Ryan campaigns with Boehner in Colorado DURANGO, Colo. -- In the midst of a three-day swing of Colorado, Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan had a special guest join him on the trail Monday: Speaker of the House John Boehner. "You know, 22 years ago, I was running for congress for the first time," Boehner said. And you know, if they can't say your name, they probably aren't going to vote for you. Look at my name: Beaner. Bonner. Boner. I had no chance of winning, except I thought I could win. And during that campaign 22 years ago, I had a student at Miami of Ohio putting yard signs up for me named Paul Ryan. I've known Paul Ryan for a long time. You're never going to find a more decent person on the face of the Earth. Taking the stage for the first time with the speaker on the campaign trail since being tapped as Mitt Romney's running mate, Ryan said, "Hey, it's nice to see John "Boner" here today, isn't it?" Ryan continued in front of a roughly 1,500 person crowd at Fort Lewis College: "It's a true story, but I would put up yard signs as a young guy in college, I had no idea how to pronounce his name. But serving with him for 14 years, we kind of figured it out. John Boehner is a good man; he is a small business man who came to Congress to fight for jobs, and that's exactly what's he's doing. The GOP vice-presidential nominee has been out campaigning in the Centennial State since Sunday evening and is holding three events in the battleground state today. According to a CBS/NYT/Quinnipiac poll from the beginning of October, the race here was a tossup, with Romney holding the narrow edge 48 percent to 47 percent. And in the new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Sunday, President Obama and Romney are in a dead heat nationally -- both getting 47 percent of support among likely voters. Early voting in the state started today with just 15 days until Election Day. Colorado has nine electoral votes up for grabs. We need your vote; we need your help. Early voting starts today so all I am simply saying is help us, we need your vote. Help us get this country back on the right track. We know who we are and we know what we believe and we can do this and get this done," Ryan said speaking at a campaign rally outside of Vision Mechanical in Pueblo, CO, this morning. Only continuing to show the importance of Colorado in the Nov 6th election, both Romney and Ryan will hold a joint campaign rally here on Tuesday following the final presidential debate Monday evening. The GOP ticket will be joined in Morrison, CO, by Kid Rock and country singer Rodney Adkins plus New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez.