Josh Penry is relative to Colorado politics the same way peaches are to Palisade.
The former state House and Senate member, the Republican leader in the upper chamber, in fact, remains the unseen force behind many of the state's most dynamic issue campaigns and candidates. He's a project manager, not the name on a bumper sticker anymore.
Completing one of the state's most recognizable power couples, his wife, Kristin Strohm, is the president and CEO of the business-focused Common Sense Institute in Denver, herself a longtime strategist and community do-gooder.Â
In 2009, and age 33, he ran for governor, but dropped out. Penry would have been the state's first Western Slope governor since John Vanderhoof from Glenwood Springs was elected in 1973.