April 15, 2014 08:20 AM UTC

A Few Words Of Sympathy For Mark Waller

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• by: Colorado Pols

The Denver Post's Kurtis Lee circles back with Rep. Mark Waller, whose campaign for the GOP Attorney General nomination took a big hit at Saturday's state assembly:

Chief Deputy Attorney General Cynthia Coffman nearly walked away with the GOP nomination for AG over the weekend, amassing 69 percent of the support from state delegates.

The total far outpaced her rival, state Rep. Mark Waller of Colorado Springs, who almost failed to make the June 24 primary ballot as he captured just 30.7 percent of the vote…

Waller, a former House GOP minority leader, who for months has been vocal inside Capitol that he would easily make the ballot, focused some of his attention on Coffman as he addressed delegates.

Waller's fundraising in this race so far has been absolutely terrible, and despite his affable nature and name ID as the former House Minority Leader, primary opponent Cynthia Coffman has pretty consistently had the advantage in this race. The fact that Waller nonetheless did make the primary ballot without having to petition on is attributable to support from legislative allies, but also the lingering dislike for the surname Coffman you can still find in Republican insider circles. Few today remember the nasty CD-6 primary of 2008, in which most of the GOP establishment in Colorado endorsed Mike Coffman's opponent, but the state assembly is where those kinds of grudges tend to resurface.

And remember, folks, the only vote that matters is June 24th. State assembly winners don't automatically win the primary in Colorado by any stretch of the imagination. But clearly, Waller had better get busy.

There was an interesting moment of drama at the state assembly Saturday, when ballots were reportedly distributed to delegates before Rep. Waller had finished addressing the delegates. That hasn't resulted in any action since then that we're aware of, but if Waller is looking for some consolation today…maybe that accounted for a few votes, you bet! Hang in there, Rep. Waller.