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Pollster gives Tipton a chance
Unaffiliated voters leaning toward GOP
Herald Denver Bureau
Tipton in Durango
Scott Tipton, Republican candidate for the 3rd Congressional District, will make a campaign appearance Friday at 9 a.m. at the La Plata Electric Association, 45 Stewart St. in Durango.
Floyd Ciruli, a nonpartisan pollster, said he has not seen a poll that pits Salazar and Tipton, but Salazar is the clear favorite.
However, recent elections around the country show unaffiliated voters leaning toward Republicans, while Democratic voters tended to stay home, Ciruli said at the Lincoln Club of Colorado.
He pointed to Tipton and Ryan Frazier of Aurora as two Republicans who might benefit.
"I think the Republican Party wisely saw that lightning could strike out there. This could be one of those exceptional years," Ciruli said.
Tipton has said he intends to run against the Democratic agenda, the health-reform bill and increased spending. That, however, will be hard to do, Ciruli said in an interview.
"Salazar is not a national Democrat. Salazar is a very distinctive Western Democrat," Ciruli said.
Democrats outnumber Republicans by 81 in the House of Representatives. Ciruli thinks Republicans can reasonably expect to win back 20 of those seats next year, but if "lightning strikes" and the GOP wins the 41 seats it needs to take over the House, Tipton and Frazier could be part of that group.
Salazar beat Tipton in 2006, 62 percent to 37 percent, but the national climate was more favorable for Democrats that year.
jhanel@durangoherald.com'>jhanel@durangoherald.com
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Thursday, November 19, 2009
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John is by no means perfect, but continues to use his vote to overall benefit his constituency rather than override the health and welfare of our entire country in order to make the administration look bad. I would hope that the majority of voters in District 3 are intelligent enough to continue to pay attention to actual discourse and options rather than succumb to vicious attacks and lies of conservative extremists