlooper - he immediately when into his story about his brother and about how we need to keep guns away from people who shouldn't have them. That was the VERY first thing out of his mouth. He went on to say he supports people having guns, but that there should be checks in place. When I asked him about NFA stuff he told me he didn't have an opinion but that he didn't see why people needed machine guns.

To me, that is soft.

[Great-Kazoo]

The real question is. Is there ANYONE running that understands our liberties , Our Rights, are teetering on the edge ?

[DavieD55]

My comment on Glenn being soft on guns comes from a conversation I had with him at the convention. When I asked him about his 2A stance and what we could do to strengthen 2A in Colorado, despite Hickenlooper - he immediately when into his story about his brother and about how we need to keep guns away from people who shouldn't have them. That was the VERY first thing out of his mouth. He went on to say he supports people having guns, but that there should be checks in place. When I asked him about NFA stuff he told me he didn't have an opinion but that he didn't see why people needed machine guns. To me, that is soft.

The best candidate had a proven track record on guns and everything else in the state senate and republican voters blew it and voted for slick rick instead. As far as I am concerned the entire field of R candidates are weaklings on the 2A.

Edit:

Except for Blaha. I'm not real clear on his 2A stance.

Fraiser = social progressive

Keyser = voted against the magazine repeal law in the state house during his very short time there

Ghram Is a progressive running as an R

[davewilson]

The best candidate had a proven track record on guns and everything else in the state senate and republican voters blew it and voted for slick rick instead. As far as I am concerned the entire field of R candidates are weaklings on the 2A.

Edit:

Except for Blaha. I'm not real clear on his 2A stance.

Fraiser = social progressive

Keyser = voted against the magazine repeal law in the state house during his very short time there

Ghram Is a progressive running as an R

The NRA and local gun rights sites aren't particularly helpful. I was hoping that there would be some info on the NRA-PVF -- normally they'd have some candidate grades.

Except for a few individuals who've been maligned by their peers, the Colorado GOP has been unimpressive.

[DavieD55]

The NRA and local gun rights sites aren't particularly helpful. I was hoping that there would be some info on the NRA-PVF -- normally they'd have some candidate grades.

Except for a few individuals who've been maligned by their peers, the Colorado GOP has been unimpressive.

The NRA is to gun owners what the GOP establishment is to republican voters.

[Zundfolge]

... the Colorado GOP has been unimpressive.

This has been a long standing problem. Frankly the Democrats haven't "won" Colorado as much as the Republicans have "lost" it. The CO GOP has been a cluster-fuck as long as I've been here (which is since August of 2002 ... and I suspect it's been that way for a while). I think the CO GOP got lazy because once upon a time a "Colorado Democrat" was a socially moderate libertarian and not an extremely socially liberal Marxist (which is what they've become since the implementation of The Blueprint).

[Aloha_Shooter]

My comment on Glenn being soft on guns comes from a conversation I had with him at the convention. When I asked him about his 2A stance and what we could do to strengthen 2A in Colorado, despite Hickenlooper - he immediately when into his story about his brother and about how we need to keep guns away from people who shouldn't have them. That was the VERY first thing out of his mouth.

Haven't we all said the government needs to focus on the people instead of the guns themselves? I don't see anything wrong with his statement itself.


He went on to say he supports people having guns, but that there should be checks in place. When I asked him about NFA stuff he told me he didn't have an opinion but that he didn't see why people needed machine guns.

To me, that is soft.

Mmmm ... so the fact he supports the peoples' right to keep and bear arms isn't good enough, you want it to be unqualified support. The question for most people isn't whether there are SOME checks as much as how many checks and what kind. I'd have taken the opportunity to educate him on why people should have access to NFA. The fact is, he didn't support the onerous gun laws the Democrats put in place in 2013. I've kind of paid attention to the man for years, given he was my County Commissioner.

[DavieD55]

Haven't we all said the government needs to focus on the people instead of the guns themselves? I don't see anything wrong with his statement itself.

No! The government needs to secure the borders, stop importing muslim militants and combatants into this country by the droves, stop arming narco drug terrorists in Mexico. There must be accountability there...

