Grassroots Radio Colorado, Randy Baumgardner, December 17, 2013
Station: KNUS, 710 AM
Show: Grassroots Radio Colorado
Guests: Baumgardner
Link: http://grrc.podomatic.com/profile?p=1
Date: December 17, 2013
Topics: Debt Ceiling, Principles of Liberty Scorecard, United States Senate, Senator Mark Udall, Colorado Senate District 8, Greg Brophy,l Budget Control Act, Balanced Budget Amendment, Tragedy of the Commons, Military Pension, Outsourcing, Wilderness Areas, Beetle Kill, Forest Management, National Monuments, National Parks, Environmentalists, Conservationists, Senator Jeff Sessions, Consent Calendar, Representative Amy Stephens, Senator Owen Hill, Roberts, Crowder, King, Kevin Lundberg, Water Rights, Civil Liberties, Grand Lake Golf Course,
HOST KEN CLARK: Well, as I had mentioned during the last segment, we do have sitting in studio with us, the one and only, State Senator Randy Baumgardner, who is running for the United States Senate. So, Senator Baumgardner, welcome to Grassroots Radio.
COLORADO STATE SENATOR (R-HOT SULPHUR SPRINGS) AND U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE, RANDY BAUMGARDNER: Well, thank you for the invitation to be here.
HOST JASON WORLEY: And let me ask —
CLARK: We invited you? We actually did that?
BAUMGARDNER: Well, no. I actually kind of muscled my way in here, but hey, there was a door open.
WORLEY: There’s nothing wrong with that. Tell us, first off, what’s your Senate district?
BAUMGARDNER: Uh, Senate District 8. That is seven counties in northwest Colorado, which include, Grand, Jackson, Routte, Moffat, Rio Blanco, Garfield, and Summit County.
CLARK: You actually include Summit County?
BAUMGARDNER: Summit County. I — about a quarter of the state, actually.
WORLEY: Wow. That’s a biggie. Between you and Greg Brophy, you pretty much got the whole state covered.
CLARK: Yeah.
WORLEY: Except for Denver — which is where all the problems are coming from.
CLARK: Most of the problems do come from Denver. So, tell us – you know, you decided to run for the Senate. What made you decide to do that?
BAUMGARDNER: The reason that I got into this race, was I got very upset with the people that are in there now that’s not representing Colorado. You know, you’re supposed to – or, the electorate elects pe0ple to send back to Washington to take their concerns about the state to Washington D.C., not bring Washington D.C.’s ideas to the state and try to implement them here, at this level. And that’s what’s been happening at both United States Senator that’s in there now, at that level. So, without having that representation in there, I decided to get into the race, because I’ve always represented the people in my district and hopefully can represent the majority of the people of the state of Colorado back in Washington at the United States Senate.
WORLEY: Well, let’s hit something that happened in the United States Senate today. Every single Democrat, and I believe it’s something like seventeen–
CLARK: Umm, I believe it was thirteen, but–.
WORLEY: Thirteen? Okay, — thirteen Republicans – it was either twelve or thirteen. You’re right. Excuse me.
CLARK: Yeah, I think it was thirteen.
WORLEY: Twelve or thirteen Republicans voted for this budget deal. What do you think about that?
BAUMGARDNER: Well, I tell you, I believe that we need a federal budget, throughs a balanced budget amendment, or something like that. And I just don’t know if they’re just not working hard enough or they’re concerned more about trying to get themselves re-elected or what, to try and make those deals, to get theirselves back. I don’t believe that we should be raising the debt ceiling. I don’t think that we should be prolonging – I think, I call it “the madness”. And we need to end the madness by raising this debt ceiling and continuing this budget that’s just out of control. We’re going to have to rein it in, because the people — my great-great-grandchildren are going t0 be paying this budget debt, and—
CLARK: Well, no. Keep going. I point to myself. That means I’m going to ask a question next.
WORLEY: That means he gets next.
CLARK: That means I’m going to ask a question next. So, keep going, and finish your statement.
BAUMGARDNER: So, um, I would definitely not be in favor of extending that. I think that we need – you know, the federal government needs to live by the same rules and regulations that you as an individual have to live by. You’ve got a budget that you can only have so much m0ney and you can’t go outside that budget, unless you want to mortgage everything you’ve got, which they’ve done to this country, is mortgaged and over-mortgaged every asset that we’ve got. I mean, if anybody ever calls—if these countries ever start calling the debt that we owe them, we’re – we’re—we’re sunk. We’re basically sunk.
[…] Well, senator Jeff Sessions [Discussion of Budget negotiations that cut soldiers pensions, and RB says that we’re outsourcing military contracts for steel. Worley challenges that assertion. RB says he’ll come back with facts, because he’s sure that things are being outsourced for the military that should not be. Conversation continues with discussion of forest management and beetle kill problem. RB says wilderness areas are inaccessible to clearing dead wood, and the alternative is letting it burn. Mitigation needs to be done, by state or federal government. They talk about how timber is actually a “crop”. “Tragedy of the commons” at 37:55. For over 140 years, we still don’t have control of those federal lands, which the federal government has tied together with monuments and parks that limit access. And these people have never set foot in those areas. I’m a conservationalist, not an environmentalist. We shouldn’t shut these areas down. Radical environmentalist married to our current senator. ]
CLARK: All right, gentleman, I want to change the subject, now. As you know, Senator, we rely –at Grassroots Radio Colorado, we rely very, very heavily on the rankings and the analysis that we get from Principles of Liberty. Here it comes.
BAUMGARDNER: That’s okay!
