The Unheard Herald Banner images of Durango, Colorado

Root For Citizen Congressman
Welcome to our Climate Insurgency Campaign!


Root's Address to CD3 Delegates

●  Video Address to County Delegates (2:17 - 3/20/2020)



●  Written Address to Assembly Delegates (3/22/2020)

Address to Colorado's District 3 Assembly Delegates
  Root Routledge, PhD
  For April 17th, 2020, Virtual Assembly (4p pdf, 10 min)


CD3 County & District Assemblies (Virtual)

Process chart to become a delegate for Root
Click on process diagram for details

Climate Justice in Coal, Oil & Gas Country

Green New Deal — Root Directly Challenges
  Republican Rep Scott Tipton's Support of
  "Business As Usual" for the Fossil Fuel Industrty

The graphic images to the right comes from Root's 600-word February 16th, 2020, guest column in the Craig Daily Press (Moffat County), "We must face and address economic and environmental problems directly." The current economy of Western Colorado (3rd Congressional District) has a strong component from the coal, oil and gas sector, which not only provides decent paying union jobs, but supports the economy of local communities. It is also a big contributor to the strategic threat of our climate crisis. Our district, CD3, is the fastest heating area in the Southwestern United States (4th National Climate Assessment).

Root directly challenges Tipton's BAU proposal that we must have an "all of the above approach to energy in order to save coal, oil and gas jobs." Root's article focuses on the key fossil fuel industry counties, which he recently visited, of northwest Colorado — Rio Blanco, Moffat, and Routt. These communities are representative of frontline communities across America that will be seriously impacted by our country’s transition to a carbon-free economy — a just transition for a viable future.

"Politicians of climate-change denial, like Republican Scott Tipton, cannot prevent these mega-changes by trying to sustain an economically dying industry. Climate change is the greatest market failure in history, since there has never been a cost on the carbon pollution at the core of the carbon-based products it produces... To ignore its cause with an “all of the above” energy plan, as Tipton suggests we pursue “to save fossil fuel jobs,” is myopic and delusional. Promoting these failed BAU policies benefits only fossil fuel corporations, since these policies—not the workers—are the cause of our problems."

The two graphs portray the tale of the accelerated heating our planet is experiencing — the greatest strategic existential threat humanity has ever faced; and the dying coal industry where the current declining 21st-Century employment of coal miners is one tenth its peak in the early part of the 20th-Century due to energy economics and coal mining technology.

Read Root's article to see what he proposes to address the loss of a fossil fuel-based economy. Root is the only 2020 Democratic candidate for Congress (CD3) with a strategic focus on our climate emergency and the systems background to address it.

From Root's Guest Article in The Craig Daily News, February 16, 2020

This increase in global temperature over only a century or two is actually
an instantaneous "step-function" shock to our climate system
over a geological instant in time, which is rapidly destablizing Earth's
geophysical climate, weather and ecological systems toward irreversible
tip-over points of no return due to immense inertia and long time-lags.

We are out of time!
2020 is the end game for turning the political corner.

Root is LEADING on CLIMATE

LEADING on CLIMATE — click on flyer for pdf version with active image links

Campaign Information

Root For Citizen Congressman

  • Progressive Western Democrat — Representing and serving people; not corporate establishment billionaires and their lobbyists
  • Authentic Leader — Independent of national Party "don't offend anyone" politics; independent of DNC/DCCC — Leading with vision, conviction
  • Building a New Democratic Party — Assertively progressive, transparent, open, fair, inclusive and inviting—a Party for the Future
  • Grassroots Campaign — No corporate or PAC money; individual contributions only—every little bit helps, please help with what you can
  • Patriotic Vision — Integrity focused on the needs and wellbeing of ordinary Americans; and the common good for our country; a viable future
  • Strategic PrioritiesGateway issues first for a viable American future; then We The People will have the chance to take care of the rest
    • Healthy DemocracyHR1: For the People Act
    • Healthy PopulationHR1384: Medicare For All Act; Improve & fix Medicare; Comprehensive health care is a human right; not a privilege!
    • Healthy EnvironmentHR763: Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act; HRes109: Green New Deal; engery choices; system-wide view
    • Healthy EconomyMust work for everyone: Public investment in our future funded by a public bank—education, jobs & a livable wage
        Pro Working Families, Family Farms & Ranches, Pro Unions (Root was UAW member as assembly line mechanic, Kenworth Trucks, 1960s)
  • Protect the Colorado we Love — Public lands, clean environment, water conservation, rural needs, strong local economy, fund fire fighters


