About 5 months ago El Presidente and I interviewed Republican U.S. Senate primary candidate Ryan Frazier. I left the interview with the theme of Frazier as a “principled” candidate focused on a solutions-oriented message.
On Friday, liberal blogger David Thielen posted his favorable observations after a sit-down with Ryan Frazier. A few key passages jumped out at me:
Throughout Ryan’s conversation, talking about his background, about what government should do, about the present economic mess, he would consistently return to what he sees as people’s basics. They want to have a house and a job. They want to feed and clothe their kids. And they want a better life for their kids. Ryan sees government as a key player in enabling people to reach these goals.
And:
He then talked about the stimulus bill. He clearly favored a stimulus but would have preferred that it was mostly transportation and the rest additional infrastructure. When I asked about additional infrastructure, his answer was education. So repairing schools, etc. As he put it Roads & schools.
I asked if he thought the stimulus bill as crafted was a good idea and he said it was too early to tell. (I think this reply more than any other shows that Ryan is focused on what is needed and what works rather than what is the politically popular reply.) He then discussed the problems with the existing bill including how slow it is to get in to the economy and the small number of jobs it has created so far – all very fair points.
And:
He closed out with a very interesting observation – that Coloradoans, all Coloradoans, mostly want to be left alone by the government. He was not saying this as a reduce the government to zero issue, but that the government should endeavor to stay out of the way as much as possible. And the people in Colorado, be they Republican, Democrat, or independent, want government to minimize its impact on them. It’s a message that will resonate with a lot of voters in this state.
Solutions-oriented? Definitely. Committed to limited government principles? An opportunity for a clarifying follow-up discussion. A couple of my other quick reactions: Ryan Frazier’s authenticity and thoughtfulness both come through well in this article. He’s not the most conservative candidate across the board in this race, but he very well may be the most electable — and certainly a vast improvement on the indecisive and uninspiring Michael Bennet.
As for David Thielen, he is as fair and balanced, reasonable, and open-minded as any liberal blogger in Colorado — probably more so. I’m glad he took the time to interview Frazier and posted it for us to see.
For comparison, I urge you also to check out Thielen’s recent interview with another GOP U.S. Senate candidate Ken Buck. It’s my understanding he also has an upcoming interview with Jane Norton — my requests there are still languishing.
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