CLARK: Yeah. Oh, no –
BAUMGARDNER: They told me. [chuckles}
CLARK: And here – this is – we—we rely, we believe in what the principles are of – Principles of Liberty – we live them. We are part of those. And so, we run with their analysis all the time. And in my opinion, they do a fantastic job. So, your ranking in Principles of Liberty, you got a D+. Okay? Your – one of your primary competitors, Owen Hill, scored a little bit better than you. You scored 66, he scored 69. Neither one of those are good. You’ve got a D+. And then Representative Amy Stephens scored worse than both of you. Okay, now, if you compare – I mean, if you compare them straight across the board, and you really can’t. It’s not fair to compare the Senate rankings to the House rankings because there are differences in the differences the [inaudible—“ consent “?] calendar. However, you’re fourth from the bottom, Senator. I mean you’ve got Roberts, Crowder, King, then Baumgardner. And, you know, you’re five away from being a Democrat! Why would the Liberty people want to support you in your campaign?
BAUMGARDNER: Well, I tell you, um, I am a conservative. And maybe that, you know, doesn’t always reflect. One of the things that you find there, and I guess it comes down to what you—what your word’s worth, what you’re made out of, because there were things that I didn’t felt like I voted any different in the Senate than I did in the House. Okay? And my rankings were very good in the House, very–. In fact, I was — I had a 92 or a 93 percent in the House. In fact, [I] was top—I believe, top of Principles of Liberty when I served in the House of Representatives.
CLARK: You know, I’m going back – to be fair, I’m going back to 2012.
BAUMGARDNER: Yeah.
CLARK: Okay? And you were ranked number one by Principles of Liberty.
BAUMGARDNER: Yes.
CLARK: You got an A+ ranking with a 94 percent in 2012
BAUMGARDNER: Yeah. And I don’t – and that’s one – I’ve had conversations with Principles of Liberty that –. First of all, maybe it was the consent calendar because –.
CLARK: Well, but everybody voted on the consent calendar
BAUMGARDNER: They did. They did, but – but – but, consent–. The Principles of Liberty said that everybody’s numbers were 10-15% lower than they normally were. I don’t know why. I don’t know what it was, but the only thing that I can say is that when you give your word—and there was a couple of bills that changed and I went to the Senator and I said, “Look, this is not what I bought into. Can I get out of this?” And they said, “No, you said you’d be on with me.” So if your word means anything, you stick to that. And that’s where I am. If that’s what they want to judge me on, that’s fine. But I own what I vote, and I’ll talk about anything that they want to talk to me about. So, that–.
CLARK: That is an amazing difference from one year to the next.
BAUMGARDNER: I know that. Yeah, I know that’s–.
WORLEY: But if there is a 15 point swing, which I think–.
CLARK: Well, no, but here’s what I’m trying to do, I mean–.
WORLEY: It would go from a—you would go from a 92 to a –.
CLARK: But everybody in the Senate is judged the same way.
WORLEY: Yeah. Okay, so add 15 points.
CLARK: No, no. Let me rephrase my question. Everybody in the Senate is judged the same way. So, you’ve got Lundberg [at] number one, Baumgardner [at] number twelve.
WORLEY: What was his ranking?
CLARK: B-. Eighty percent. And Randy’s got a 66. So, you’re talking about a 14 point swing.
WORLEY: Right, but if there’s a 15–. Okay.
CLARK: No, no!
WORLEY: I know, if you’re comparing apples apples , it’s — in the Senate, that makes it a little bit more of a B. If that’s the case. If there’s a statistical anomaly, both he—both Randy Baumgardner and Owen hill have low Bs, not high Ds.
CLARK: Well, the point is though, that you’ve got Senator Lundberg being judged the exact same way–.
BAUMGARDNER: Right.
WORLEY: At 80.
BAUMGARDNER: Yes.
CLARK: Right. My point is, Senator Lundberg is number one, Senator Baumgardner is number twelve, with everything being equal.
BAUMGARDNER: Right.
CLARK: All right? Now, if you go back to 2012, yeah, I mean, you were top of the heap. That is an anomaly. I need to figure that out.
BAUMGARDNER: Yeah. Well, and I do too. And that was the conversations that I had with Principles of Liberty is – ‘cause I said I didn’t feel like I voted any different than I did when I was in the House. So, I don’t know.
WORLEY: Well, we’ll get some answers on this. Let’s get–. First off, tell everyone where they can find you. I need you to wrap up.
[Baumgarndner thanks his hosts, then gives contact information,]
CLARK: Yeah, I’m looking at that right now, RandyBaumgardner.com, here. Yeah, it’s – this is going to be –. Well, I’ll have to figure that out.
WORLEY: Yeah, I’m still shaking my head
ALL: [laughing]
WORLEY: We’ll figure it out.
BAUMGARDNER: And when Rich Bratten come to me and said, “Randy, what’s going on?” And I said, “Rich, I don’t know!” So, we had those conversations, and yeah, I don’t kn0w. I mean, I wish I had an answer, but the only thing that I can come up with is that there was a couple of votes that I had given my word on to other senators. And if they won’t let you out of that, you have integrity and your word. That’s all you’ve got down there. And if you lose that, and if they say, “Well, you didn’t do as well”, well, you know what, maybe I can strive to do a little better to not give my word to those people as easily. But I try to look at things, but as they change, again, if they say, “No, you can’t be out — I’m not going to let you out of my commitment to me,” then if, as a person, as someone that stands up and says I gave my word, I’m going to stick to it. Thanks guys!
CLARK: When we come—
WORLEY: We’ll hear more from Randy Baumgardner as the primaries go on.
CLARK: Yes, we will. And when we come back, we’re going to have a very interesting story to tell.
