Canter already aiming to turn CD-6 blue in 2010

Highlands Ranch attorney David Canter has watched as Democrat Hank Eng entered the 2008 6th Congressional District race the year of the election, grasped for money and name recognition, and was annihilated on Election Day.

Canter isn't making that same mistake -- he filed paperwork the day after the 2008 general election to run for Congress in 2010.

"With respect to Hank Eng's campaign, one of the problems with the campaign is that it started a little bit late and he wasn't able to get his name out; he wasn't able to get his message out and so nobody knew who he was," Canter said. "And that's something that I'm not going to allow to happen in my campaign.

"People are going to know who I am," he said. "They may not like me, but they're going to know who I am."

But it will take more than an early entrance for Canter to succeed in the 6th Congressional District, which has never sent a Democrat to Congress since the district was created in 1982.

In 2010, he'll likely face U.S. Rep.-elect Mike Coffman (R-Aurora), the well-known and well-funded Colorado Secretary of State who was elected earlier this month with just over 60 percent of the vote.

"I'm not taking anything for granted -- I know how difficult this is going to be," Canter said.

But Canter pointed out that the district voted for Barack Obama and Mark Udall in 2008 and Bill Ritter in 2006. "The Democrats can win here, but it's really getting the message out and letting people know who you are, what you're all about," he said.

Canter's not wasting any time hitting the campaign trail: he's already on the phones raising money. He's hired Christy Le Lait, who most recently worked on 5th Congressional District Democratic nominee Hal Bidlack's campaign, as a consultant for his campaign. And he's planning to send out mailers to district residents as soon as January 2009 to spread word of his candidacy.

Significantly, Canter said he could remain financially competitive with Coffman, who took in more than $1.2 million for his primary and general election campaigns this year.

"We're planning on exceeding that," Canter said. "Come May of the election year (2010), we're going to have sufficient funds on hand to do a media buy. So, it's all about getting the message out."

Canter said he was heartened by Democrat Betsy Markey's upset win this year over U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-Fort Morgan) in the solidly Republican 4th Congressional District. And like Markey, Canter hopes to show national Democrats in 2010 that they can take away another previously safe Republican seat.

 "If history repeats itself, I don't think the DCCC is going to come in and help us unless we show them that it's winnable," Canter said. "And I think that's what happened in Betsy Markey's race."

Canter, a Los Angeles native who moved to Colorado in 2002, is a self-described moderate. He believes in a "pay-as-you-go" system of government spending, though he supports universal health care and investing in rebuilding infrastructure.

Also, unlike outgoing U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Littleton), arguably the country's leading anti-immigration figure, Canter says he's willing to consider granting amnesty to illegal immigrants in the United States.

"I believe that anybody that is here who perhaps didn't go through the proper documentation channels -- some would refer to it as illegal aliens; not here legally is another way to put it -- I think we need to bring them into the fold," Canter said. "I think that we need to reach out to them, to make them United States citizens. I think that once we bring them into the fold and now they're contributing to society not only by way of the jobs that they're working but now they're also paying into the system -- I think that would be tremendous."

Canter has never held elected office before, but he said his 19 years as a private attorney illustrates how he would act as a congressman. He said he settles 97 percent of his cases out of court by negotiating with the opposition.

"And in those cases where we can't get a compromise, and we have to go to trial, I'm the person who fights on behalf of my client," Canter said.  "That type of in-the-trenches training, I think, has provided me with a pretty good education in terms of what it is that I'm going to need to do when I get to Congress."