The government has done enough. We need the government to get the fuck out of our lives.

A government run amok needs to be choked off and needs less authority not more.

[roberth]

Just got my Primary Election ballot, got a week to figure Blaha out, the rest seem to be a no-go.

[Skip]

I voted Blaha. My family knows his family and they are all stand up people. He is somewhat of an outsider and very business friendly.

From his campaign site on gun rights...

https://www.blahaforcolorado.com/equality-and-the-second-amendment/


As a father of four grown women, I have a little different perspective. My daughters own weapons, and some have concealed weapons permits. Each has been trained on how to handle a weapon safely. I go to bed every night knowing that if a horrible event occurs, they are capable of calmly confronting the situation.

[snip]

As these numbers show, the American people care a lot about the Second Amendment and their gun rights. That’s what the anti-gun activists miss: This singular constitutional right is in the end about equality.

Does that sound any different from most of us? :) And he seems to understand the concept not just the words.

Now if we just had an alternative to Coffman...

[roberth]

Thank you Skip. I will read up.

[Honey Badger282.8]

So, which one do you think has the best chance of beating Bennet?

[KAPA]

So it seems Blaha is our guy, anyone have any pro-gun insight on him?

[CS1983]

According to this article's sidebar, Blaha has a shooting range at his house:

http://www.durangoherald.com/article/20160612/NEWS01/160619860/US-Senate-primary:-Robert-Blaha-guarantees-action

According to this, Glenn thinks "gun rights" had a hand in his brother's act of selfish stupidity:

El Paso County Commissioner Darryl Glenn said it would be easy for him not to back gun rights because of a family tragedy. Glenn said his brother shot his wife and then killed himself.(emphasis mine)

"Women and children, if you are out there and you are threatened, you are your own first responder," he said.



Blaha:

Robert Blaha, a Colorado Springs businessman and banker, said he has a small shooting range on his property.
"You do not want to come up the Blaha road after 10 o'clock at night," he said. "We are a well-armed, well-provided-for group of folks."



Both on a single issue:


No one supported bans on high-capacity gun magazines. Everyone supported existing background checks to keep guns out of the hands of felons, at least to some extent.
"Background checks are a nice way of being able to infringe on people's god given freedom and liberty," Glenn said. "Let's just call it for what it is. I always start from the assumption that everyone has a God given right to defend themselves and their family and unless you actually break the law that's the only time your rights and liberties should be infringed upon."
Glenn said lawmakers trying to expand background checks should be recalled, referencing the recall elections in Colorado Springs that unseated Senate President John Morse after he backed five gun control laws in 2013. Pikes Peak Firearm Coalition was key in the recall effort.

Blaha said the background checks he's gone through to purchase firearms have been fast. He said screenings are "relevant" as long as they are fast and screen for convicted felons or "quantifiable mental situations." He said he was concerned about records being kept at the federal level of every background check conducted.


http://gazette.com/second-amendment-rights-top-agenda-of-u.s.-senate-candidates-debate-in-colorado-springs/article/1574214


Keyser also talks well, and he's got an "all American" look, and has a Bronze Star (which may or may not mean much, actually), but he comes off as a guy who would make a deal with the Left if it behooved the run of the mill paradigm; think a poor man's Paul Ryan.

Out of all of them, I'm personally going to be voting for Blaha. He doesn't seem to desire a career in politics so much as actually making a change. Maybe he'll Allen West us, go to the hallowed stalls... err, halls, where the BS gets shoveled around and repackaged as organic fertilizer, and become another feckless dude in a suit and tie. Or maybe he'll get something done. The rest of em just seem like varying degrees of more of the same. Keyser just another Paul Ryan type, though probably not as well read -- he can flash a pearly white smile from his square jaw line all day, but I don't trust him anymore than I trust the Mormon missionary boys to recommend a good beer. Glenn seems like another talker who is going to be emotionally kowtowed into toeing the line just left enough to still be considered center, and the rest I'm not even paying attention to.

Too bad Alan Keyes can't just become a benevolent dictator or something.