1. What is your motivation for running for CD3 US Representative, and what are your qualifications to serve?  

WHY ME?

I have lived in the Western Slope for 30 consecutive years (longer than any of my opponents).  I have served on several non-profit boards in the Roaring Fork Valley, and I have volunteered as the Chief Gate Judge for countless World Cup, NORAM and FIS ski races from 2008-2017.  I have also volunteered as a teacher in the Aspen Junior Golf program and served as a volunteer ambassador at the Snowmass Ski Area.  In short, I have happily served my community in a variety of ways.

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I have been a financial adviser for 36 years and have also had a political and financial radio talk show on KNFO for nearly 15 years.  I have helped numerous families attain generational wealth.

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I attended a military college (SUNY Maritime College) where I earned a degree in marine engineering, which essentially means I learned how to design and operate mobile and stationary electric power plants.

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I have an analytical mind and a thorough understanding of economics, which is a precious rare commodity in Congress.  As a financial adviser, I am a great listener.

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I have 30 planks in my campaign platform that are all designed to improve the lives of the great people in CD-3.

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2. What do you perceive as the top three issues facing CD3 that you propose to address, and how would you address those issues if elected?

The top three issues facing CD-3 are illegal immigration, inflation and the economy, and beetle kill.  Following are my proposed fixes for these issues:

 

Illegal immigration:

1.    Finish building the wall and seal the border to illegal aliens.

2.    Install a nationwide death penalty for the drug dealers who have killed more than 217,000 American kids of military age over the last two years.

3.    Install massive escalating tariffs on the two countries that are murdering our kids; China and Mexico.  Start with 50% tariffs on all goods and services (exempting Mexican produce), and double those tariffs every three months.

4.    Base all legal immigration (currently some 1,130,000/yr) on merit.  Let’s invite doctors, nurses, code writers and carpenters into our country.

5.    Force illegal immigrants to apply for asylum in somebody else’s country, not at our border.

6.    Defund all sanctuary cities, counties and states.  If municipalities are flouting federal laws, they should forfeit all federal dollars.

7.    As law enforcement agencies and officers encounters Joe Biden’s illegal aliens, they should be immediately deported.

 

Inflation and the economy:

Prices increased by 6% under Donald Trump, while here in the Western Slope, prices have skyrocketed by more than 25% under Joe Biden.  We currently have  $34 trillion of debt and more than $250 trillion in unfunded liabilities which will continue to drive our debt ever higher.  We need to reform Social Security to allow people to place some of their retirement savings into the stock markets.

 

I also believe we should consider eliminating the Department of Education and the Department of Energy.  Doing so will save $250 billion/ year.

 

We should also block grant all 80 welfare programs to the states.  Estimates are that welfare spending is fraught with 20% fraud.  Welfare spending should be decreased by 2%/year for 10 years which would further save some $300 billion/year.

 

Beetle Kill:

Colorado has approx 900,000,000 dead beetle-kill trees rotting away on 5.1 million acres of forest land.  Twenty-five percent of our standing trees are dead.  There are two billion dead beetle-kill trees in the 10 intermountain West.  Moldering trees inject 25% more greenhouse gasses into the forest ecosystem.

 

We should pay private companies and citizens a modest fee to harvest this lumber; say $5/tree.  We should further allow the sale of the harvested wood, and any products that get fashioned out of the wood to be sold free from federal income taxes into perpetuity.

 

We also need to expedite and modernize the Forest Service lease allocation process.

 

3. Do you believe Colorado's current election laws and procedures provide for secure elections and encourage voter participation. Please explain the reasons for your answer. 

COLORADO ELECTION INTEGRITY:

I believe that all elections should require a free, valid, government issued ID.  That all ballots should be paper, and that we should only allow for hand counts.

 

It is imperative for the survival of a constitutional republic that elections are transparent, and simple to understand, and that the losers in elections believe they lost fairly and squarely.  Hugo Chavez proved that voting machines can be manipulated. 

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4. Do you believe that Joe Biden's election in 2020 was legitimate?    Please explain the reasons for your answer either way. 

WHO WON IN 2020?

Donald Trump lost the 2020 election in the eight week runup to the election as most swing states abrogated their own laws and constitutions by allowing for drop boxes, ballot harvesting, mail-in ballots and no voter ID’s.

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5. What is your perspective on the events of January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC? 

January 6, 2021 was a riot orchestrated by a few bad actors. Most of those bad actors are now serving lengthy prison sentences.

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6. Is there a current policy or piece of legislation that your party has endorsed or supported that you disagree with? If so, how do you intend to address it, if elected?  

I DISAGREE WITH MY PARTY:

My state party has moved to prevent the unaffiliated from voting in Republican primaries.  I vehemently disagree with that policy, as I believe we need to train our 1,752,000 unaffiliated to actually vote Republican. 

 

I further believe that by preventing independents from participating in our primaries, we open our party up to democrat shenanigans wherein the dems support far right candidates in our primaries who have no appeal to the general electorate.  Democrats spent some $40 million in the 2022 midterms employing such tactics.

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7. If elected, what actions would you take to help ensure more effective bipartisan communication and collaboration to facilitate better outcomes for CD3 constituents?

REACHING ACROSS THE AISLE:

My first platform plank has my Congressional staff setting-up meetings with all 434 other congress-persons along with all 100 senators to find common ground wherein we could co-sponsor legislation.  I believe that many legislators operate on false premises that are peddled by a very left-leaning media.  I hope to explain my positions based upon facts and logic, and further hope to pass bi-partisan legislation that helps improve the lives of my constituents.

 

8. What are the elements of an immigration policy that would you support?

IMMIGRATION POLICY:

See Number 2 above.

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9. What OTHER important issues facing CD3 do you perceive, and what solutions do you have in mind?

Please see my website at Russ4cd3.com

 

10. Do you endorse each of the seven Restore the Balance principles to guide political conduct in Western Colorado? Please explain the reasons for your answers, either way. 

Yes.