Bentley Rayburn, who is running for the Republican nomination in Colorado's 5th Congressional District, chatted with Denver Post readers on Wednesday, July 23 Following is a transcript of the chat.

Bentley Rayburn: Hello!

Dan Haley: Welcome to our noon chat with Major Gen. Bentley Rayburn, and thank you, Gen. Rayburn, for taking time out of your campaign schedule to meet with us. As always, keep your questions short, and the candidate will answer as many as possible. So let's get started: You finished third in the 2006 primary,

Dan Haley: why run again and what's different about 2008?

Bentley Rayburn: Dan, thanks for putting this on! This is a great way to talk and listen to a lot of folks.

Gus Evens: Who are some of the community leaders supporting your campaign?

Bentley Rayburn: I'm running because we need some real leadership in Washington, D.C. and we must have more miltary and national security experience in Congess for the country and for the 5th District

Since March, staffers working on the Democratic National Convention have been using the city of Denver's tax-free gas pumps to fill up their cars - and using its carwashes.

A dispute about this prompted city officials Tuesday to promise that the local host committee will reimburse the city at a market rate for gas - and pay state and federal taxes on the fuel.

It was never the intent of the city not to properly charge the Democrats for the fuel or its taxes, said Katherine Archuleta, mayoral liaison to the convention.

John Edwards, who has been a rumored vice-presidential pick for Barack Obama, said in Denver on Tuesday he expects his crusade to reduce poverty to play a prominent role during the Democratic National Convention, reports Chuck Plunkett.

The former North Carolina senator and Democratic presidential-primary candidate spoke to the issue while outlining a plan to reduce poverty in the United States by 50 percent in 10 years.

"I'm very hopeful and have good reason to believe that this issue will be heard loudly and clearly" at the convention, Edwards said. He also said he expected his war against poverty to play a prominent role in the political platform the party will adopt for the convention.

With less than three weeks to go before the primary election, the campaign among four Republicans vying to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo has veered toward the personal.

This week, the two leaders in the race in terms of fundraising traded the most public blows of the campaign so far. Businessman Wil Armstrong unveiled a new television ad that takes a direct swipe at Secretary of State Mike Coffman, saying that Coffman is a "career politician with a record of controversy."

Coffman's campaign responded with an automated telephone call to voters that blasts Armstrong's tactic.

Centennial City Councilman Rick Din dinger doesn't think it likely that protesters at the upcoming Democratic National Convention will bring their grievances to his town, reports Tom McGhee.

So he doesn't share Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson's desire for an emergency ordinance to bar protesters from carrying potential weapons and other items if they demonstrate in the city.

"I can't recall any kind of protest or picketing in Centennial ever. I just don't see a need for it," he said.

Voters will decide next month whether state Rep. Douglas Bruce, reviled by Democrats and often ostracized by his fellow Republicans, gets to keep his job, reports Tim Hoover.

Bruce, appointed by a vacancy committee to represent House District 15, covering northeast Colorado Springs, just completed his first, rocky session in the House.

In the Aug. 12 Republican primary, he faces Mark Waller, a lawyer and an Air Force veteran, who says Bruce has been an embarrassment. The winner will face Democrat Michelle Maksimowicz, but in heavily Republican Colorado Springs, the seat is almost certain to be decided in the primary.

Sportsmen's groups are pressuring Gov. Bill Ritter not to sign off on a soon-to-be-proposed rule regulating roadless areas in national forests, reports Mark Jaffe.

The rule, negotiated by the Ritter administration and the U.S. Forest Service, is expected to protect about 4.1 million acres but potentially open 300,000 acres to development, according to a consortium of conservation groups.

The Forest Service's timetable would adopt the rule before the Bush administration leaves office.

Claim: "I never called for a moratorium. I called for a smart, phased development of the Roan Plateau."