A Military Veteran
with Grit

C-141 Photo
Navigator on C-141 Aircraft
Strategic Global Airlift
C-141 Photo
Tactical Combat Airlift — Troops
Paratrooper Drop
C-141 Photo
U.S. Army Airborne Troops
Loading Up — Ready for Combat
C-141 Photo
Tactical Combat Airlift — Supply
Cargo Drop
EC-47
Navigator on EC-47 Aircraft
Tactical Military Intelligence
—Enemy Radio Transmissions—
Listen, Find and Locate the enemy
Break codes and interpret messages
for real-time military response
Captain Root Routledge
Captain Root Routledge
Vietnam Combat Veteran
170 Combat Flight Missions
2360 Flight Hours (630 Combat) Distinguished Flying Cross

A Problem Solver Who Knows Systems

Here's a summary of how Root is looking at our Healthy Democracy problems
— and policies to address them. This is the type of insight he'll bring to Congress.

Strategic Vision for a Viable American Future

The Strategic Vision for a Viable American Future poster below summarizes the platform Root is running on. Root is focused on the big picture strategic threats—gateway issues—that undermine our potential for a viable healthy future.

Click on the poster below to go to the 4th Edition of The Unheard Herald to see more. Download the poster, and check out the associated webpage material. There are more photos, with a few short stories about military veterans.
It includes a short 1:07 video of our July 4th, 2017, parade, where this poster was carried and displayed by Vietnam Vets and an Afghanistan Vet.

You can also access, read and download the associated "pdf book edition", a work that undergirds the points on the poster, and tells the story behind the poster, including opening introductory material, the values behind the vision, and the facts and analysis that support the vision.

Open letter with a moral story of truth for our time

The pdf book's subtitle is "Open letter with a moral story of truth for our time".
It is written in a readable 3-column newspaper format, with a conversational style and lots of images, as a respectful "Dear Mr President" open letter-essay.
Root started this 164-page book on February 6, 2017; this 4th Edition publication date is 11-07-2017.

Also, folks; this is a grassroots campaign and we really need your financial support as well. So please check below how to help out.
Our main use of funds will be for travel, some operating and event services, and printing campaign materials. NO TV ADS! NO DCCC.
We're running a low-budget campaign, but we need some help now. We're grateful for any amount you can afford to contribute to help keep us going.
It's easy to do with ActBlue. And many thanks go to you.

 

National Election Process

What's happening to our "democratic" elections?


A Westerner Who
Means Business

Root by Tepee
Root has owned horses in
Colorado and Montana
— Gathered cattle on horseback
in mountains of Eastern Oregon
— Collected range and pasture
plant data, analyzing bison and
cattle grazing impacts in
Western and Eastern Colorado
Root on horseback
Out with Sundown on the trail
— Packed & hitched Sawbuck &
Decker pack saddles
— Done horse shoeing
Chip Truck Speckal Purse
Root with wife Darlene, c1983
Co-owners of Big 20 Stables
Entered race horses in the
Western Montana State Fair
A Win—"Chip Truck Special Purse"
Chip Truck Speckal Purse
Big 20 Stables wins another one!
Root Industrial Consultant
Root Routledge, PhD
Founder of Alpine Analytics
Industrial Consultant—Data Analytics
Former Hewlett Packard Printer
Division Manufacturing Engineer

4th Edition 2017-11-07: Book pdf file (164 pages)
Strategic Vision for a Viable American Future — Open letter with a moral story of truth for our time

(Adobe Reader hint: If you click on an internal reference in the pdf document to go look at the referenced item on another page; "Alt-LeftArrow" brings you back to where you were.)

