Taylor: White 'odds-on guy' to keep JBC seat if elected to state Senate

State Sen. Jack Taylor (R-Steamboat Springs) said Wednesday that if state Rep. Al White (R-Hayden) will likely stay on the Joint Budget Committee if wins Taylor's seat in Senate District 8 this November.

White currently is the lone Republican state House member on the six-member super-committee, which is in charge of writing the annual appropriations bill. With Democrats controlling both houses of the state legislature, the committee is composed of two Democrats and one Republican from both the state House and Senate.

The lone GOP state senator on the committee now is Steve Johnson, a Fort Collins resident who is running for Larimer County Commissioner.

"Hopefully, (White) will be the logical guy to, once he's elected to the Senate, to move ahead and be the the Republican Senate member of the state budget committee," Taylor said following a breakfast for the Colorado delegation to the Republican National Convention.

"Now if we get the majority, we'd have two members," Taylor said. "But I think if there's only one (GOP member), Al would be the odds-on guy. That's a great boon for us in northwest Colorado to have him on the joint budget committee."

But White faces a tough - and expensive battle - for the seat from Democrat Ken Brenner, a former Steamboat Springs city councilman.

"I think it's going to be a tough race, (a) neck-and-neck race, and it's going to take a lot of work to get it done," Taylor said.