The following is a transcript of Wayne Wolf's speech yesterday at Club 20

Club 20 Speech September 6, 2008

Club 20 Board, Staff, Members and Guests,

It is an honor to be able to speak with you this evening.

As I have traveled across Western and Southern Colorado visiting with people I have found that many feel alienated from government.  Government is viewed as being out there somewhere doing bad things to us.  We have forgotten that have a government of the people, by the people and for the people.  Now more than ever Club 20 offers an invaluable service to the people of the Western Slope by providing a means to get good ideas from citizens to their legislators.  This will work on a national level only if your Congressman and his staff are attentive.

I would like to recognize my sister Janice and her husband Jim.  My sister Sharon’s daughters Sara and Jessica.  My Dad.  My Mom was not feeling well today.  Along with a few scattered throughout Western and Southern Colorado plus a few in this room these have been my financial support.  I’ll only mention one who wrote on an envelope “Wayne Wolf  The Winner.  I like that.   He’s a retired union electrician who says he is upset with Nancy Pelosi and John Salazar for ruining our country.   I would also like to recognize my wife, Kristine.  We have been married since 1973.  We have worked together on the ranch, in a private school and on this campaign.

In an article in Wednesday’s Sentinel reporting that Congressman Salazar had decided not to debate at Club 20, Salazar’s campaign didn’t say he hoped people would understand, but rather,  “The people of the 3^rd Congressional District understand.”

Congressman Salazar did not attend any of the sessions of Club 20 this summer or this fall, yet he presumes we will understand.

Congressman Salazar has consistently voted against drilling.  When fuel costs increased he presumed we would understand.

John Salazar campaigned as a moderate.  While he votes lockstep with Nancy Pelosi, he presumes we will understand.

Despite his Catholic upbringing, he has voted for public funding of abortions and he presumes people of faith will understand.

Congressman Salazar has voted to end secret ballots for organizing unions to pay back hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions from out of state PACs.  Although this will take away a protection from harassment for workers, he presumes we will understand.

We are beginning to understand.  The people of the 3^rd Congressional District understand that we need a new Congressman.

Do you know what it means when a politician takes his watch off and puts it on the podium?  Nothing.

Congressman Salazar has a poster outside his Washington office that calls attention to the National Debt.  Do you know what that means?  Nothing.

In the past seven years as a Delta County Commissioner we have adopted a balanced budget with reserves.  And we will do it again this fall.  In Congressman Salazar’s four years he has never voted for a balanced budget.  It could be said that is not fair because he is only one of 435 and also has a Senate and administration to contend with.  However, he does have one precious vote and he has not used it well.

Just a few of the spending cuts I would make in contrast to John Salazar:  He supported grain subsidies for people like Ted Turner and himself.  I will cut them.  He voted to fund Planned Parenthood and I will not.  He voted to increase health care for illegal immigrants.  One of the things that has irritated me most as a county commissioner is federal mandates to provide health and human service benefits to people whose first act is to break the laws of our country.  I will work to stop that. 

I recognize that there are needed services that are funded through the federal government.  The thing that I think the Congressional leadership seems not to understand is that the most important way to balance the budget is to grow the economy.  When business is thriving there is plenty for all.  When businesses are shut down it hurts us all.  The anti-business policies of Speaker Nancy Pelosi have the effect of collapsing the economy, increasing our trade deficit and our national debt. 

In all the hoopla over the Presidential candidacies, the importance of Congress has been overlooked.  The House of Representatives can control the federal budget if they choose to do so.  Whatever credit we want to give to Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton for growing economies should be shared with Tip O’Neal and Newt Gingrich.  Whatever blame is attributed to George Bush for the increase in budget deficits should be shared with Dennis Hastert and Nancy Pelosi.

To grow our economy we need three basics.  We need lots of low cost long-term energy.  We need healthy agriculture and we need to manufacture goods in America.

We need an effort to become energy independent similar to the commitment that was made to put an American on the moon.  We can no longer afford the debate between using traditional and alternative fuels.  We need a whole suite of energy sources.  We need to use wind turbines where there are strong consistent winds.  Most of the solar panels are produced in Europe.  We need to manufacture and use solar panels in the Unites States.  We need to use the falling water in Colorado in mini-hydro plants.  The federal government collects a huge amount of severance tax from coal mining.  Some of that money needs to come back to utilities to clean up coal fired plants to significantly reduce air pollution.  We need carefully placed nuclear plants.  We must recognize that bio-fuels are not likely ever to be a major replacement of petroleum so we must develop a plan for using kerogen from oil shale and synthetics from coal.

We need to drill for more oil and natural gas.  I do not support drilling everywhere.  We don’t need to drill in Lincoln Park, at Rifle Falls, or Hanging Lake.  However, there is a sage brush covered flat Northwest of Rifle that people have known for a hundred years covered a huge energy resource, more than seven and perhaps nine trillion cubic feet of natural gas.  That is where we need to drill.  Congressman Salazar introduced a bill to stop drilling from the top of that part of the Roan Plateau.  If Congress had passed that bill it would have been a blow to the economy of Western Colorado and to the nation.

