Congressman Gardner Main Speaker for Local GOP Independence Day Dinner

Congressman Cory Gardner at GOP Independence Day Dinner

U.S. Congressman Cory Gardner was the featured speaker at the annual Prowers County GOP, Lincoln Day Dinner this past Monday evening, July 1.  Gardner is making his second swing through southeast Colorado in the past month, conducting a series of town hall meetings which included Las Animas and Otero Counties. 

The welcome was delivered by County Assessor Andy Wyatt and the audience listened to each and every note of the National Anthem, sung a capella by four year old Grant Mauch, who needed to stand on a chair in order to see over the lectern and reach the microphone.  Members of the audience were noted including all three Prowers County Commissioners, former chair of the state Joint Budget Committee, Brad Young and former Prowers County GOP Chairwoman Janet Corum and her husband Joe, who were in town visiting relatives. 

Former Lamar Residents, Joe and Janet Corum

State Senator Larry Crowder and Representative Tim Dore also attended and spoke to the gathering at the RodeWay Cow Palace Inn, terming the past legislative session a disaster and addressing the need for the Republican Party to maintain their values while changing the manner in which their message is relayed throughout the state.  Both said the recall petitions for Morse and Giron over their support of gun laws may help pave the way for more Republicans to gain seats in the state legislature by the next election. 

Gardner addressed a range of opportunities for the Republican party to capitalize on during the next election cycle, including wire tapping American citizen phone conversations by the National Security Agency seeking signs of terrorist activities in the U.S., the IRS profiling non-profit groups by their affiliations to religious or political ideals, and the alleged coverup of the killing of four Americans in Benghazi last year.  Gardner also focused on local issues which have been impacted by national events such as the death of the Farm Bill in the House of Representatives.  Gardner said he voted for the bill, specifically for some cutbacks in mandated programs which just waste the money of the average taxpayer.  He said the House wanted to eliminate over 100 programs and managed to cut out $20 billion in food aid programs from the Farm Bill budget. 

He emphasized the need for more water storage projects in Colorado and eliminate the need for EPA permitting for those plans.  “We need to become more energy self-sufficient and approve the Keystone pipeline project for this country and the jobs it’ll help create,” he told the audience.  The congressman took the audience 150 years back in time, leading up to the three decisive days of July, 1863 and the Battle of Gettysburg, which swung the eventual outcome of the Civil War in favor of the North. He referenced President Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address, and the efforts that it took to preserve and unify the country.  “What kind of a country have we become and what kind of a country do we wish to be again?” he asked.  “We have a choice of becoming a country where the state feels it knows what’s best for its people, or a country where the people are the deciders of their own future.”  He closed by saying the lessons learned from the voters of Prowers County can be translated in November to a turnaround along the Front Range voters for a Republican Governor and U.S. Senator.

By Russ Baldwin