Navigation hint: To return to where you were after following a link, use "Alt-LeftArrow"

Root's Column: Last updated 3-7-2020

Root-3-7-2020:
February Leading On Climate Tour - Revisit to all 29 Counties


Precinct Caucuses for U.S. Senate Candidate: First, today March 7th, 2-4 pm, is the time all of Colorado's Precincts will meet to caucus for a Senate Candidate (I support Andrew Romanoff) and your chance to get elected as a County Delegate (for your Senate choice). As a County Delegate at your County Assembly, you will be able to support Root's candidacy for U.S. House with your vote. The specific details are laid out below.

LOCT: Indeed, with another long 14-day, 2600 mile trip, in February I brought my "Leading On Climate Tour" back to all 29 CD3 counties. We have a very diverse Congressional District and I have been learning a great deal meeting and speaking with people throughout the district. Since being back, March 2nd, we've entered all the contact info I've gathered into our MailChimp list; and then sent out our first email blast "Climate Insurgency Campaign" Friday evening, March 6th. I wouldn't have been able to accomplish this without the dedicated help of my Durango friends and volunteers, Nelson McKinley and his wife Jess. Thank you Nelson and Jess!

County Assemblies: There are 29 County Assemblies from now through April 1st. I will endeavor to get to as many Assemblies as possible to speak; however, there are several days that have multiple counties holding their assemblies the same day, so can't make all of them. The Colorado State Democratic Party has posted a list of all County Assemblies, dates/times and locations.

Op-Eds & LTEs: Watch for Root's Op-Ed/LTE publications in your local papers the rest of March and into April. Again, the April 17th District 3 Assembly in Denver (see below for details) is the big crucial vote for CD3 nominee to take on Republican Scott Tipton in November. For a candidate to make it on the final June 30th Primary Election ballot, they must get at least 30% of the District Delegate votes. Please do your homework; be aware of the strategic threats to our future; and then support and vote for Root at your County and District Assemblies. Root has the most powerful background, experience and understanding of the strategic threats we face, and the ability to address them from a systems perspective.


Root by Animas River, Durango
Root by Animas River
Durango, January 2020

Root-2-6-2020:
Leading On Climate Tour (LOCT)

I recently completed two major tours throughout our 29 counties; one in December covering the northern 10 counties, and another in January, reaching the remaining 19 counties. I have thoroughly enjoyed meeting people from our widely diverse CD3 counties, each of which has its own respective resources, natural beauty, and interesting people with diverse interests and issues. Yet, they are all Western and Southwestern Colorado counties, so we share common concerns about our natural resources, public lands, environment, rural concerns and our collective future. In particular, the big issues everywhere, are climate and energy, water resources, and rural healthcare access. People appreciated my focus on climate, in the context of four strategic threat areas we face: Healthy Democracy, Healthy Population, Healthy Environment, and Healthy Economy. My approach to these strategic threats is above.

Root speaking at Garfield MLK dinner, January 18th, 2020
Root speaking at
Garfield Dems MLK Dinner

I am committed to getting back to most, if not all, of our 29 counties in February; and on into March. Later this month, I will be going back to many of the smaller population, more rural counties; as well as making stops in the larger counties. I plan to give talks about what I've learned, and about the difficult challenges ahead, especially in places where the fossil fuel related industries provide so many jobs. This is where the concept and policies of Climate Justice will play such a big role.

