Original article can be found at The Daily Camera
Originally published on November 21, 2019 By Katie Langford
Colorado’s former U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez and U.S. Senator Mark Udall agree on very little when it comes to politics and public policy, but that didn’t stop the two from forming a long-lasting friendship.
In December, the Republican and Democrat will kick off a new bipartisan speaker series hosted by the Center for the American West at the University of Colorado Boulder.
The center has long worked to bridge political and cultural divides, said faculty director Patty Limerick, and the new “Bipartisanship (and friendship) happen!” series is the most recent iteration of that effort.
“We’ve been worrying about the nation’s polarization for a couple of decades,” Limerick said. “We’ve been concerned about division and overstated opposition and people claiming the high ground. That’s been happening for a while, but it does seem to be at an extraordinary level of contention and bitterness.”
Beauprez and Udall said their friendship transcends the partisan divide because they come from the same foundation — a deep-rooted love of Colorado and sense of duty to the United States.
“I like Bob Beauprez. I think he’s wrong a lot of the time,” Udall, a U.S. senator from 2009 to 2015, said, laughing. “But he’s patriotic, hardworking and he loves his country as much as anybody.”
Udall and Beauprez knew each other before Beauprez was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Colorado’s 7th Congressional District in 2002, but their friendship was cemented through a few rowdy town hall meetings with constituents and touring the Middle East during the beginning of the Iraq War.
“As a congressman, you stand up for your state and one of the ways you stand up for your state is to work with fellow members of Congress,” Udall said. “We need more friendships that allow us to listen to each other and reason with each other, and when we do disagree, that doesn’t mean you demonize the person with whom you’re working.”
Featuring a pair of partisan politicians who are also friends is a breath of fresh air in the current political climate, Limerick said.
“We have this pair of people who aren’t wanting to hide that they’re able to collaborate across party boundaries, and in our times that makes me happier than I can begin to express,” she said.
The current division in America’s politics is indicative of the state of society, Beauprez said.
“We are so terribly polarized and it seems that everyone is pushed to one side or the other and it’s a ‘You’re with us or against us’ mentality,” he said. “I’ve always believed — and our relationship is an example — even if you don’t vote the same way, you tend to agree on the issues and challenges and what ought to be done far more than we disagree.”
The series will span the next three years, Limerick said, and future speakers will be announced at a later date.
If you go
What: Former U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez and U.S. Sen. Mark Udall at the Center for the American West’s new “Bipartisan (and friendship) happen!” speaker series.
When: 6:30 p.m. on Dec. 10
Where: Glenn Miller Ballroom, University Memorial Center, University of Colorado Boulder, 1669 Euclid Ave.
Cost: Free tickets are available online.
More info: centerwest.org/archives/20733