Musgrave: The Sarah Palin of Colorado?

Did Colorado US Representative Marilyn Musgrave’s campaign manager call her “the Sarah Palin of Colorado”?

I received an e-mail from Emily’s List this morning reporting this statement, although I haven’t seen it yet in an independent source. But it raises some interesting questions.

Who is Marilyn Musgrave? Should she be re-elected by Colorado voters? At first, I thought it was just a good campaign line. For the Democrats. But if her campaign manager actually said it (and I said “if”), they must think it’s a good line for the Republicans too.

So is Marilyn Musgrave the Sarah Palin of Colorado? Let’s review. She is the first Republican woman elected to Congress by Colorado. She has a B.A. in social studies from a state school, CSU. She married her college sweetheart and had 4 kids. She and her husband, Steve, owned and operated a bale stacking business. Like Palin, she is a devout Pentecostal and an Aquarius.

She started her political career on the Fort Morgan School Board in 1991. There, she focused her attentions on changing the sex-education of Colorado kids to abstinence-only. She was a President of the Fort Morgan Right to Life Chapter. Sound familiar? Palin started on the school board, focused on replacing sex-ed with abstinence only, and belonged to anti-choice organizations.

Musgrave worked her way from the school board to national politics, winning a seat in the Colorado State House of Representatives in 1992, a seat in the Colorado State Senate in 1998, and going to Washington in 2002 as Colorado's first female Republican U.S. Representative. Palin started with the school board, became mayor, and serves as Alaska's first female Republican governor.

Musgrave is opposed to equal rights for gay American citizens. She worked against allowing adoption, civil unions, and marriage rights. She opposes abortion choice. She opposes embryonic stem cell research. She opposes emergency contraception. She tried to (unsuccessfully) amend Colorado law to prevent contraceptive distribution to runaway teens. She is an ally of Focus on the Family. Sound familiar? This is Musgrave, but the same could be said about Palin too.

Palin, I mean Musgrave, strongly opposes gun control. As founder of the 2nd Amendment Caucus, she is working to protect gun manufacturers and dealers from lawsuits. She is an ally of the Gun Owners of America, considered by some to be even more conservative than the National Rifle Association, earning the distinction of being named “Gun Rights Legislator of the Year.” She advocates funding for home-schooling. She’s anti-union. She wants to make Bush’s tax cuts permanent. She sponsored a resolution for Congress to declare 2007 as “National Year of the Bible.” She said Dominionist D. James Kennedy inspired her to go into politics.

The National Rifle Association gave her an “A” for support of pro-gun issues. The Christian Coalition ranks her at 100% in support of their legislation.

The National Education Association gave her an “F” for public education issues. The Children’s Defense Fund gave her a 30% based on her 2006 voting record.

Holy Hell! Maybe Marilyn Musgrave is the Sarah Palin of Colorado! Vote!

Sources:

ttp://musgrave.house.gov/News/; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_Musgrave; http://www.votesmart.org/summary.php?can_id=2703 (accessed Sept. 23, 2008)