After a short stint in retirement, former state senator Abel Tapia decided to get back in the game.

“I’m all about getting something done,” he said. “I can’t just stand by and idle.”

During a multiweekend tour of Colorado’s 3rd Congressional district, Tapia, a Democrat from Pueblo, held a “meet and greet” in Durango’s Rotary Park, shaking hands and sharing ideas about his run against incumbent U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Cortez, for the house district seat.

Born and raised in Pueblo, Tapia founded an engineering firm before embarking on a political career in the 1990s that led him from the Pueblo School Board to the Colorado House and on to the Senate.

In the House, he served on the Legislative Council and as Democratic and Latino Caucus chairman. He was a lead sponsor of the “Read to Achieve” bill, setting third-grade reading standards. In 2010, he became director of the Colorado Lottery.

The 3rd District, covering the Western Slope and much of the southern portion of the state – more than 34,000 square miles – is the size of Florida. It’s made up of 33 entire counties and portions of three more.

On a platform of building business, rural development and education, Tapia bills himself as a “proven champion for Colorado’s middle class.”

At the steps of the Rotary Park gazebo, he addressed energy development and called for less dependence on foreign oil.

“We need to be independent,” he said, saying he supports development of alternative energies like wind, solar and geothermal.

His primary concern with medical marijuana, which he called a fledgling industry, is public safety, he said.

Tapia said his time in communities is essential to representing the people he wishes to serve.

“The 3rd is not one county; it’s a whole mass of counties. I need to be present. They need to know me,” he said.

On education, a campaign focal point, he emphasized an urgent importance for Coloradans.

“Education should come first, before everything else,” he said. “I am what I am today because of my education.”