Republican Dan Maes, the 2010 GOP nominee for Governor (it still feels weird to write that) is apparently not letting his bygones, uh, be.
We didn't have a chance to get to this earlier in the week, but didn't want to forget to mention it. On Tuesday, Maes sent out a long note to supporters and people who "want the truth" detailing his continued anger at Tom Tancredo, Steve Durham, Bob Beauprez, Josh Penry, etc., etc. We were forwarded Maes' "newsletter" as it appeared on a Facebook page, and we've included the entire missive after the jump.
The 2010 election is old news, certainly, but it's interesting to read Maes' detailed account of some of the events leading up to his nomination for Governor, as well as his calling out a handful of Republicans individually:
Bob Beauprez - you broke my heart. You mentored me and you called me from Chicago right after the assembly to congratulate me personally. Your radio commercial was a betrayal to me and conservative voters.
Freda Poundstone - you called me 4-5 times a day, even at 7:00 AM on the weekend to snoop around while acting like you supported me. Shame on you. You gave 300.00 to another candidate and told him not to cash it until after his election. The games you played.
Josh Penry - you were a hired gun that could not hit a target. Your political capital is gone except in parts of GJ and with some of your cronies.
Greg Brophy - you sell out to whomever Penry tells you to.
Ted Harvey - be thankful for your strong R base in Douglas County. Their loyalty to you is admirable and your loss for chair has been your chastisement.
Click after the jump to read the full "newsletter," complete with references to The Christmas Story, Men In Black and a sermon about giving forgiveness 77 times.
Okay Polsters, it's time for your nominations for the "Worst Political Week in Colorado."
The last time we ran this post, two weeks ago, Republican Party Chair Dick Wadhamswas declared the winner (or loser).
We'll put a couple of the more obvious selections up for a vote (including Wadhams, the current "champion"), but please chime in with your suggestions. And try to make them creative -- sure, it was a bad week for Andrew Romanoff and Jane Norton, but who else???
Our selection for this week's "Worst Week in Colorado" is Josh Penry, campaign manager for Norton's failed U.S. Senate bid. Not only did his candidate lose (despite being the clear favorite for a long time), but the surprising victory of Dan Maes in the GOP Gubernatorial Primary makes it unlikely that Republicans will be replacing their candidate for Governor with someone else (which, potentially, could have opened the door for Penry to take over as the GOP nominee).
We're getting credible word of some interesting last-minute developments ahead of Tuesday's primary. We want to be clear that this is preliminary, and (of course) dependent on what happens in the election. But it is based on good authority from high-level GOP sources.
There is some thinking in GOP circles that gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis could indeed be persuaded to exit the race following a victory on Tuesday--if he has a say in his successor, and if he were provided with a 'suitable' career landing. If that happens, the story we've heard is that Jane Norton would very much like to be selected as a replacement gubernatorial candidate.
Sources are clear that this does not mean Norton is anticipating a loss in her Senate primary against Ken Buck. What we're talking about here is strictly a contingency plan, but one that Norton is sufficiently interested in pursuing to have started putting out feelers. As you know, of course, polls do show Buck with an enduring lead after weeks of hard-nosed campaigning.
What's truly ironic about this situation is the person emerging as her chief competitor for the selection, Norton campaign manager Josh Penry, remains very much interested by all accounts. Obviously, the vacancy committee who would appoint either of them--itself dependent on a decision from McInnis that others insist he will never make if he wins the primary--remains the biggest "if" in a situation with several unknowns.
A poll follows--file all of this in the same place you've been putting those "Romanoff for Mayor" rumors (but in the "much more likely" category) and we'll see what happens Tuesday.
That means Nate Strauch - who previously worked for the Colorado Attorney General's office and the Colorado Oil and Gas Association - is gone, and deputy campaign manager Cinamon Watson takes on additional duties.