Congressman Salazar has consistently voted against drilling off-shore and developing new refineries and that has led to high gas prices that hurt us all as well as driving up the national debt.

Secondly, in order to have a strong economy we need a strong agriculture.  My Dad noticed that this bottle was 100% apple juice so he bought it.  If he had noticed this etching before he got home he would have left it on the shelf.  It’s a bit difficult to read but it says,  “Concentrate from Argentina, Germany and China” It is one thing to import bananas, but we absolutely should not be importing apples or apple juice.  We have the climate to grow all the apples we need right here in the United States.

Several years ago Cedaredge was known as the Apple Capitol of Colorado.  In the fall of       as the apples had been picked and were ready to be shipped,  Meryl Streep made a well publicized campaign against the dangers of Alar soaked apples.  Alar had never been used in the Cedaredge area, but people did not distinguish the difference.  Our apples rotted and fruit growers went out of business.  Where is Meryl Streep now that we are importing apples from China?  Almost every real agricultural related scare from tainted hamburger to peppers can be traced to imports from other countries.  We should not be importing one apple or one peach from China let alone the quantity that eventually will put most of our American fruit growers out of business.

There is another reason for growing fruit trees in this country.  They remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.  And on a related subject let me mention that dead trees release carbon dioxide.  All those unsightly dead trees in North Central Colorado are emitting carbon dioxide as they rot.  And when they catch on fire they going to release tons of pollutants into the air.  Some blame that beetle infestation on global warming.  If that were so we should have a greater problem on the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forest because it is warmer here.  To put it bluntly the reason this forest is more healthy is because it is better managed.  Some of the credit can go to the Public Lands Partnership an organization made up of local government officials, public lands managers, wildlife officers, environmentalists, loggers, ranchers, recreationists, as well as members of Chambers of Commerce and the general public.  One of the awards I am most pleased with is this plaque given to me by its members.  “The Public Lands Partnership conveys our sincerest appreciation and gratitude for the many significant contributions you have made.”  That is the type of collaborative effort we need to deal with oil shale development.

Thirdly, in order to have a strong economy and balanced budget in this country we need manufacturing.  The Louisiana-Pacific wafer board plant between Montrose and Delta was put out of business because the United States government allowed subsidized Canadian product into this country undercutting LP and putting them out of business.  Then the Canadians raised their prices considerably.  We should only advance Free Trade to the extent that it is also Fair Trade.

For every two dollars that Wal-mart has to pay for some prescription drugs an independent pharmacist may have to spend $50.  In Montrose Wal-mart undercut the independents until they went out of business.  Then Wal-Mart raised its prices.  I think we could solve that problem by putting limits on volume discounts. There is a role for government and part of it is to maintain a level playing field.

My formula is this:  Low cost energy plus healthy agriculture plus American manufacturing equals a strong economy which enables government to deliver the services that people need.

A year ago I thought there was close to zero chance a challenger could unseat John Salazar.  Many things have changed dramatically in that year and now I actually think I can win.  I attended a meeting of Southern District County Commissioners where the Salazar’s neighbor John Sandoval passionately told our fellow commissioners that they should support me.  Soon after I announced I was running for the third I was invited to speak in South Fork.  I estimate there were 150 people crowded into that community center surrounded by three feet of snow.  That was just the first of many crowded rooms in which I have been able to speak in Western and Southern Colorado.  Those people in Rio Grand County also insisted that I come to the big parade in Monte Vista.  When I first started campaigning to become a commissioner I was bored waiting for an hour for the entries to line up.  Being the good politician that I am I learned to walk the streets of captive audience before the parade.  As I walked the parade route in Monte Vista a couple of times the guys with the farmer tans were particularly friendly to me.  In the recent primary I received 892 votes in Rio Grande County to 541 for John Salazar.  If that were totaled up like an actual election that would be 62% for me and 38% for John Salazar.  It is no wonder that he though he should spend some time in Monte Vista today getting his picture taken with Veterans instead of venturing over here to Club 20.

But you know we do have a few Veterans and their families here on the Western Slope who might want to see their Congressman occasionally. 

When you total all the primary votes in the 29 counties of the Third Congressional District I received more votes than John Salazar and I think the same thing is going to happen in the general election.

During the last part of July, 17 Democratic Congressmen joined Republicans in proposing that the Congress address the energy crisis before they went home.  John Salazar was not one of them.  The vote was 213 to 212 and it could be argued that John Salazar cast the deciding vote to go home instead of working on lowering our fuel costs.  I hope people will remember that as they cast their vote in the general election.  John Salazar wants to go home.  Wayne Wolf wants to go to work for you.

Official site of the Mesa County Republican Party located in Mesa County, Colorado.