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Mike Lawrence

Call Mike Lawrence at 871-4203 or e-mail mlawrence@steamboatpilot.com.

Steamboat Springs — If you're tired of seeing lawn signs, of being beaten over the head by political ads while watching TV or of the general information overload that comes with the height of election season, there is a simple cure.

Go to the Front Range this weekend, and then return to Routt County. It will feel like spending two days getting tossed around by a riptide before clawing your way back onto the calm sands of the beach.

The Denver area is blanketed with lawn signs, side-of-the-highway signs, on-the-bench-in-the-public-park signs, billboards, stickers, radio ads, fliers, television ads and droves of passionate and extremely hard-working campaign volunteers.

Imagine if candidates in statewide races - such as treasurer, attorney general and secretary of state - deployed door-knocking staffers and campaigned full-tilt in Routt County.

There are signs in Golden for races that Golden residents can't vote on - such as the Fourth District race for Congress between incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, Democratic state legislator Angie Paccione and Reform Party candidate Eric Eidsness.

Imagine if candidates in Moffat, Grand or Eagle county races plastered signs across Routt County to catch the eyes of rush-hour commuters caught in traffic.

If you're like me, imagining such things - or experiencing them for a weekend - can be a lot of fun. It's fun because in a week, the signs will disappear, the radio ads will silence and the world will continue spinning. But right now, Colorado residents are caught in the stir, and we can't seem to talk about anything but politics - even while wearing costumes and asking strangers for candy.

During Halloween festivities in Boulder, I met a woman wearing a "Border Fence" costume. The get-up was simple: her baseball hat had a fence made of tongue depressors glued to coat-hanger wire, extending horizontally about one foot to either side of her head. The front of the hat said "U.S.A." The back said "Mexico."

The costume was a light-hearted take on the Secure Fence Act, which President Bush recently signed into law and which orders construction of nearly 700 miles of double-layered fencing across high-traffic areas of our country's border with Mexico.

While I didn't know the woman wearing the costume, I thought the hat was clever and walked over to compliment her efforts.

I intended to let loose with a flood of verbiage about the estimated $6 billion cost of the fence, possible construction challenges, and potential related real estate opportunities - but I was too late.

People dressed as an auto mechanic, apartment building and surgeon already were conducting a lively debate about our borders and relations with Mexico, centered on this woman's hat.

Minutes later, still at the Halloween party where the hostess wore a complicated jack-o-lantern/purple hair/Wilma Flintstone costume, I overheard a conversation about Amendment 44, which would legalize possession of less than an ounce of marijuana in Colorado for adults 21 and older.

If there ever was a place for outspoken supporters of legalizing marijuana, I thought, a Halloween party was it. But I was wrong again, and overheard another unexpectedly two-sided, intelligent debate.

On the Front Range, politics carried conversations, even on Halloween weekend. I saw a close friend only once during the entire three days because of her round-the-clock campaign work.

Don't get me wrong - political parties in Routt County are working incredibly hard, and there is certainly no shortage of excitement on this side of the mountains, especially in Northwest Colorado.

But it's a riptide over there on the Front Range.

And I have to admit, I enjoyed getting tossed around for a weekend.

- To reach Mike Lawrence, call 871-4203

or e-mail mlawrence@steamboatpilot.com