For March I will map out my geographical and calendar schedule, in order to get to all the County Assemblies I can make and speak at. Of course, many will overlap on the same day, so I won't be able to make every county assembly. However, I will reach out to people who have expressed an interest in being a delegate for Root, and send to you folks as many 3"x3" campaign stickers as you can use to hand out as surrogates to caucus for Root at your respective county assemblies (see my campaign ad above, an ad which can be downloaded, printed and used widely as you need).

Links to my trip itineraries will be posted on this website (see above), with campaign event notices and latest updates placed on my campaign Facebook page: "Root For Citizen Congressman" (Facebook/RootForCitizenCongressman.org)


Help Root's Campaign with your Finanical Contributions:
I need to ask for your financial support. This is the primary campaign, so needs are different than the general election campaign, which is an entirely different ballgame, since at that time only one of us will be the Democratic nominee. The other two Democratic candidates for CD3 are "big money" candidates, with hundreds of thousands of dollars for even this primary election. One of them has an entourage of staff and consultants she needs to support; the other is a corporate CEO, with his own staff, who flies his own airplane around to all the different county events.

I don't need 6-figures to have a strong presence in this primary race. In fact, it's a myth that you need big money to win. When you understand a low-budget competent effort, you know that you have to work harder and fight harder. It's what you offer for a viable future that counts.

My campaign is literally the "low-budget grassroots climate insurgency campaign"; yet I am well short of contributions to cover even this low-budget effort. Since it is just me, Root, I need funds primarily for travel (I put 2500 miles on my car over 12 days of travel in January); and for printing my campaign materials. That's basically it. The rest I do myself; including managing my campaign, setting up trips, developing and updating my website and social media pages, filing with the FEC and anything else that needs to be done, including entering everyone's name into my mail list from the contact sheets you fill out. So, if you see value in this grassroots climate insurgency effort to secure a viable future for our children and grandchildren, please contribute to my campaign. As a 73-year old fixed-income senior, I can't handle these financial costs by myself. Thank you for whatever you can donate, via ActBlue on this site; or by check (see FEC requirements at bottom of this page).


Poltical Competition for the 3rd Congressional Seat:
As a scientifically educated systems engineer and experienced industrial and environmental consultant and businessman/entrepreneur, I have the strategic focus and background to offer the best chance at turning the corner of this crisis toward a stable climate future. I am prepared with the courage to fight for all of us. I have the strength, grit and credentials to go toe-to-toe with powerful industry giants and take this fight for our future right on into this next administration.

Do your homework, please folks; compare our respective websites (DMB, JI). You don't need to take my word for it. Republican incumbent Scott Tipton is on record as a human-caused climate change denier; he has no idea what to do about our climate emergency. In fact, Wikipedia tells us lots about Tipton. Tipton has even signed a pledge, sponsored by the conservative Americans for Prosperity, promising to vote against any Global Warming legislation that would raise taxes; and he opposes Federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions. Just three years ago, he voted in favor of legislation that would make it easier to sell federal public lands. Tipton is simply not up to the job of protecting Colorado, or solving our climate emergency. He doesn't have a clue what to do about it, because he doesn't think it's caused by humans. This all adds up to the core strategic weakness in his Republican armour; which I will attack fiercely, because the the climate crisis is the greatest strategic threat our country, indeed our planet and humanity, has ever faced. We must turn the corner now.

Climate is the strategic existential threat issue of our lives. If you've done your homework, you will know that the other two Democratic candidates have neither this crucial strategic focus on the climate crisis in terms of agenda priority; nor do they have the systems background it will take to competently flesh out the intersectional systemic policy details of the Green New Deal, for example. Neither even mentions the GND, or proposes their own policy. And of course, it's all glaringly absent from Tipton's website and his policy record. Nor do they suggest policies that would help President Bernie Sanders realize and achieve Medicare For All (neither mentions MFA either), and the rest of Bernie's programs that make for a better life for ordinary American people.

