Adam Frisch told supporters at the Tipsy Trout in Basalt on Saturday that he’s winning over Republicans “sick of the circus” — the up to 40% of the GOP who want their party back.

That’s why he’s drawn even in polling in his race for the 3^rd Congressional District seat held by U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, he said.

He said she’s a “cornered animal” and in that context, the “slime” coming out of her campaign in the past few days through Breitbart and other rightwing political media outlets, could be understood.

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He also intimated to the audience that similarly sleazy stories about her are floating around, but his campaign won’t touch them.

He said Republicans had texted support and appreciation for taking the high ground and sticking to the issues of the campaign.

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And so he attacked Boebert for voting against the interests of her constituents on bills that would help veterans, education and health-care prospects in the district, among others. He recognized her brand, he said, but she’s not doing her job as a legislator, and enough Republicans across a district geographically larger than the state of Mississippi are coming to recognize this. He figures he needs 10% of the Republican vote to win the race.

Before his talk, he said he had no inkling of a constituent trying to blackmail him over a proposal for a transportation experiment to trim traffic in Aspen, and that would hardly be necessary since they agreed on the issue in 2018 before the Aspen City Council he served on in any case.

Emails between the two showed no recognition of anything beyond discussion of the issue itself. Frisch said he is a pro-local business moderate and came out against a national brand serving Aspen over local businesses in a quirky idea to limit traffic in the city that ultimately didn’t hold up.

He acknowledged the dilemma in responding to Boebert and Republican partisans drumming up claims of a taxi cab company owner, Todd Gardner, who had a video of a man on a bike in his storage unit parking lot and told the camera it was Frisch arriving to meet a woman for a romantic liaison, according to a storage facility employee who told him and he declined to name.

Gardner claimed he used the video and information to blackmail Frisch into changing his mind on the issue, which he thought threatened his business. Frisch and two others on the five-member council ultimately voted against the idea.

Frisch dismissed the accusation as “BS” and desperation in the Boebert camp.

“All this crap that’s flying around is all that she’s kind of turned into a cornered animal, and she’s lashing out,” Frisch told the group. “She never thought she’d have to take this (race) seriously.”

The accusations have had no effect on his whistle-stop campaigning across the district on the issues and his campaign’s sense of Boebert’s failures to represent her district’s interests in Congress, he said.

He also said the attack through Breitbart highlighted fundamental differences between her and him.

“People are just sick of the circus,” he repeated. Many Republicans want their party back, and that’s who he is aiming to win over.

He said he didn’t expect the low accusations to stop, though.

“So that’s kind of where we are,” he said, “like next week I’ll be an ax murderer.”

He said Republicans like state Sen. Don Coram, R-Montrose, endorsed him, a Democrat, out of recognition of what has happened to the Republican Party under former President Donald Trump. Boebert, along with Georgia’s Marjorie Taylor Greene, represents an extreme that routinely votes against GOP interests, as well, he said.

Coram lost in the Republican primary to Boebert, winning 36% of the vote while promising to be a drama-free legislator. Frisch said he sees opportunity in that 36% and in Liz Cheney mustering 40% support in her congressional primary in Wyoming.

“I would join the party that gets stuff done,” he said, acknowledging the Democratic Party today hasn’t necessarily been so effective, either.

On the West Slope, though, issues such as keeping water rights in the region are bigger than partisan differences.

Speaking of water tussles: “I offered that to the chamber in Grand Junction: Who would you rather have facing the 52 (U.S.) representatives from California?”

He nodded as if the answer was obvious. His supporters nodded, too.