Denver, CO — In case you missed it, political outsider, successful business leader, and Republican nominee for US Senate Joe O'Dea sat down with The Aspen Times to discuss his candidacy for U.S. Senate.
Read the full article here.
See the highlights below:
Not Toeing the Party Line
How will he deal with the other Republicans in the Senate when they push today’s party line beyond his beliefs?
“Just tell them I’m not going to vote with them,” he answered. “It’s pretty simple. I’d say, ‘You know what? That’s not going to be good for Colorado, and I’m not going to vote for that.’”
The two-point win he envisions would still leave almost half of Colorado who didn’t vote his way. He would make sure he was representing them well, too, he said.
“My approach would be to sit down with Sen. Hickenlooper after I’m elected and talk about all the things that he and I can share common ground. There’s a lot of things I think John has good ideas on. And I’m going to share my ideas on what our side thinks. Find the common ground about Colorado.”
“It’s time to move our country forward,” O’Dea said. “One-sided policies just don’t work. You’ve got to listen to the other side. There has to be some give and take. I think America is ready for that. And that’s the basis of my campaign. I’m not going to be owned by either party.”
Jumping into the Colorado Senate Race
Why he’s running for Senate — the only office he’s sought, so far — might have roots in working as a union carpenter when a labor strike took away work and nudged him and a friend to take on their own projects, form a company and eventually see that company, Concrete Express Inc., grow to nearly 600 employees before the financial meltdown. It fell during the Great Recession to 150 employees before inching up and down to around 250 today, not counting the staffs at the event centers Mile High Station and Ironworks.
The pandemic was devastating, particularly for the event business. He became deeply concerned over unemployment fraud, what he saw as an overabundance of government handouts and the direction he saw the county heading.
“What we’re doing to ourselves is not good for our economy,” he said. “It’s not good for our work ethic. It’s not good for our youth.”
So he did what he credited as qualities for his business success — from jobs with buddies to building one of the largest construction enterprises in the state with friends and family.
“I’ve got a plan through Nov. 8 right now. It’s to win.”
And with that it was a thank you, a handshake and off to the next stop.
Original source can be found here
