In certain working-class towns on Colorado’s Western Slope, it’s a slur to say someone is an Aspen liberal, and it’s an accusation that’s been thrown at Democrat Gail Schwartz repeatedly since she first decided to challenge incumbent U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Cortez, in early April.

“While Gail Schwartz has been at a cocktail party somewhere in Aspen, far removed from the working people of Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District and no doubt patting herself on the back for all her brilliant extremist ideas, Congressman Tipton has been standing up for the coal industry, high paying jobs and affordable energy,” a Tipton fundraising email read on June 7.

The strategy is clear: Paint Schwartz, a former state senator and member of the CU Board of Regents, as an elitist Aspenite obsessed with renewable energy at the expense of Colorado’s coal, oil and natural gas industries. It’s reminiscent of Republican attempts, ultimately successful, to portray former Sen. Mark Udall as a Boulder liberal obsessed with social issues over economic concerns.

Geographically speaking, the problem with both of those narratives is they’re not true. Udall actually lived 11 miles from Boulder in Eldorado Springs (a minor detail to challengers), and Schwartz no longer lives in the Aspen area and actually didn’t live in Aspen proper during her term-limited stint in the state Senate from 2006 to 2014. She lived in nearby Snowmass Village.

Now the former Pitkin County Housing Authority director and mountain resort real estate consultant lives in Crested Butte – another ski town on the opposite side of the Elk Mountains in Gunnison County. It may not have quite the global name recognition of Aspen, but Crested Butte is also a swanky ski destination for Hollywood stars and captains of industry.

And just like Aspen, both the left and the right like to hang out there and raise money for causes that span the political spectrum. Charles and David Koch, the billionaire brothers of Koch Industries fame, find Aspen to be fertile fundraising grounds for their conservative agenda, and Oxbow Mining owner Bill Koch also breaths its rarified air. Both the Koch PAC and Oxbow have contributed to Tipton’s re-election campaign.

“FYI, I live in Crested Butte,” Schwartz said in a recent phone interview with The Colorado Statesman. “It takes four hours to get [to Aspen] when Kebler [Pass is] closed, so it’s a little bit of a hassle for me. I wish Kebler was open more for getting around the district.”

Colorado’s Third Congressional District is a sprawling 29-county monstrosity that encompasses all of the Western Slope and a wedge of the state’s southern Front Range that includes the working-class but heavily Democratic city of Pueblo – the most populous city in the district at 108,000 residents. Second is the conservative Republican stronghold of Grand Junction at 60,000.

Democrats have tried to oust Tipton the last two elections with Pueblo politicians Abel Tapia (2014) and Sal Pace (2012), and the results have been 20- and 12-point defeats, respectively. The last time a Democrat won CD3 was when Blue Dog moderate rancher John Salazar served for three terms, annihilating Tipton in a Democratic wave 62 to 38 percent in 2006, and then losing to Tipton by four percentage points in the first post-Obama GOP mid-term election of 2010.

Tipton’s campaign manager in 2012, 2014 and again in 2016 – Clear Creek Strategies’ Michael Fortney of Denver – would not comment on whether a more moderate Democrat like Salazar would be better equipped to take on Tipton in this presidential election year, which analysts say could see a Democratic and independent wave of Donald Trump disaffection.

“I don’t know Salazar’s policies, so I can’t comment on that, but I can comment on who Gail Schwartz is. She lived in Aspen, and now she lives in Crested Butte,” Fortney told The Statesman. “Congressman Tipton has shown that he is able to win the most Democrat-leaning counties like Pueblo. He won Pueblo in 2014 against somebody from Pueblo. [Schwartz] has a very liberal record in the state Senate on energy, on guns, and her record doesn’t match up with the profile of the 3rd Congressional District.”

Schwartz counters that she’s been able to win district-wide elections to both the CU Board of Regents and the state Senate in the politically diverse though Republican-leaning state Senate District 5, and has been recognized by both oil and gas and renewable energy groups for pushing an “all-of-the-above” energy strategy. She came out of the gate last month swinging hard against Tipton for floating an energy bill she says was crafted by one of his largest donors – the Houston-based oil and gas company SG Interests.

“Is it really serving the citizens of the state of Colorado or the citizens and constituents in western Colorado to introduce bills that are written by oil and gas lobbyists?” Schwartz said. “I’m a very independent vote. I’ve voted my district in the past, and I’ve received a legislator of the year award from the Colorado Petroleum Association and then all of the renewables.”

Schwartz said she bucked Democrats and environmental interests in supporting coal-mine methane’s inclusion in the increased renewable energy standard that she helped former Democratic governor and “New Energy Economy” champion Bill Ritter shepherd through the Legislature in 2010. She also said she advocated for coal mine venting despite roadless rules.

