Last Saturday, the Colorado Governor's race moved south to Colorado Springs for a debate between Republican Congressman Bob Beauprez and Democrat Prosecutor Bill Ritter. Because of the Springs' heavy Republican registration, many have thought of this as "Beauprez Country" but you couldn't tell it from the debate attendees or recent polling. Action 22, an organization representing 22 of Colorado's southernmost counties hosted and October 14, 2006 saw a whole day of debates for candidates in the state legislature, U.S. Congress, ending with the Governor's race.

Beauprez introduced himself by talking about his business successes and his total business outlook. "It's about Economic Development. It's really all I've ever known and ever done." Beauprez added "I've got a 100% rating from the American Conservative Union. You don't get that if you don't walk the talk."

When the subject inevitably turned to illegal immigration, Beauprez spoke of his evolving philosophy on the issue. As a congressman representing Colorado's 7 th district, Beauprez co-sponsored H.R. 3333 to establish a guest worker program and was the only GOP member of the Colorado delegation to vote for House Amendment 754 which kept the controversial " Matricula Consular" Mexican ID cards in circulation for opening bank accounts. Beauprez' Heritage Bank accepts Matricula Consular ID cards to open a bank account with them. At this stage in the campaign, he seems to have switched course and now rejects anything that may be construed as amnesty. He particularly disliked the U.S. Senate version of the immigration bill recently passed by the Republican Senate. "The Senate Bill is a piece of amnesty and I absolutely abhor and reject amnesty." Beauprez said.

One of the more astounding Beauprez statements concerned the illegal alien issue. Beauprez expects all the illegal aliens to return home. His proposed immigration plan is silent as to how this will occur, but he evidently expects some form of "Immigration Rapture" where all twelve million will go home in some unknown way. Beauprez stated "What do you do with the ones who are here illegally? The problem self corrects. The problem self corrects. They have to go home, get in line, and start over again to get that legal identification."

Ritter got his chance to respond to this "self correcting" Beauprez solution and his response was the most forceful one of the evening.

Ritter shot back "This idea on Mr. Beauprez' part, that we need to have twelve million people just pick up and leave the country, they have to go home. It does not self correct. It is not a responsible way of talking about this problem. It is the difference between a guest worker program and his idea that we can get twelve million people to pick up and go home, get in line and come back. That is just not a responsible solution. This is a political wedge issue."

After being criticized for his 97% plea bargain rate that let illegal aliens back on the street, Ritter responded "If Mr. Beauprez was really concerned about that, he would have fully funded INS and ICE so that they could at a minimum pick up individuals who are in this country committing crimes."

When the issues of prisons and immigration's affect was brought up, each candidate took a different tact. Beauprez advocates eliminating the constitutional right to bail for illegal immigrants who drive drunk while Ritter touted his District's number one rating for incarcerating defendants.

Beauprez said "Why in the world do we allow bail to be posted for illegals who are picked up for DUIs and serious crimes. I think we ought to end that." Ritter's response was "We put 12,000 people in prison over a 12 year period. The next closest county was El Paso county with 6,500. We did that to keep the community safe."

To see a streaming video of the two candidates giving their answers, click here.

colovideonews.com