Of course, everyone running verbally acknowledges "climate is important" and that we "need to address it"; but neither of them says anything about what they support to address it in a systemic way with the scope and urgency of the threat we face. You scacely can find the word "climate" on their websites, let alone how to address it with the "Green New Deal", or a cost on carbon, or any ideas of substance. At best, one says "we need to tackle it"; the other says nothing specific about climate policy, other than "industry leading sustainability practices" he's implemented. Those are certainly important; but, pehaps they think they'll figure it out and come up with something better when (if) they get there. Or maybe neither thinks it is of strategic importance. We need more than lots of money and mere promises to "reach across the aisle" to get things done. Republicans are the problem, not where to look for solutions. Do your homework and you will see who offers the best shot at a shift toward a viable future. I'm not competing on money; I'm focused on our future.

Check me out; I've done my homework. Root is the only one with the strength and focus to go to Washingtion, fight for our future and lead on climate. I'm upfront about where I'm heading; I know what bills are out there and what's in them. I'm ready to go; if you folks will help me get there. What you see is what you will get; not vacuous promises like, "Yes, climate! We need to attack climate."


Root-2-3-2020:
April 17th, District 3 Delegates

Process chart to become a delegate for Root
The name of the primary game for CD3 is "Delegates". If you want to support Root for U.S. House from the 3rd Congressional District (Scott Tipton, incumbent), you must get elected as a delegate, first to your County Assembly, then to the District 3 Assembly. On Friday, April 17th, about 350 CD3 District delegates from our 29 counties will vote on the three Congressional candidates to determine who will be the nominee; after each candidate gets 10 minutes to speak on the stage. Candidates must get at least 30% to be in the June 30th Primary Election, when the final vote for nominee takes place. 

These district-level delegates will be elected through the County Assemblies, which will occur in March, different dates for each county. This process begins March 7th at all Precinct Caucuses across the state — What's my precinct number? (It's the last 3 digits of the coded 10-digit number.) Where do I go to caucus?

To become a district-level delegate for Root you have to first caucus for a Senate candidate at your precinct (Root supports progressive Andrew Romanoff to take on incumbent Cory Gardner (R) for U.S. Senate; Romanoff has his act together on climate and is also very knowledgeable about mental health).   You need to get at least 15% of your precinct votes in order to become a county-level delegate to your County Assembly. At the county assemblies, preference polls will be taken toward a final vote for district-level delegates to the District Assembly.

Specifically, for example, La Plata County Dems (LPC) get to send 47 delegates to the District 3 Assembly, from rules based on our population and voter registration (each county will be different). To get to this district "end-game" as a delegate for Root, Root must get at least 15% (meaning you) of the total number of county-level delegates attending the LPC County Assembly. For example, if 189 delegates from the LPC precinct caucuses show up to the LPC Dems County Assembly, Root needs to have at least 15% (28 delegates in this example, rounded) vote for him. These need to be county-level delegates who will in turn commit to being district-level delegates to the April 17th District Assembly, which will be held in Denver on April 17th (Colorado Convention Center, Ballroom 1; 7:15-9:00  pm). Typically, district delegates also get elected to be state delegates for all other state-level voting Saturday, April 18th; which is where the vote for Senate candidates will take place.


Root-7-7-2019:
2020 Election Cycle:
Root has rolled over his FEC filing from his brief 2-month late run in 2018 to the 2020 election cycle. In 2018, Root did not announce until the end of February, only two months before the April 13th Colorado Congressional District 3 (CD3) Assembly. At the assembly each of the three candidates got to speak for a nominal 10 minutes to the assembly delegates, after which voting took place. Of the 343 valid delegate votes,  194 votes (57%) went to Diane Mitsch Bush; 142 (41%) went to Karl Hanlon; and 7 votes (2%) went to Root. These results and their implications for the 2020 election cycle are discussed below.

Months of very long hours of writing and editing to finish up his 164-page online book prevented Root from announcing earlier. His book is titled: Strategic Vision for a Viable American Future, which basically spells out much of his campaign platform and the values that undergird it. That wasn't finished until February, 2018.

