The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel: Joe O’Dea Gets Things Done

This article appeared in the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel.

Joe O’Dea’s underdog candidacy for US Senate is suddenly not looking like such a long shot at all. A poll earlier this week shows O’Dea — the fiscally conservative, socially moderate construction CEO — in a virtual tie with US Senator Michael Bennet. 

Our state is craving independent leadership and authentic leaders willing to put the national interest ahead of political parity. These forces are propelling Joe O’Dea’s candidacy. 

As O’Dea gains momentum, predictably, special interest groups tied to Senator Michael Bennet and Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer are trying to smear Joe and his construction company, Concrete Express (CEI).

Schumer, Bennet and Co. spent $10 million trying to take-out Joe in the GOP primary. O’Dea won, and now Schumer is back at it, attacking Joe and his life’s work in dishonest and desperate ways.  

Michael Bennet, honestly, should be ashamed. 

Joe and his construction company are a gold standard in the industry. His record on safety is top-flight. His company has promoted rank-and-file construction workers to ownership, and many of his employees have worked at the company their entire careers.  Just this week the New York Times featured a story about a major river restoration project being managed by O’Dea and CEI - a win-win project along the Colorado River that benefits water users and the environment, one that requires the kind of technical engineering and smart construction that has become a hallmark of O’Dea and CEI. 

The company has won numerous safety awards, perhaps most telling is the Experience Modification Rating (EMR) – a data-driven risk assessment for insurers. This rating is the gold standard in the industry and CEI, as a heavy civil contractor, is rated well above the industry average.

As Hank Brown, one of Colorado’s most revered statesmen, former US Senator, and President of the University of Colorado, put it: “Like Joe O’Dea, the Concrete Express name is respected across the state and industry for its honesty and expertise.”

The character and quality of CEI is what you would expect from a company built by a guy who came from modest beginnings. 

O’Dea was adopted at birth (he never met his biological parents), was raised by a Denver cop in a working-class neighborhood, and washed dishes to pay for catholic school. He started as a union carpenter at a young age. He pursued his construction management degree at Colorado State University but left three credits short to start CEI out of his basement. Today, CEI numbers 300 strong. CEI has survived three recessions and is a generous member of the community. 

CEI offers competitive pay and benefits (more than most union shops) —including health insurance, a 401k match, paid family leave, and a college and trade school scholarship program for the children of CEI employees. Joe believes in the importance of an education — it changed the course of his life — and his company believes it is their duty to help CEI’s workers get the best education for their kids. 

These facts aren’t getting in the way of the Democratic Super PACs trying to slowdown O’Dea’s momentum. These groups are hyping — and distorting - a single employment dispute to try to make O’Dea look like Scrooge. But even that is a fiction. The employee was given months and months of paid leave and benefits to deal with an illness, and she left of her own accord.  In any case, a company that has been in business for 30-years, employing literally thousands of people in that time frame, will have employment disputes. CEI handled this case honorably, full stop. 

Indeed, we believe voters will see through these smears, and focus instead on the struggles of the country. That’s where O’Dea is focused.  O’Dea’s running to attack inflation, expand domestic energy production of all kinds, and to secure the border and reduce crime.

These are exactly the issues that Bennet, Schumer and the Democrats don’t want the voters to focus on, because their record on them is, to put it kindly, pitiful. And so, they are fabricating phony attacks on Joe O’Dea — an authentically decent, caring, and accomplished human being. As we said, Bennet should be ashamed. 

We have a choice in Colorado. A choice between a working man in Joe O’Dea who has known struggle and achieved success, or Michael Bennet, a Senator who was literally raised inside the Beltway, has accomplished very little and always votes with his party and Joe Biden. We believe Colorado and the country would benefit from more people in elected office like Joe. Working people. It’s time for a leader who listens, who brings people together, and who can use this important office to get things done to better Colorado, not promote the party line. 

That’s Joe O’Dea.