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Gov. Perry defiantly stumps for Romney in Glenwood Springs

Heather McGregor
Post Independent Editor
Glenwood Springs, Colorado CO

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colorado – Texas Gov. Rick Perry and California Congressman Kevin McCarthy visited GOP headquarters here Tuesday, exhorting about 70 local Republicans to “deliver Colorado for Mitt Romney.”

“You are going to need to work hard for the next 24 hours,” Perry told the crowd. “Take people to vote. Be on the phone.”

Perry said in preparing for his visit, he learned that the original name for Glenwood Springs was Defiance, and used that theme to close his comments.



“Let’s defy the elites, defy the pundits who say the Republicans can’t win,” he said, pumping up the cheering, clapping audience.

While Perry introduced McCarthy, Democrats were out on Grand Avenue waving signs for President Obama and local candidates as the evening rush hour traffic barreled north. Some drivers honked and hooted in support, others gunned their engines and drove on by.



Last-day electioneering was in full gear in Glenwood Springs Monday, with Republicans gathering for the pep rally with Perry while Democrats were working the phones from their party headquarters three doors down the street.

It’s all building up to Election Day today, with a contest for votes for president, Congress and state legislative seats to district attorney and two county commissioner races.

“We have our organization absolutely mobilized, making phone calls and going door to door. The get-out-the-vote effort is in high gear,” said Jack Real, Garfield County Democratic Party chairman.

“We have had well over 200 volunteers throughout the campaign time, and I would think we have that many mobilized right now,” Real said. “We are looking forward to Garfield County being the swing county in the swing state to pave the way for our nation.”

At the GOP rally, McCarthy spoke about 2012 as a “generational election,” comparing this year’s circumstances to those preceding the 1980 election, when voters tossed out Democrat Jimmy Carter and elected Ronald Reagan.

He cited the energy crisis of the late 1970s, high unemployment and the last time a U.S. ambassador was killed. (U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Adolph Dubs was killed in Kabul in a kidnapping attempt on Feb. 14, 1979.)

McCarthy said the light of hope that many Americans felt four years ago when they elected Barack Obama is dimmer now. He urged Republicans to “join together, climb that mountain and recharge that light.”

Perry and McCarthy, who serves as the House Majority Whip, spent Monday traveling through western Colorado, with stops in Grand Junction, Clifton and Delta before arriving in Glenwood Springs.

Joining them on the trip were state legislative candidates Debra Irvine of Delta, a candidate for House District 61, and Ray Scott of Grand Junction, the incumbent state representative in House District 55.


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