“I have great respect and admiration for the generations of coal miners, not just in the North Fork but throughout the state of Colorado, that have kept our lights on and given us the energy we need to grow as a state,” Schwartz said, adding that market forces such as the abundance of cheap natural gas are what’s really hurting Colorado’s coal industry.

“A balanced portfolio is really what we should be striving for, not just taking the donations from our lobbyists and special interests and working against the true representation of the needs of our constituents or the citizens of this state,” Schwartz said of her support for the Clean Air Clean Jobs Act in 2010 that transitioned several coal-fired power plants to cleaner-burning natural gas. “Are we really serving the citizens of the state fighting against a very practical solution to air quality and climate initiatives? It’s a big question.”

That vote was made, she said, because of poor air quality on the Front Range and the fact that less than 2 percent of the coal used in those power plants came from mines along the North Fork of the Gunnison River, with most of it coming from Wyoming’s coal-rich Power River Basin. But Fortney said such an argument rings false.

“It’s nonsensical for her to make some kind of BS free-market argument because she’s putting these artificial policies in place, sponsoring legislation to artificially move us away from any kind of fossil fuels in favor of renewables,” Fortney said. “For her to make a free-market argument is absolutely asinine. And it’s hypocritical. That’s crazy to me. That’s actually crazy.”

However, most energy analysts agree that coal has been impacted by global market conditions such as the economic slowdown in China and growing U.S. oil and gas reserves bolstered by hydraulic fracturing. Trump’s campaign promises to both bring back coal and boost oil and gas have been criticized as contradictory.

Tipton has consistently supported a legislative policy supportive of the fossil-fuel industry and counter to climate-change initiatives, but Ritter said a growing number of Coloradans are concerned about the impacts of climate change and may vote accordingly: “I have witnessed a change. There are fewer and fewer people who believe climate change isn’t real and fewer people who believe that humans don’t have some role in causing it,” he told the Statesman.

And Salazar backed agricultural interests in 2009 when he was one of the few Democrats who voted against the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade climate bill spearhead by then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. It passed by a scant 219-212 margin but ultimately died in the Senate, and Salazar’s no vote clearly didn’t sway CD3 voters, who booted him in favor of Tipton the next year.

A former Western Slope state representative, chairman of the Colorado Republican Party and co-owner of Cortez pottery icon Mesa Verde Pottery, which he and his brother Jay sold to the Ute Mountain Utes in 2014, Tipton has never been seriously challenged since defeating Salazar. He faced a Republican primary challenge June 28 from 27-year-old Carbondale law school graduate Alex Beinstein (Tipton won by a margin of 78.8 percent (43,697) to 21.1 percent (11,708), but Fortney won’t even talk about that contest, focusing instead on Schwartz.

A presidential election year boosts voting in the district by more than 65,000 voters (347,247 in 2012 compared to 281,141 in 2014), and conservative-leaning independent Tisha Casida may siphon off some Tipton voters as she continues to build a following (3.2 percent of the vote in 2012 compared to 4 percent in 2014), but Tipton has a big head start on fundraising.

According to the latest filing with the Federal Elections Commission on June 8, Tipton had raked in $927,401 in campaign contributions overall compared to $354,379 for Schwartz, with nearly half of Tipton’s money (46.2 percent) coming from political action committees compared to just 16.1 percent for Schwartz. Schwartz has just $311,349 cash on hand compared to $762,370 for Tipton, but Schwartz has been outpacing Tipton’s fundraising in recent months, having only jumped into the race in early April.

Some examples of Tipton’s PAC money include: Arch Coal (which has filed for bankruptcy), British Petroleum, Chesapeake Energy, Exxon Mobil, Halliburton, Koch PAC, Anadarko, the National Rifle Association, Peabody Energy (another bankrupt coal company), Oxbow Carbon and Minerals, Occidental Petroleum, Tesoro Petroleum, WPX Energy and The Williams Company.

Some examples of Schwartz’s PAC money: Nancy Pelosi for Congress, League of Conservation Voters ($24 in-kind endorsement expenses), Emily’s List and labor unions such as the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Asked about the perception that this is a race pitting a fossil fuel-funded conservative incumbent again an green-backed liberal challenger, Fortney said, “The fact that the WildEarth Guardians and Conservation Colorado and every radical environmental group under the sun has supported Gail Schwartz, that speaks for itself,” adding Schwartz wants to shut down energy development on the federally owned public lands that comprise a great deal of CD3. “Congressman Tipton is for responsible energy development. Gail Schwartz is for zero energy development [on public lands].”

Schwartz Campaign Manager Jesse Hassinger countered, “Congressman Tipton’s campaign is supported by out-of-state corporate interests that want to run over Colorado’s rural families, starting with [his] support of leasing public lands to out-of-state oil and gas companies. That’s bad for outdoor enthusiasts all across Colorado and the thousands employed in the outdoor recreation industry. Gail is running for Congress because Congressman Tipton has been voting against the best interests of rural Colorado families long enough.”