April 09, 2010 11:25 PM UTC

Maybe a Little Too Much Involvement

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• by: Colorado Pols

Whenever there is a heated primary race and local Party officials get involved, there usually follows a similarly heated debate about whether or not local Party officials should get involved by choosing sides.

But rarely does that discussion devolve to the degree that has apparently happened in a Republican primary in HD-9 in Denver. As The Denver Post reports:

Two Republicans are running in the primary: Bob Lane and C.J. Garbo.

Lane said Ryan Call, chairman of Denver County Republicans, appeared at a candidate forum and launched a “character-smearing assault on me because of a very minor incident that occurred with a lady I was dating last summer.”

Lane is on probation after pleading guilty in municipal court to a petty offense of disturbing the peace.

Call said he raised the issue because he thought Republicans should know whether there was anything in the candidates’ backgrounds that would “reflect poorly on the party or their candidacy.”

“That’s why we have these assemblies, so that the party faithful have a chance to determine who is the best candidate to be our standard-bearer,” Call said.

Maybe so, but perhaps the Chair of the Denver Republicans isn’t the best person to be bringing this up. We’re also confused as to why this is even such a hot race, anyway; in 2008, Democrat Joe Miklosi won this seat with 59% of the vote. It’s not like the GOP really has a shot here, so why are people attacking each other over the right to get creamed in November?