There was no surprise that in his Aug. 4 essay in the Transcript, Joe Webb, former chairman of the Jeffco Republican Party, endorsed all Republican’s running in this year’s elections. I was struck by how underwhelmingly tepid the endorsements were. For example, he did not support Aadland but Aadland, “knows the bread-and-butter issues like the high cost of living, gas prices and lack of employment they will be defining issues.” Gee, really, Sherlock? Everybody knows that, but what are his solutions to these problems? Aadland’s website is chock full of Republican platitudinal talking points and no solutions. By the way, CO unemployment is the lowest it has EVER been. 

Next up is O’Dea “who Webb doesn’t always agree with.” But, “O’Dea has a fabulous life” implying he doesn’t really need to run, but he is doing so “to serve and improve lives of all Coloradans.” Really? So is Bennet. But a quick look at O’Dea’s website and he too is full of typical Republican talking points like this red-meat nonsense; “the biggest driver of inflation is the embrace of socialism by the political elites in Washington.” That just shows that he doesn’t know what he is talking about. This particular bout of inflation is due to the supply-chain issues as a result of the pandemic and the Russian War in Ukraine and the resultant supply disruption in the oil markets.  

Socialism is defined as the government controlling the means of production and distribution. Nobody is promoting that. Too often Republicans scream socialism if the Democrats propose infrastructure projects or tax credits for struggling families or educational investments. That isn’t socialism, but investing in our country and people for the public good. To me, socialism in this country is Jeff Bezos not paying any taxes while using our taxpayer funded infrastructure to make enormous profits. Or it is Trump not paying any taxes while declaring bankruptcy 6 times at the taxpayer expense. Or the $20 billion of subsidies that go to the private sector oil and gas industry.  

Joe O’Dea, on his website claims he is for small business, yet declared he would have voted against the Inflation Reduction Act just like the rest of his Republican colleagues. That Act has a provision of a 15% minimum tax on corporations with earnings over $1 billion. This reduces the burden on small businesses that don’t have the high-dollar accountants that mega-corporations have to use the tax code to their advantage.  

Joe O’Dea’s ads portray him as a folksy guy who won’t be partisan and “will do what’s right for the country.” Well, so far, he hasn’t really declared anything concrete or detailed and seems like a typical partisan who talks out of both sides of his mouth.  

Tom Sabel,

Lakewood