The mountain is high. The Democrats, with their equanimity in redistricting, made Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District even less favorable for a Democrat to win in 2022. Adam Frisch trails in the polls and fundraising, but he may have a decent chance to defeat Republican Lauren Boebert.
He’s strong and calm, and he’s got the smarts. She’s got a Twitter account dedicated to dividing people. When votes are divided between these two, this race could tighten up.
Attention Fox News, talk radio and fellow podcasters: Adam Frisch wants to speak with you — even Steve Bannon. He’s a terrific guest. Frisch may even share some of your policy views. Frisch says he will gladly debate Boebert anywhere and anytime.
Frisch will critique Boebert for her show pony escapades and extremism, but his main beef is that he says Boebert devotes scant time to real work for her Colorado constituents.
The Frisch family has lived in western Colorado longer than the Boeberts. Even though he’s running as a Democrat, Frisch is really unaffiliated. He was an effective independent voice on Aspen’s City Council until term limited.
Growing up in Minnesota, Frisch benefited from parents who emphasized education. Frisch, a ski racer, attended CU-Boulder (1986-90) where he studied economics and political science. He graduated to the Big Apple, first waiting tables, then getting in on the ground floor of one of America’s first socially responsible investment funds. Soon, he had an office 100 stories high in the World Trade Center, where he experienced terrorism first-hand.
Frisch’s employers paid him handsomely to travel the world. That’s because he excelled at interacting with important people from all cultures. He also had the acumen to appreciate and anticipate socio-economic developments.
“I get along with people,” Frisch told me on my podcast. “I accept people I don’t always agree with, whether it has to do with religion or politics or culture.” Frisch hit it (Aspen-wealth) big in international finance. He’s had many small business ventures since moving decades ago to Colorado.
Frisch said he believes the 2008-09 financial crisis hit hardest in rural America and fed understandable resentments when nobody was held accountable. Both political parties seemed complicit. Donald Trump exploited the opportunity. And the resentments.
Frisch said he further believes that Democrats’ monopoly on big cities and Republicans’ dominance in rural areas are unhealthy. Like any monopoly in any marketplace, quality suffers without real competition.
Describing himself as fiscally conservative, moderate, pragmatic and pro-business, Frisch said he wishes there was a “Get Stuff Done” party. He said he became a Democrat only to challenge Boebert. Frisch will join the Congressional Problem Solvers’ Conference once elected.
“Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert are the leaders of the anger-tainment industry,” Frisch told me. “It’s yelling and shouting and generating money on a national level; spending as many hours as possible on the cable news networks, ginning up the base, spending their whole time tweeting, and trying to figure out how to raise their money and their profile. Meanwhile, Lauren Boebert keeps on voting against the economic interest of her district.”
Colorado Republicans, especially political leaders, are invited by Frisch to have a business lunch. They’ll discuss the importance of Colorado’s oil, gas, and green energy industries. Protecting Colorado water and enhancing Colorado jobs will also be on the meeting’s agenda.
As for Boebert, Frisch states the obvious. “She is a fringe person. I’m not even talking about the linear thing of being really conservative or really liberal. She is just on a different quadrant of extremist. I just don’t believe this is where Western Slope Colorado people are.”
Despite my one-day podcast fishing pass, Frisch refused tasty bait when asked about Boebert’s history of mileage fraud, restaurant poisonings and various salacious controversies. He avoided attempts to discuss recent reports out of Silt involving Lauren’s husband and son. In other words, he took the high road.
Far from Colorado, another controversy could come into play in November’s elections. Ongoing investigations by the Justice Department and the House January 6 committee may expose Trump to further legal jeopardy. Given my expectation that the FBI’s Mar-a-Lago search was based on fresh insider information and yielded many smoking-gun documents, the Trump Train derailment is underway.
Fresh candidates like Frisch, who maintains that he’s within striking distance of Boebert, stand ready to replace the politicians riding up front with the defeated and disgraced former president.
Craig Silverman is a former Denver chief deputy DA. Craig is columnist at large for The Colorado Sun and an active Colorado trial lawyer with Craig Silverman Law, LLC. He also hosts The Craig Silverman Show podcast.