More than 30 Iraq and Persian Gulf War veterans have entered congressional races across the country as Democrats, hoping to capitalize on their military experience to topple the incumbent Republican majority.

In Colorado, two former military men, Jay Fawcett and Bill Winter, are vying for the House seats of two strong, entrenched Republicans: Rep. Joel Hefley of the 5th Congressional District and Rep. Tom Tancredo of the 6th Congressional District, respectively.

"Do we understand military and foreign affairs? You bet," Fawcett said. "Most of us have been to the point where you get a direct dose of military and foreign affairs, mostly in the category of small-caliber weapons. But we understand that that is just one aspect of national policy."

On Dec. 20, Fawcett and Winter joined 35 Democratic veterans running for Congress at a strategy session in Washington, D.C.

The veterans voted on a name for their emerging caucuslike campaign coalition: Veterans for a Secure America. They also agreed that their military backgrounds should be promoted as credentials for leadership across the full spectrum of public policy, said Fawcett, an Air Force veteran of the 1991 Gulf War who has taught at the Air Force Academy and now works as a consultant to Northern Command in Colorado Springs.

The group will reconvene in Washington in February to respond to President Bush's State of the Union address in a news conference on the steps of the Capitol, Winter said. An attorney and the former president of the grassroots liberal organizing group Be The Change, Winter spent 10 peacetime years in the Marine Corps and the Navy.

Fawcett said the group is not anti-war but is concerned about what appears to be a lack of a solid plan for the war in Iraq. He said the group's military experience could be crucial in providing better leadership.

The war in Iraq, which polls show is now unpopular with most Americans, is a growing political weakness for Bush and for Republican lawmakers, Democratic strategists say. As proof, they point to the experience last summer of Paul Hackett, an Iraq war veteran who narrowly lost a congressional bid in a solidly Republican district in Ohio. Hackett now is running for Senate.

"Iraq is in the eye of the beholder in many ways, but increasingly, the public is viewing it negatively," said Rick Ridder, a Democratic consultant in Denver. "I certainly think there is a greater momentum now among (Democratic) veterans, after Hackett did so well in a predominantly Republican district."

But Republicans are confident they can maintain their traditional strength among voters focused on the military and veterans' issues, said Carl Forti of the National Republican Congressional.

"People may not like the war, but they still believe that Republicans will do a better job of protecting them than Democrats," Forti said. "And if Democrats want to try to make an issue of the war and security, especially Democrats who have a voting record - they have an abysmal voting record on defense spending."

At least two military veterans have entered congressional races as Republicans, one of them a veteran of the Iraq war, Forti said.

If Democrats think they can create a winning election-year theme with veterans as candidates, they are wrong, Forti said.

"They have two major problems: Nancy Pelosi and Howard Dean," he said.

Pelosi, the Democratic House minority leader from California, wants the U.S. to pull out of Iraq. Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, recently said the U.S. would not prevail there. Both are unpopular positions, Forti said.

"These are Democrats who happen to be military veterans who are running for Congress," he said of Veterans for Security. "It's one résumé item. Just because you are a military guy doesn't make you a congressman."

Forti's counterparts at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee are not actively recruiting military veterans, spokeswoman Sarah Steinberg said.

"They absolutely serve a very good contrast against Republicans," she said. "But in every district, our goal is to recruit the best possible candidate we can."

In Colorado, both Fawcett and Winter are likely to face uphill battles against the Republican incumbents.

Hefley, who has not said yet whether he will seek re-election, has been elected to represent his heavily Republican district nine times before. And Tancredo is on a roll, Winter acknowledged, having emerged as a national conservative leader in the push to change immigration laws.

Staff writer Jim Hughes can be reached at 303-820-1244 or jhughes@denverpost.com.

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