Rep. Lamborn Campaigns on Military and Veterans, But Skips Committee Meetings

Voting in the Republican primary for the Colorado’s 5th Congressional District has already begun, and after a late start, Rep. Doug Lamborn is up on the air attacking his opponent rather than telling us all the great things he has done for the 5th District.

Advertisement

It doesn’t surprise me that Lamborn has decided his only chance at winning this primary is to drag his opponent through the mud. Lamborn’s record is lackluster, his Heritage Score has dropped significantly since his re-election. And while Lamborn likes to brag about his committee assignments, seniority, and all he has done for our military and veterans, a look at his attendance record, and his willingness to use the military and veterans as campaign fodder tell a different story.

Lamborn’s supporters and staff have insisted that the Congressman’s leadership and committee assignments are of the utmost importance.

I should note that the Lamborn supporter in that video actually works for the Congressman as his Communications Director. Which is why he whitewashed Lamborn’s record when it comes to the work Lamborn has done.

For instance, lets look at Representative Lamborn’s attendance record on the House Committee on Veterans Affairs(HASC). In the 112th Congress there were a total of  seventy-eight committee meetings for the HASC. Doug Lamborn attended only eleven of those Committee meetings.

Further inspection of Lamborn’s committee attendance shows that, despite what Lamborn and his staff has said, there were very few conflicts that would cause Lamborn to miss these committee meetings. It should also be noted that in the meetings that Representative Lamborn did choose to attend, he rarely made a statement or comment. The few times Lamborn actually did speak up in committee, he didn’t exactly instill the type of confidence that would move me to retain him in office.

Advertisement

Consider the hearing on May 31 of this year on the prisoner transfer for Bowe Bergdahl. Chuck Hagel, quite possibly the worst Defense Secretary in my lifetime, walked all over Representative Lamborn. You can see it for yourself at the 2 hour and 50 min mark of this video.

While the Congressman skips out on committee hearings, his campaign is using official photos from Ft. Carson in there ads. In fact, in one ad you can see the military rank while the ad has no disclaimer that representation of the military does not equal an endorsement from the DoD.

I have called the Ft. Carson Public Affairs Office to inquire about the use of official photos by the Lamborn campaign and am awaiting a response.

The use of military imagery in Lamborn’s ads is especially offensive when you consider he is now attacking a retired Air Force General as not caring about the troops.

This attack on Bentley Rayburn, the Congressman’s primary opponent, is based on Rayburn’s disagreement with Lamborn over the repeal of sequestration. While Lamborn was more than happy to roll back the first real budget cuts we have had, Rayburn believed that we could still service our men an women in uniform and retain the real cuts that sequestration produced.

Colorado’s 5th District deserves better than a Representative who attacks his veteran opponent as not caring about the military while he himself has skipped out on his duty to represent the large military community that resides in the district.

Advertisement

I am tired of Congressman Lamborn bragging about his seniority and committee assignments while he was truant in all but eleven HASC hearings in the 112th Congress.

Tonight at 6pm Mountain Time, there will be a debate between Congressman Lamborn and his opponent, Bentley Rayburn. The debate will be live streamed for all to watch and moderators will be taking questions from twitter as well.

If you would like to watch the debate or offer questions to the candidates, go to one of the sites below and use the twitter hashtag to submit your questions:

Twitter Questions: #codecides
Streaming live:
Csbj.com
Gazette.com
Csindy.com
Fox21news.com

I will be voting for Retired Air Force General Bentley Rayburn.

Recommended

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Trending on RedState Videos