The 2020 election cycle is much different. Several bills have been submitted in the House and the Senate, which Root supports, address strategic issues he has identified in his strategic vision — see poster above and bullet point summary this page.

flag

Root For Citizen Congressman

In solidarity for a viable American future

Root's Western working family life —
sharing a brief biography

(with links to family photo collages)

Mechanical home-shop generational roots & UAW union laborer

I grew up in a mechanically oriented working family and machine shop environment. My grandfather P.H. Routledge, who was born in 1895, was a railroad engineer and machinist. In the 1920s as a small town businessman he owned a garage and shop called Routledge Motors, in Mission City, B.C., and he was also the town's Ford dealer. He and my dad Jim Routledge, as a kid, built a fully working ridable-scale steam locomotive, machining all its parts in their shop. Finished in 1941 as the War began, P.H. ran the scaled train on tracks laid out at a nearby provincial B.C. park, hauling around kids by the lake, with the little bit of change he charged going for the benefit of the Red Cross.

After returning from World War II as a Lancaster bomber flight-line engine mechanic and engineer in the Royal Canadian Air Force, my father and his brother Jack, who flew missions as a Lancaster tail gunner, started a bus line in Mission City, the town they grew up in. My dad and mom, who sold tickets and did the office work, were living in the small unit above the depot when I was born in 1946. Child care was a baby basket by the counter. Uncle Jack later went on to a long and honorable police career with the Canadian RCMP, starting as a night beat COP and retiring as RCMP's Chief Superintendent, which I wrote about when honoring our local Durango police officers, Memorial Day, 2016. Later we moved to the mining and smelting town of Trail, B.C., where dad drove an oil delivery truck when most houses where heated by oil.

Then after home study, dad got a job as a "hands-on" industrial engineer working on big off-highway equipment, which took us from Canada to the U.S. With only a high school education, he later went on to be a Kenworth Trucks plant engineer, then plant manager, and eventually the managing director of the Kenworth Australia divison. My mom, Doreen Routledge, who is doing well at 92-years old, was in retail sales at various stores, including JC Penny and Nordstroms in the Seattle area. My brother Jimmy became a dentist, who unfortunately in 2002 was killed in an auto accident.

In my high school years of the early 1960s I was repairing cars, machining parts, and rebuilding engines and transmission. We rebuilt and then installed a 1940 Ford flathead V-8 engine in the small family 18' cabin cruiser boat, we also built made of wood and fiberglass. It had a custom hydraulic-driven inboard-outboard propeller drive system we designed, machining all the parts need to integrate the various manufactured components, and built it all in our home shop.

In the 1960s I worked as a UAW union mechanic on the assembly-line building big Kenworth Trucks in Seattle, and then as a draftsman/engineer, while working on my Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering at Washington State University. My last summer I worked as a draftsman working on military equipment designs and graduated in 1968. The Vietnam War was raging, so I got my U.S. citizenship and joined the United States Air Force, becoming a navigator in military airlift and tactical military intelligence.

A Westerner all my life

Born in 1946 at the front end of the "Boomer" generation, in British Columbia, Canada, and moving to the U.S. with my parents at age 7, I have lived in Washington, Colorado, Montana, and Oregon. Over the years I've spent my spare time with my wife Darlene hiking, backpacking, riding and a little fly fishing along the way. We had 8 cats, a german shepherd and two horses! I'm not a hunter, but do own a gun; and I have respect for people who put food on their family dinner table by hunting deer and elk, which is part of western culture. I can't say the same about trophy hunters.

I've owned my own horses and taken courses in light horse management, livestock feeds and feeding, horseshoeing, and packing and outfitting—beyond a diamond hitch, we learned to do at least a dozen different hitches on Sawbuck and Decker pack saddles! And, I could put a horse shoe back on, if I had to on the trail! I've loaded many tons of hay from the field; it was cheaper to pick it up in the field. All this while studying Range Management and Natural Resource Ecology at Colorado State University in the 1970s. I know soils, watershed management, range plants, and the problems with invasive species like cheat grass. I've gathered range plant data in the Colorado Monument, west of Grand Junction, to study the impact of the bison herd. I've also gathered pasture data on the 2000-acre CSU ranch south of Sterling, Colorado.

