Clapp running under-the-radar in SD-26 race

The race for a state Senate seat located south of Denver is getting stranger, with Democratic candidate Linda Newel wondering why Republican competitor Lauri Clapp is skirting public appearances.

According to a Monday report by the Web site PolitickerCO.com:

Democrat Linda Newell knows she has a Republican opponent in Senate District 26.
She’s just never met, seen or heard from Lauri Clapp.

“It’s so bizarre,” Newell told PolitickerCO.com. “I’ve never even met her — I never even talked to her. I tried — I’ve called her. I called her the day after the primaries (and) said ‘Congratulations.’ I called her two times after that. I e-mailed her to invite her to a town hall so that we could have all of the candidates there. I never got a call or e-mail back.”

“And I’ve been at every community event in the area that I could attend, and I still never met her,” Newell added. “There’s not been one person whom I’ve talked with who has said that they’ve seen her during the campaign.”

Clapp did not return a phone call nor an e-mail seeking comment Monday afternoon.

Clapp has a long and controversial history as a city councilwoman and state lawmaker in the suburban Englewood and Littleton areas, where the Senate district is located.

During her House tenure, Clapp supported required placement of the Ten Commandments in public schools and restricting marriage to between a man and a woman only.

Erin Rosa was born in Spain and raised in Colorado Springs. She is a freelance writer currently living in Denver. Rosa's work has been featured in a variety of news outlets including the Huffington Post, Democracy Now!, and the Rocky Mountain Chronicle, an alternative-weekly in Northern Colorado where she worked as a columnist covering the state legislature. Rosa has received awards from the Society of Professional Journalists for her reporting on lobbying and woman's health issues. She was also tapped with a rare honorable mention award by the Newspaper Guild-CWA's David S. Barr Award in 2008--only the second such honor conferred in its nine-year history--for her investigative series covering the federal government's Supermax prison in the state. Rosa covers the labor community, corrections, immigration and government transparency matters. She can be reached at erosa@www.coloradoindependent.com.

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