Race for Congress: Scott McInnis

Race for Congress: Scott McInnis
Incumbent congressman seeking fifth term in office

Oct. 26, 2000

By Janelle Holden
Journal Staff Writer


	Rep. Scott McInnis, R-Colo., speaks at the spring Club 20 meeting at the Adam’s Mark Hotel in Grand Junction. McInnis is running for his fifth term.

Although he is the acknowledged front-runner, Rep. Scott McInnis said he is not taking the race for the 3rd Congressional District lightly.

"I like being in a battle on the ground, so I’m a little antsy being stuck here in Washington," said McInnis.

McInnis, a Republican from Grand Junction, is running for his fifth term to represent the Western Slope, Pueblo, the San Luis Valley, and portions of Jefferson and Douglas counties.

This year, congressmen are antsy to wrap up next year’s appropriation cycle in order to get back and campaign before the election. McInnis said that he had expected Congress to adjourn by Oct. 6 and had campaign events booked from then until the election, many of which had to be canceled.

"I don’t care if I were unopposed, I take this campaign very seriously, and even if I’m not opposed I think you still have an obligation to go out to the people you work for and tell them why you should vote for them again," he said.

Although McInnis admits the delay is frustrating, he is still working hard to get several measures through before Congress adjourns.

McInnis scored a victory yesterday, when legislation that would make Great Sand Dunes National Monument into a national park was passed by the House, and sent to the President’s desk.

"The bill’s breakneck assent to passage was nothing short of remarkable," McInnis said in a press release. "To get a bill of this magnitude through Congress in just a matter of months is a mammoth feat, particularly when you consider the obstacles we face in the House of Representatives."

McInnis is also working to bring a bill that would authorize construction of the Animas La-Plata water project, and another designating the Spanish Peaks a wilderness area, to a vote before the session ends.

Congress recently passed his Colorado Canyons National Conservation Act, a bill that establishes 120,000 acres of public land in western Colorado and eastern Utah as a national conservation area. The bill is expected to be signed by the President.

McInnis currently sits on the House Ways and Means committee. If re-elected, one of his goals is to eliminate the death tax and marriage penalty, an action which he believes is crucial to keeping small businesses and farms alive in rural areas.

"Our country, the United States of America, ought to be in the business of encouraging small businesses and farms and ranches to go from one generation to the next, not discouraging it which they do through the death tax," he explained. "Fundamentally, I do not believe that death should be a taxable event, nor do I believe that marriage should be a taxable event."

McInnis said he supports presidential candidate George W. Bush’s proposed tax cuts. "It’s not like we’re being nice to the taxpayer, it’s their money. A dollar in Cortez goes a lot further in your community, than a dollar going out of Cortez to Washington for redistribution," he charged.

Although McInnis has engaged in several debates with his Democratic opponent, Curtis Imrie, the Reform and Libertarian candidates have been excluded from most of these exchanges.

This doesn’t seem to bother McInnis, who dismisses the candidates as not having "enough of a showing" to be taken seriously.

"The fact is I’m not going to take up my time so I can be engaged in a debate with the one that’s really going to be an opponent for me, to debate somebody who’s not a factor in the race."