HOUSE DISTRICT 42: Fields vs Donald

If Democrat Rhonda Fields were re-elected, her primary focus would be public safety. One of her bills could include strengthening current gun laws in the wake of the July 20 theater shootings.

Rhonda Fields braids her granddaughter Nia Pollard’s hair Sept. 20 at her home. Fields, a former United Airlines employee, is the Democratic incumbent running for re-election for House District 42. (Marla R. Keown/Aurora Sentinel)

“I’m looking at all kinds of different legislation to perhaps be a deterrent as it relates to gun control and restrictions,” she said. Some of her ideas include reducing high-capacity clip sales online, and requiring a license to buy ammunition.

She’d support a civil unions bill at the Legislature next year. “I’m a strong supporter of fair rights,” she said. She would make it a point not to cut programs from the budget that impact children or seniors. She also supports amending the state’s TABOR law that limits how much revenue the state can earn and spend on programs.

“Right now, it ties our hands, and it’s time we look at that because it does impact our ability to really fund education at a quality rate,” Fields said.

Republican Mike Donald said that if he were elected, he wouldn’t support a civil unions bill at the Legislature next year because he said the proposal undermines the basic family structure.

He wouldn’t be in favor of introducing any new gun laws in the wake of the July 20 theater shootings. “New gun laws don’t keep guns out of the hands of lawbreakers,” he said. “They keep guns out of the hands of law abiding citizens.”

He would introduce legislation that would attempt to nullify the federal Affordable Care Act. He’s also in favor of lowering the current government regulations on oil and gas drilling companies to attract more of them to drill in Colorado.

“If we could get rid of those regulations, they could move in overnight and create hundreds of thousands of jobs,” he said.

He is in favor of temporarily lowering taxes for all Colorado residents so they will have more discretionary and disposable income, which he said would help stimulate the overall state economy. If lawmakers can reverse the economic downturn, they can generate more money to help close the gap in education funding, he said.

Donald says parallels between Colorado and Michigan drew him to run for HD 42

When Mike Donald moved to Colorado in 2009, he was hit with a sudden sense of déjà vu.

The economy was in dire shape, and the state was rife with issues like foreclosures and layoffs that were similar to the economic downturn he experienced in his former home state of Michigan.

“I started following things in politics that were going on in Colorado and noticed certain trends very similar to trends in Michigan about five years before the economic collapse,” said Donald, the Republican candidate for House District 42.

He was irked by what he saw as Colorado’s burdensome government regulations on businesses. He was also frustrated with the passage of several bills that passed in 2010 that eliminated tax breaks for a variety of industries to raise more than $100 million to help balance the state budget. Republicans dubbed the bills “the dirty dozen.”

“That sort of thing was very similar to what Michigan did before their economic collapse, and I didn’t want to go through that again,” Donald said. “So, I figured I’d better do something about it.”

That was his main motivation for entering the race for House District 42.

Donald, who is currently a security guard at a building in downtown Denver, grew up in Michigan and studied physics at New Mexico Tech. Because of family issues, he moved back to Michigan before completing his degree and got a job in the auto industry as a quality and reliability engineer. He continued studying physics and electric engineering at Lawrence Technological University, but then was laid off from his auto job in 2001. Only a few credits away from graduating, he decided to give up studying for a while and start his own business. He ran a lawn mowing service, and later went to work for a contract research organization that conducted biomedical research. He was laid off from that job, too, and in 2008, he and his wife decided to move to Colorado. Donald said he has had intentions of running for office for several years.
“I’ve always been an avid follower of politics,” he said. “It’s never been a question of ‘if’ I run, it’s always been ‘when’ I decide to run,” he said.

His campaign took a hit in April when he was involved in a traffic accident that caused him to break his ankle. He has enjoyed his chats with residents of the district during campaigning, although he was on crutches for the first few months of his campaign.

In talking to residents, Donald has found that they’re primarily concerned with the economy, an issue that Donald plans to focus on squarely if he’s elected.

“I don’t really care too much about most social issues, I just want to bring the economy back again, and bring jobs to Colorado,” he said.

Although he’s excited about the prospect of serving at the state Legislature, he doesn’t expect to spend years as a lawmaker.

“I’m not a career politician,” he said. “I’m just a regular guy who looked at the (economic) situation and saw something very bad, and I want to prevent Colorado from being in a very bad situation.”

Fields channels her own tragedy in hopes of preventing others

Over the past two years as a state Representative for Aurora, Democrat Rhonda Fields has never lost sight of what led her to the state Capitol in the first place.

Seven years ago, her son, along with his fiancée, was gunned down the day before he was set to testify as a witness in a murder. Since then, the former United Airlines employee’s life has been dominated with a sense of responsibility to advocate for criminal justice issues, and to make sure stories like hers become less prevalent.

As a state lawmaker, Fields passed 16 bills during her first term, including one that encourages physical education, penalizes criminals for leaving the scene of traffic accidents, and encourages teachers to intervene when middle schoolers are at risk of dropping out of school.

Her slain son, Javad Marshall Fields, has been the driving force through it all.

“He gives me the courage to be here,” Fields said. “That journey propelled me to this public role that I have, and I don’t think I’d be on this journey without that triggering event.”

Born to a father who served in the U.S. Army and a mother who worked clerical jobs in the military, Fields moved to Colorado from Maryland in 1972 and became the first from her family to attend college.

She graduated with a master’s degree in psychology, counseling and guidance from the University of Northern Colorado and moved to Aurora in 1986. She spent more than two decades working for United Airlines.

Although her parents decided not to pursue higher education, Fields said they taught her the importance of learning.

She’s now running for re-election in a district that’s grown by 17,000 voters because of reapportionment. If she’s re-elected, she’ll take with her a lesson she learned during her first term.

“I learned the importance of collaborating and working across the aisle,” she said. “It’s really important that you find people that you have common agreement with and can move forward on those topics.”

Her biggest priority next session would be continuing to focus on public safety issues, specifically increased gun control regulations in the wake of the July 20 theater shootings. The massacre that killed 12 people and injured almost 60 shook the entire city, but was especially poignant for Fields. She’s aware that the community is still in a stage of shock, and legislation to curb gun violence will come only after the city begins to heal. Her son would say the same.

“I think he’d say, ‘Comfort those who have been traumatized and victimized by this crime.’ That’s the first stage. You have to deal with your own grief,” she said.