Colorado State Senate District 8 candidate Emily Tracy, right foreground, talks with and listens to some of the Meeker folks who met up with her at Wendll’s last Friday. She and her husband, who live in Breckenridge, were on a swing through the northwest sector of the seven county district.
MEEKER | Colorado State Senate District 8 candidate Emily Tracy visited Meeker again Friday afternoon. She was on another swing to talk with voters across this northwest sector of the district, making stops in Steamboat, Hayden, Craig and Glenwood Springs as well as Meeker. The district is composed of seven counties—Garfield, Grand, Jackson, Moffat, Rio Blanco, Routt and Summit. Her Meeker event last week started at Wendll’s with more than a dozen supporters and interested voters—and then continued in a walk down Main Street talking with owners and employees at several Meeker businesses including the Mountain Valley Bank, Bank of the San Juans, Prescriptions Salon and Spa, Turquoise Gypsy/Nana Goose Boutique and Meeker Drugs as well as voters on the sidewalk. Her husband, Del Bush, an active Republican and independent salesman, turned into an important asset whenever she encountered a person not that enthusiastic about talking with a Democrat. At Meeker Drugs, Tracy talked at some length with owner Diana Jones about Jones’ concern that health insurance customers should have the legal right to acquire continuing prescriptions through local pharmacies of their choice. Jones said insurance companies are beginning to require customers to renew prescriptions through their big mail houses, usually for three months at a time. A bill in the 2016 legislative session to prohibit this kind of requirement passed the House only to be killed in its second Senate committee by one vote after what had been strong individual bipartisan support. Tracy’s opponent, Senator Randy Baumgardner, R-Hot Sulfur Springs, did not support the bill. Jones said she’s quite convinced that “through the mail” requirements like this will put small town, independent pharmacies out of business as well as being an inconvenience to patients and often inappropriate for their needs. The Associated Governments of Northwest Colorado tried to encourage final passage of the bill in the Senate last spring but ran into insurmountable majority opposition. “So much of what goes on at the capitol results in partisan battles that don’t benefit anyone.” Being married to a Republican, Tracy said, “…has accustomed her to crossing party lines every day at home. Local issues facing the state are typically not partisan, but they become so when the two parties make it about winning instead of about collaborating on well thought-out solutions.” Tracy told voters that she is fiscally conservative, very supportive of the public school system and the rights of local government. There’s definitely a place, particularly in this senate district, for responsible energy development. “Too often,” she said, “the government tries to invoke broad stroke rules that are made without consideration of local residents, businesses and economies.”
