Colorado Springs Gazette: EDITORIAL: Elect O'Dea and replace an ineffective Sen. Bennet

This article appeared in the Colorado Springs Gazette.

Colorado has the choice to elect a senator who will achieve positive change. Voters should elect self-made businessman Joe O’Dea, whose lifetime work has netted positive results. Replace a Washington insider who has achieved almost nothing in 13 years.

By electing O’Dea, voters will replace a senator so ineffective he did not garner 1% support in Colorado when running for President. Sen. Michael Bennet’s lack of performance is not a matter of opinion. It is documented fact.

The Center for Effective Lawmaking is a non-partisan partnership of Vanderbilt University and the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy graduate school at the University of Virginia. It uses 15 metrics to calculate a Legislative Effectiveness Score for each member of the U.S. House and Senate.

Bennet ranks as the fifth least effective Senate Democrat with a score of 0.270. That compares to the highest Democratic score of 5.015. Bennet ranks as the 11 least effective among Republicans and Democrats combined. That’s not acceptable.

Bennet sponsored 43 bills during the 116th Congress. Only three achieved mere consideration in a committee. None went further. This failure means Bennet achieved nothing during the last full session of Congress. He has little apparent leverage with his colleagues or our Democratic president.

In all of Bennet’s 13 years in Congress, he has sponsored one bill that became law. That law established a technical wording change regarding eligibility for membership in Blue Star Mothers of America.

Compare that to former Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner, swept from office by the blue wave of 2018. In four years – nine fewer than Bennet – Gardner sponsored 10 bills that became law. One established the National Suicide Hotline. Another established Taiwan as a United States ally. Another helped complete Colorado’s major Veterans Administration hospital.

Bennet’s predecessor, former Democratic Sen. Ken Salazar, served four years before taking a presidential appointment. He sponsored three bills that became laws. If Bennet performed at that level, he would have 10 legislative achievements – not just 1 of esoteric value.

Before Salazar, Colorado had the prowess of Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell. In 12 years, one fewer than Bennet, Campbell sponsored 39 bills that became law. Campbell 39; Bennet 1.

One Campbell law provided bulletproof vests for cops. Another established affordable housing for American Indians. He established the National Law Enforcement Museum.

Having never been elected, O’Dea has markedly improved Colorado. He has built iconic structures throughout Colorado and signed thousands of paychecks. Examples include the Chatfield Environmental Project, the Colorado River bypass of Windy Gap reservoir and the Jefferson County Peaks to Plains Bike Path — just to name a few.

Bennet’s indisputable lack of achievement may explain why he lies about O’Dea. It may explain why he declined an invitation to meet with The Gazette’s editorial board for our endorsement consideration, unlike most other leading Democrats.

We met with O’Dea and he spoke truth, even knowing it might upset a few members of the board. He favors mainstream abortion rights and opposes the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.

Though fiscally responsible, O’Dea is moderate on nearly every issue important to Coloradans.

He favors same-sex marriage rights. He will opposes former President Donald Trump seeking the White House again. O’Dea wants to fight climate change and utility costs with all-the-above energy policies. He opposes repealing Obamacare’s protections for preexisting medical conditions. He wants better drug control at the border, yet compassionately favors citizenship for immigrants brought to the country as children.

Endorsed by the Denver Police Union and multiple sheriffs, law-enforcement knows O’Dea as the man who built and donated a homeless shelter and consistently helps the poor.

With no way to run on his record, Bennet and supporters spend big money pretending O’Dea opposes abortion rights. The TV ads contradict factual coverage of O’Dea’s true position by The New York Times, NBC News, National Public Radio, the Wall Street Journal and more.

Despite Bennet’s negative campaigning, O’Dea opposes changes to Social Security and Medicare. He believes President Joe Biden’s forgiveness of college loan debt — for households making up to $250,000 — threatens Social Security and Medicare. Bennet supports the loan forgiveness.

“…it’s inevitable that they’ll raid funds, cut benefits, and break promises to the seniors who rely on those programs… Politicians like Bennet and Biden have been raiding these trust funds to spend on other programs for years. I won’t,” O’Dea promises.

We know Sen. Bennet as an intelligent, educated, soft-spoken and likeable man. Sadly, his 13-year record is provably and remarkably dismal. By stark contrast, O’Dea stands out as the non-doctrinaire, get-it-done, pragmatic moderate Colorado needs.