Dem in race for Congress is new resident of district
The latest candidate to announce a bid for western Colorado’s seat in Congress is a longtime Denverite who says he moved “a couple weeks ago” into the district he now hopes to represent.
James Iacino, who said he stepped down last week as CEO of the Denver-based Seattle Fish Co., told The Denver Post that he considered running for House District 6, one of Denver’s seats in the state legislature, before deciding to run for Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District.
That district is represented by Republican U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, and it covers roughly half of Colorado, including Pueblo, Grand Junction, Eagle, Steamboat Springs and Durango.
Yet candidates for federal office have no requirement to live in districts they’re running to represent. There is also no constitutional requirement that Congress members live in their districts once elected.
Iacino, a 36-year-old Democrat, is one of several challengers in the primary to face Tipton: Diane Mitsch Bush, of Steamboat Springs, who lost to Tipton last year; state Rep. Donald Valdez, who has faced his own questions about residence; and longtime Durango resident Root Routledge.
Iacino said Tipton is not representing his constituency — a group Iacino officially joined Oct. 4, when, according to the secretary of state, he registered to vote in Montrose.
“We just moved to Montrose,” Iacino said by phone Friday. “It’s something that my family and I have talked about for many years. We have an office in Montrose, we’ve had it out there for six years. … I’m constantly traveling there, and around the district.”
Iacino said he is trying to sell his home in Denver’s Crestmoor neighborhood, and that he is currently renting a place in Montrose.
Asked whether the voters in the 3rd Congressional District can have confidence in a longtime Denver resident’s ability to represent them, Iacino said: “I think I have an understanding of what the folks in CD3 are challenged with.”
“For me, it’s easy. My family’s been in Colorado for 117 years. Our company is 101 years old. We are statewide. I’m constantly traveling the entire state,” he added. “Many of my employees live around the state of Colorado. We’re a Colorado family with Colorado roots.”
Iacino said his father lives in Eagle and his stepmother lives in Pueblo.
As for his consideration of a run for a Denver seat in the statehouse, Iacino said: “There was a lot of buzz and a lot of people talking about me running … but we had already talked about wanting to move” west.
State Rep. Chris Hansen, a Denver Democrat who holds the seat Iacino thought about running for, told The Denver Post: “He did ask me about it, about what I thought that race was going to look like.”
Iacino said he has been transparent with voters about how new he is in the district he’s running to serve. Many Colorado politicos expect he will pour a lot of personal wealth into his congressional bid, but he said Friday, “We haven’t discussed that yet, at all.”