I closed that period of my life earning a Masters in Statistics from CSU, with an emphasis in quantitative ecology and environmental science. Having studied silviculture and forestry as well, I later worked for both private and public forest products and management organizations, including Weyerhaeuser Raw Materials R&D as a systems engineer and project manager involving high-tech computer-aid raw material processing decisions; and the U.S. Forest Service in Missoula, Montana, as a project manager in Forest Fire Research at the Northern Forest Fire Lab, and as an operations research analyst in Long Range Forest Planning on the Lolo National Forest.

Public land management is about multiple uses that benefit the local communities, our country and the public at large. There are always competing demands on our resources. So when we do natural resource planning, we need to know not only the biological capability of areas on the ground; but how they aggregate into analysis units that must support multiple uses. The often misunderstood phrase "multiple use management" is a forest-wide concept; and does not mean every piece of land sustains every type of use. In the private forest products industry, the focus of forest management, harvest and wood products production is (or should be) to manage the land resource in a sustainable fashion; and to optimize the value of the material removed from the land while quickly replanting for the future forest and the protection of the watershed, soils, wildlife and regenerative capacity of the land. In case anyone is wondering; I am definitely an environmentalist who is deeply concerned about the health of our environment, our natural resources, and the very viability of our planet in the future as we are on the precipice of run-away global warming and the chaos and disruption associated with climate change.

Horses and Cattle

In the early 1980s Darlene and I were co-owners with others of "Big 20 Stables" in Missoula, Montana, which owned, managed and entered race horses in the Western Montana State Fair in the early 1980s. We even won a race or two!

I've also helped gather over 200 head of cattle on horseback on a large 35,000 acre range allotment in the mountains of Eastern Oregon, driving the gathered heard down from the forest ravines into the valleys and onto to the 6,000 deeded-acre family ranch of my close young friend of that time, cattleman and range manager Tom Vernon. Tom's entire family grew up on the homestead ranch over successive generations from the late 1800s.

I've ridden horses with both Western and English style saddles, and spent a week with Darlene on horseback (English tack) riding all around the fantastically beautiful rural island of Molokai, Hawaii.

Wilderness and Rural America Values

As a young person I grew up boating and salmon fishing in the Puget Sound area of Washington. My family had property on Lopez Island in the San Juan Islands, where we would put out the crab net to catch some Dungeness crabs, and dig for clams for a great seafood dinner.

I was also a member of the Boy Scouts. And while in high school I earned Eagle Scout when I was a member of Explorer Scouts. Our Explorer troop was intensively trained with a specialization in wilderness search and rescue, helping the County Sheriff's office and other groups find lost hikers; and maybe having to evacuate injured people or dead bodies. You had to be good with a compass and survival skills.

My heart and love has been with wilderness, the mountains, open range, wild spaces, and rural America. All along the way I've been blessed to share my life with three lovely wives who have thoroughly enriched my life: Darlene, who after her years with the Forest Service was a marketing manager for Hewlett Packard and an incredible classical pianist to boot. Suzanne, a photojournalist and author of 7 books about natural childbirth, midwifery and mother-baby bonding and healing from early childhood trauma during the primal period of life. Suzanne was honored in a 2009 issue of Mothering Magazine as a "Living Treasure". And my "African Princess" Tikdem, who grew up in the town of Nekempt, in western  Ethiopia, and is of the Oromo people in the Horn of East Africa. She grew up bilingual with her native Cushite language, Oromifa, and the Ethiopian national Semitic language, Amharic. English is her third language. After joining me in America, she worked as a Certified Nurse Aide (CNA), went to Community College and earned her associate degree in nursing. Since then she has worked as an LPN in a nursing home for 10 years, and is now a pediatrics nurse.

