On Thursday Oct. 2, the foothills community gathered together to listen to candidates running for office this fall. From the presidential race all the way down to the county commissioner races, it was a night of high political drama. Every major race being contested in western Jefferson County was represented by at least a surrogate. There were many fine performances on the evening, and certainly it can be said that all the candidates conducted themselves in a thoughtful manner.

One of the most interesting parts of the candidate forum was the House District 25 race, which is being contested by Andrew Scripter (D), Cheri Gerou (R), and Jack Woerh (L). Jack Woerh injected fresh ideas into the political spectrum regarding how there should be more than one party fighting for national races, and he regaled the audience with some humorous stories. However, his remarks were severely lacking in addressing local issues and he never presented a platform on how we can help the economy. Cheri Gerou also did a fine job in, as she told her story of why she wanted to run. It is clear that Cheri respects the community, and has connections in the area, but like Mr. Woerh she did not seem to fully address the issues facing our state.

The best and most compelling performance of the night belonged to Andrew Scripter. Andrew talked passionately about bipartisanship and service to the community as his motivation for running. However, his strongest segment was when he laid out a concrete plan for how to improve Colorado's economy and the community's quality of life. Scripter's five point plan included greater support for small and local business, investing in job-creating green energy projects, infrastructure projects that will help the state's economy, education reform, and support for Colorado's veterans. As a business leader Andrew clearly had a command of the issues facing our economy, and he demonstrated a bold vision for how we can improve it.

While all three candidates did a fine job, only Andrew Scripter managed to actually law out a plan for what he would do. In these challenging times, Andrew Scripter's plan seems to be exactly what our community and Colorado needs.