Growing up on a small farm in north Missouri, Hugh McKean had to figure out how to fix things because his family couldn’t afford to replace them.

If McKean, a Republican, defeats Democrat Jody Shadduck-McNally in the Colorado House District 51 race this November, he says he plans to bring that same common-sense mentality to the state Legislature.

“A lot of it was just intuitively figuring out how things ought to work or what might be a better solution,” McKean said. “It was common sense. It’s not that I see a ton of that lacking, I just see the potential for it to be lacking.”

McKean, 48, and Shadduck-McNally, 50, are running to replace House Minority Leader Brian DelGrosso, a Republican not seeking re-election because of term limits.

As of September, there were 21,118 active registered Republicans in House District 51, which encompasses Loveland, and 12,806 registered Democrats. Both candidates are seeking the support of the 20,095 active independent voters in their district, plus several hundred third-party active voters.

‘They deserve change’

Shadduck-McNally, who has lived in Loveland for 16 years, said she believes she can win the race because Loveland voters are tired of over-the-top ideology and partisan bickering.

“My neighbors are aching for common sense, practical solutions to their problems,” she said. “They deserve a change. They deserve to have their voices heard.”

Shadduck-McNally grew up in Northern Colorado and has been married to her husband Tom, also a Colorado native, for 22 years.

She described herself as a full-time volunteer who has served as a public education advocate in the Thompson School District for more than 15 years. She has held a number of advisory roles for the school district, many of them centered on accountability.

If elected, Shadduck-McNally said she will work for increased funding for K-12 education, higher education and transportation.

“I will work to find innovative solutions to safely expand I-25 and our Loveland interchanges,” she said. “I’ll help pass common-sense policies that will help create good-paying jobs so that we can rebuild our middle class.”

For Shadduck-McNally, the race is a “community campaign,” she said.

“This is about Loveland, our community,” she said. “Our community needs someone who will consider all the possible outcomes of any piece of legislation and vote for Loveland first.”

‘Infinitely curious’

Her opponent McKean moved to Loveland in 1997 after finishing his degree at Colorado State University. As a child, he moved from a Philadelphia suburb to a farm in north Missouri. He attended several universities, including New Mexico State University, where he met his wife Kristin.

Throughout his life, McKean worked in various aviation roles, including as an aviation fuel supplier to the U.S. Department of Defense.

Today, he’s a contractor focused primarily on home remodeling. He also owns a firm that conducts background investigations and employment eligibility verifications for employers, and is a member of the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary. McKean is also a pistol and firearms safety instructor.

When his kids Hanna and Aiden reached school age, McKean said he became interested in education and served as vice president of the New Vision Charter School Board. He also served on the master planning committee for Thompson School District.

He ran for Loveland City Council in 2009 when the councilor representing his ward decided to run for mayor that year. McKean credits Walt Skowron, who died this year at the age of 83, with inspiring his first run for office.

“Walt was kind of the grumpy guy who voted no on everything but really with a lot of good reason for doing it,” McKean said. “When he decided to run for mayor, I just thought to myself, ‘If someone did this and did it poorly, I’d be upset.’ So I decided to get in and do it myself.”

McKean describes himself as “infinitely curious,” the kind of council member who asks dozens of questions. He said he’s never seen himself as part of the city organization, but rather as an independent servant to his constituents.

“That inevitably leads to that role of asking hard questions,” he said. “I want to know the rationale for doing something rather than, ‘This is just staff’s recommendation, go do it.’ In that way, I’ve always seen my role as being the guy who’s going to push a bit.”

McKean said he was planning to finish out his City Council term, which ends next year, but then he got several phones calls asking whether he’d be interested in running for DelGrosso’s seat.

After mulling it over and praying on it, McKean decided to run. He said he hopes to emulate DelGrosso’s bipartisan efforts over the last six years.

“(DelGrosso’s) shoes are remarkably large to fill,” he said. “From an outsider’s perspective, he has worked well with both sides of the aisle and is a person that just about anybody can talk to, and I intend to do my work the same way.

If elected, McKean said he’d be interested in serving on the House Agriculture, Livestock and Natural Resources committee, the House Local Government committee and the House Transportation and Energy committee.

Transportation would likely be a key issue for McKean, if voters send him to Denver.

“There are bridges in eastern Colorado that trucks can’t use because they’re in disrepair,” he said. “As much as I want to get north I-25 fixed so my constituents aren’t wasting hours of their lives on the interstate, I also realize there are lots of needs all over the state.”

Still, the needs are great on I-25 in northern Colorado. If elected, McKean would likely run a bill to address state transportation funding needs.

“If you look at the economic engine that northern Colorado really is, (I-25) is one of those crucial elements,” he said.

McKean said he’d also like to run a bill that would cut down the amount of unnecessary legislation in Colorado.

“Some of these laws we just don’t need,” he said. “There should be some requirement on trying to repeal unnecessary legislation if you want to impose new legislation.”

Appealing to all voters

McKean narrowly defeated Republican challenger Tom Lucero during the primary election earlier this year. Through door-knocking and other means, McKean believes he has successfully won over those voters who supported Lucero.

He said he also believes he can win over independent voters with his record of consistency and commitment while serving on the City Council.

“I may not be conservative enough for some, I may be too conservative for some,” he said. “It goes back to intent, and my desire has always been to serve my constituents. Sometimes that means they ask for things that I might not philosophically believe in, but they need to be done in the best way possible.”

He said he starts every conversation with voters by asking them what “has tied them in knots in the last few years.”

“Those independents and a lot of the Republicans who vote one or two times out of every primary we have, that’s my universe and those are people that have every right to expect representation that shares their values too,” he said. “It’s really been my intention in this general election to reach out and listen to those guys and understand where they’re coming from, what makes them tick, what they like and also what they don’t like.”