In August 29 articles featuring comments from Colorado House District 19 candidate Marsha Looper (R-Calhan) opposing a recently released proposal for the so-called “Super Slab” toll road, The Gazette of Colorado Springs and The Denver Post noted that Looper is running for office. But both papers failed to identify her opponent, Ken Barela (D-Colorado Springs), or indicate whether they sought his position on the controversial project.

The Gazette article by reporter Bill Hethcock stated that a newly revised version of the Front Range Toll Road (now renamed the Prairie Falcon Parkway Expressway, but commonly known as “Super Slab”) “would veer off Interstate 25 north of Fort Collins and reconnect south of Pueblo” and would “run through Adams, Arapahoe, Elbert, El Paso, Pueblo, Larimer, and Weld counties.” According to an April 20 Rocky Mountain News article, the controversial proposal made by developer Ray Wells is to build “a 200-mile-plus 'Super Slab' toll road bypassing the Front Range urban corridor between Fort Collins and Pueblo” and to “incorporate a rail line and utility pipeline space within the project.”

Looper is the director of Colorado Citizens for Property Rights. The group tried but failed to gather sufficient signatures for a ballot initiative (registration required) earlier this year to limit eminent domain (the government's power to take private property for public use after compensating the owner) in Colorado and previously has opposed Super Slab.

The Gazette article quoted Looper: “The toll road is not a feasible project for Colorado. We don't need this private road, nor do we want this road cutting Colorado in half.” The Gazette identified her as “a small rancher and legislative candidate who lives in the corridor” and noted that “Looper is running for House District 19, which covers a large swath of eastern El Paso County.”

The Denver Post article by reporter Jeffrey Leib identified Looper as “an El Paso County property owner who has been a leading opponent of the Super Slab” and reported that she “chairs the Eastern Plains Citizens Coalition and Colorado Citizens for Property Rights.” The Post further noted that she “also is running for the Colorado House in November.” But, like The Gazette, The Post did not name her opponent, Barela.

Neither The Gazette nor The Post indicated whether it attempted to reach Barela for a statement.

From the August 29 Gazette article:

Developers planning to build a $2.5 billion private toll road on Colorado's eastern plains mailed letters Monday to property owners whose land lies in the potential path of the highway known as Super Slab.

Project backers also announced Monday that they've renamed the toll road and filed a new, narrower corridor plan with the Colorado Secretary of State's Office. The developers are calling the project Prairie Falcon Parkway Express instead of Super Slab, a nickname that has stuck to the highway for years.

Landowners along the project's path vowed to continue their fight.

“We still have the same concerns,” said Marsha Looper, a small rancher and legislative candidate who lives in the corridor. “The toll road is not a feasible project for Colorado. We don't need this private road, nor do we want this road cutting Colorado in half.”

Looper is running for House District 19, which covers a large swath of eastern El Paso County.

From the August 29 Denver Post article:

Promoters of the Front Range Toll Road have renamed their venture the Prairie Falcon Parkway Express and filed papers Monday with state officials to move the project forward.

The so-called Super Slab would be a 210-mile toll highway and rail corridor from north of Fort Collins to south of Pueblo, through parts of seven counties east of Denver and Colorado Springs.

[...]

We not only don't believe we need it, but we don't want it," said Marsha Looper, an El Paso County property owner who has been a leading opponent of the Super Slab, which critics call Stupidslab.

The toll project's current 3-mile-wide corridor would divide her family's property.

The toll, rail and utility operation will need only a 1,200-foot-wide right-of-way within the 3-mile corridor, but proponents don't know precisely which 1,200 feet are needed, [project spokesman Jason] Hopfer said.

The toll project “is just another name for a land grab,” said Looper, who chairs the Eastern Plains Citizens Coalition and Colorado Citizens for Property Rights. She also is running for the Colorado House in November.

“It will never pay its own way,” Looper added. “We're going to fight to protect Colorado becoming a wasteland of toll-road corridors.”