I love people and community, and a healthy environment with a healthy local economy. I love small town America, which is why I have lived in Durango, Colorado, now for over 25 years — longer than I've lived anywhere in my life.

I love to fight for what's right; and fight for the little guy, those less priviledged, and small town community values. I will take these values we share and my concern for others and our common good with me to Washington, where ethical conscience seems to be sorely lacking.

And that is why, as a Vietnam Veteran and independent Progressive Western Democrat, I'm running for Congress at the age of 73. I am one of us. On behalf of ordinary Americans, I intend to be part of the growing political revolution and populist uprising that is fighting to take our country back from the billionaire oligarchs who've stolen it. And to help make it a healthy viable country with resilience for whatever perils the future holds — for ourselves, our children, our grandchildren and their posterity. I have a 25-year old grandson who is a Hiphop Rap musician/lyricist; and two little granddaughters, ages 8 and 5. What kind of democracy, country and planet will we leave for them?

Root's Yard in Durango
Root's yard in Durango, 10 minute walk to town


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We also need your financial help for travel, communications, some operating and event services, and campaign materials and equipment.
NO corporate or PAC big money; lots of smaller "people" contributions will do the job (FEC rules: $2700 cumulative maximum for the 2020 election cycle—one lump sum or spread out). We have no intention of buying TV ad time, which will be flooded with big dollar dark money.

Ours is a grassroots, low budget people campaign that we will run on our social media, websites, email notices, volunteer sharing and campaigning, local newspaper announcements and event articles, letters to editor, and op-eds.
Root looks forward to traveling our West Slope and SW Colorado Congressional Third District to meet and greet you folks, share thoughts, listen to your concerns and answer questions. That includes people who identify as Independents, Democrats, or Republicans—everyone.

Please contribute whatever you can through our ActBlue account to help out:

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Or, you may make a personal check out to "Root For Citizen Congressman", and send it to:

             Root For Citizen Congressman, c/o Root Routledge, PO Box 830, Durango, CO 81302-0830

FEC Rules require you to affirm, and for me to report, the following points with your contribution (stated as well on the ActBlue page):

FEC Contribution Rules
The FEC requires the Contributor to provide full name, mailing address, occupation (job title or position, whether or not self-employed) and employer (organization, self-employed, retired or unemployed).
    (If contributing by check through the mail, please provide the above and state in the memo: "I affirm my compliance with the FEC Contribution Rules"):
1. This contribution is made from my own funds, and funds are not being provided to me by another person or entity for the purpose of making this contribution.
2. I am making this contribution with my own personal credit card, or check, and not with a corporate or business credit card or a card issued to another person.
3. I am not a federal contractor.
4. I am at least eighteen years old.
5. I am a U.S. citizen or lawfully admitted permanent resident (i.e., green card holder).

Your contribution will benefit Candidate Root Routledge.
Contributions or gifts, either direct or through ActBlue, are not deductible as charitable contributions for Federal income tax purposes.

Contributions made through ActBlue are paid weekly to our candidate "Root Routledge" through our candidate committee "Root For Citizen Congressman" bank account,
by ActBlue, and are not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

Filing and Announcement Details:

2020:
Root formally rolled over his 2018 registration to 2020 with the FEC, April 25th, 2019
A public announcement was made on June 22, 2019, at our multi-county Democratic Picnic in Durango, Colorado

2018:
Root formally filed with the FEC Thursday, February 22, 2018.
Press release and associated announcement op-ed were sent to CD3 newspapgers February 27, 2018. Our announcement letter was sent March 3, 2018.

These are the links we have to some of the published releases:
The Durango Herald: "Durango resident announces bid to challenge Rep. Scott Tipton"
The Alamosa News Valley Courier: "Routledge runs for 3rd congressional district"