GOP's leading lights for governor colliding in Springs
Scott McInnis and Josh Penry have been touring the state for months in their quest of the GOP nod to run against Gov. Bill Ritter next year, but their paths have rarely crossed.
That will change Saturday afternoon at a candidate forum in Colorado Springs hosted by the Colorado Federation of Republican Women.
The group’s president, Marolyn Scheffel of Parker, said it wouldn’t be a formal debate, but that after opening statements the floor would be open to questions from the audience, which would allow some interplay between McInnis, Penry and Dan Maes, a third candidate.
A bevy of GOP candidates for the U.S. Senate will also speak at the meeting.
McInnis, 56, who served six terms in the House of Representatives, has better statewide name recognition. But Penry has risen quickly to minority leader in the state Senate, the top GOP post in the Colorado Legislature, and at age 33 has been mentioned in nationwide surveys of the emerging generation of Republican leaders.
“Early name ID does not a victory make,” Penry said Monday during a round of campaign appearances here. “Just ask President Hillary Rodham Clinton.”
Still, Penry has greater need of the exposure a vigorous primary battle would bring, and has begun trying to encourage the notion that McInnis is dodging a real debate.
McInnis, meanwhile, has been making the classic frontrunner’s argument that the less time the candidates spend beating on each other, the better the winner’s chances of ousting Ritter in 2010.
Penry and McInnis oppose the motor vehicle registration fee increases enacted by the state this year. Both oppose the furloughs being granted to hundreds of state prison inmates serving the final months of their sentences.
“We will agree on far more than we disagree,” Penry said, arguing that the race would turn on leadership styles.
One of the issues in dispute is the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site, Fort Carson’s training ground in southeastern Colorado. The Army wants to expand it, but neighboring property owners are resisting.
Penry sided with the neighbors, voting for a bill to make it harder for the Army to acquire the land. McInnis backs the Army, the view that’s more popular in Colorado Springs.
Penry said he’s eager to tackle the issue in front of Springs voters.
“When you tell the story of Piñon Canyon and tell the story of how it was created originally, a substantial piece of which was condemnation after the military said they wouldn’t condemn, and you tell the full context, I think a lot of heads nod in El Paso County,” he said.
“Let’s have a real debate about private property rights and Fort Carson, both of which are important to the state,” Penry said.
Both candidates are mindful of the damage done in the last GOP gubernatorial primary, when Bob Beauprez and Marc Holtzman tore each other apart. McInnis routinely says he wants to avoid “the circular firing squad”; Penry called it “tit-for-tat name-calling.”
“The way you test-drive two different cars is not crash them into each other,” said McInnis’ spokesman, Sean Duffy.
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DETAILS
What: Colorado Federation of Republican Women Forum
When: Saturday at 1:30 p.m.
Where: Crowne Plaza Hotel, 2886 South Circle Drive, Colorado Springs
The public is invited.
