Craig Daily Press

Craig — Amid the glamour and glad-handing at the Holiday Inn on Saturday night, some points were made, some concessions given and some candidates presented.

The Moffat County Republican Central Committee hosted its annual fundraiser. At $50 a dinner plate, the fundraiser attracted about 50 guests.

The Committee hoped to raise between $3,000 and $4,000, and guests present attributed the somewhat smaller crowd to earlier caucus dates that pushed the fundraiser up on the calendar, as well.

Colorado Republicans Chair­man Dick Wadhams was the guest speaker. He addressed topics near and far during his speech.

For one, Wadhams said, Republicans nationwide today face a similar situation as they did in 1974, when the political pendulum swung to the left, Democrats attained a majority in Congress and the people elected Jimmy Carter two years later.

In 2004 and 2006, state Republicans lost a federal Senate seat, two federal house seats, the governorship and both Houses in the state Congress, he added.

Why? For one, state Republicans lost the fiscal debate, Wadhams said.

“But what we’ve found is that the Democrats are back to their old ways,” he said. “We’ve seen with Gov. Ritter, he’s a good man and a very nice guy, but we see he’s much more liberal than he ran under.”

The differences Republicans can focus on this year will be taxes, Wadhams said.

Ritter “has all these Blue Ribbon Commissions that want to raise taxes,” the chairman said. “But he’s got no sense of priorities. And the Dems are nervous about them, they’re backing off of them and now they’re saying there might not be anything on the ballot in 2008.

“For our part, we (Rep­ublicans) need to get back to our roots.”

Which means smaller government that should operate more efficiently, Wadhams said.

The state already is looking at Referendum C — which temporarily froze the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights for five years in 2005 — collecting about $3 million more than projected.

Add that to $3.7 billion in revenue from the property tax hike, and the state has about a $4 billion addition to its budget, Wadhams said.

Although he could not say $4 billion was enough to fix the funding problems for health care, public education and transportation, Wadhams said Democrats should hit the brakes on new taxes for the immediate future.

“There’s this knee-jerk reaction among Bill Ritter and his associates that we have to raise taxes and that will fix any problem we have,” Wadhams said.

The local bent

Local State Rep. Al White, R-Hayden, and State Sen. Jack Taylor, R-Steamboat Springs, addressed different concerns.

Taylor is term-limited from running for re-election to his Senate seat this year. White, who also is term-limited as a representative, will run for Taylor’s Senate seat.

White asked the crowd to stay vigilant this year, because the national political landscape means every race could be hard fought, even in traditional conservative strongholds like Moffat County.

Taylor reiterated his commitment to the area and said he would fight for severance tax dollars to stay in counties impacted by energy industry growth. Roads are an especially high priority because heavy truck traffic not only damages roads more than light vehicles, but many county roads were not designed for big, heavy vehicles.

At an estimated $2 million per mile to fix a bad road surface, the cost is high and the need is getting higher, Taylor said.

“Guess who gets to pay for those roads,” the senator added. “You folks in Moffat County will begin to run into these problems soon.”

Moffat County Commissioner Saed Tayyara counts that as a priority high on his list, too, he said.

White and Taylor helped Moffat County get a $3 million grant from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs last year, “but we’re still lacking,” Tayyara said. “Money is not coming as fast as we need it.”

Tayyara and his peer, Commissioner Tom Gray, both announced their candidacies for reelection in 2008. Commissioner Tom Mathers is not up for re-election this year.

Gray and Tayyara said they were happy about the progress the Commission made in the past three years, and they want to help the county see those initiatives through.

“We balanced the budget, improved resources and built unity and confidence within our community by not telling people what they should want, or what they do want, but letting them tell us what they want and doing our best to do it for them,” Gray said.

Tayyara had never planned to run for a second term, he said.

“But we’ve worked hard to get to this point, and I want to see it through,” Tayyara said. “I’m proud of the fact that I have been able to represent the public, and I hope I can continue. If I’m elected again, I’ll have spent 20 years in public service.

“I think I’d be lost if I didn’t talk about politics on a daily basis.”

Collin Smith can be reached at 824-7031, ext. 209, or cesmith@craigdailypress.com