The move is not surprising in the wake of the arrival of Josh Penry as Norton's news campaign manager. Penry came on board earlier this month promising a meaner and leaner campaign operation...[Pols emphasis]
...Strauch is the first flak casualty on the Republican side of this year's Senate races, but Democrat Andrew Romanoff's campaign has gone through them like Josh McDaniels through quarterbacks.
We agree that this news isn't surprising, but for a different reason than listed above. As we noted when Penry was first announced as Norton's new "campaign manager," the real reason Penry was brought on to the campaign was to serve as the spokesperson and the new face of the operation, thus making poor Nate Strauch redundant.
It's taken us a few hours to sit back and digest the strange news that Republican Senate candidate Jane Norton has dropped her former campaign manager, Norm Cummings, and replaced him with Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry. As we think more about this move, there are a few things that become pretty obvious:
1. Norton's campaign is clearly very worried about something. You just don't make this move unless you have serious concerns about the direction of your campaign. Activist Republicans were not happy that Norton decided to petition onto the ballot and forego the caucus process, so that could be a reason. Or perhaps it's the "anti-establishment" momentum of fellow RepublicanKen Buck. Or maybe the growing financial disparity between Sen. Michael Bennet and, well, everyone else has the campaign nervous about its chances at winning in November.
Most likely, it's a combination of things, but all point to the same conclusion: Norton and her advisors think a major change is needed NOW. If this isn't a panic move, it's damn close to one.
2. Josh Penry is not really going to be managing the campaign. This is no disrespect to Penry, but overseeing a massive statewide campaign is a particular skill; you can't just pluck some well-known legislator out of the Capitol and hand them the wheel to a multi-million dollar effort. Being a candidate and being a manager are distinctly different skills, and it's more likely that someone else is still going to be calling all the shots for Norton while Penry's role is really as more of a spokesman/message consultant/PR stunt.
In fact, it was a different announcement, buried in The Denver Post blog entry, that is probably more important than the Penry news:
Also helping the campaign is Rich Beeson, who is coming on board as a general consultant. Beeson worked on U.S. Sen. Scott Brown's win in Massachussetts earlier this year.
3. So who is really calling the shots for Norton? Well-traveled GOP consultant Shari Williams had originally been chosen to shepherd Norton through the caucus process, but that obviously isn't happening any longer. From what we understand, the true "manager" of the campaign remains husband Mike Norton, who will no doubt still have the final word, no matter what Beeson or Penry have to say.
The bottom line here is that the Norton campaign is most definitely in some form of disarray, and the Beeson-Penry changes signal something closer to a "panic" than just a general malaise. These are significant changes to make to a campaign that was long considered to be the frontrunner for the GOP nomination.
Penry won't seek re-election to state Senate; his future unclear
State Sen. Josh Penry will not seek re-election to the Colorado Senate, the Republican Grand Junction lawmaker confirmed today.
Penry, who recently dropped out of a bid for the GOP nomination for governor, confirmed in an email to the Daily Sentinel that he was now telling friends and family that the 2010 session would be his last.
He offered no word yet on what his future plans would be.
The announcement clears the way for Rep. Steve King, R-Grand Junction, to seek his seat, and a slew of candidates who are vying to replace King in the Colorado House.
Now the speculation begins--what is the story behind the story?
From Sunday's Denver Post interview with Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry, there's so many softballs for us to swing at that we don't know where to start:
Politicians dream of the kind of press that gubernatorial candidate Josh Penrygarnered in recent months.
Fox News reported Penry was ready to lead a national comeback of the Republican Party. The Washington Post surmised that the young state Senate minority leader might be the best hope to lay the new foundation for the GOP.
Then Penry dropped out, paving the way for his one-time boss, former U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis, to easily capture the GOP nomination...
A: He does. No question in my mind. Scott in these last two weeks has shown an openness and a genuine humility. Anyone at these meetings can tell you that.
The left-wing blogs and objective observers are saying the Republicans' chances of taking back the governorship and regaining other ground we lost just increased by orders of magnitude.
Q: Orders of magnitude? O-r-d-e-r-s? What does that mean?
A: (Laughing) Say it increased by a lot.
Q: Those same left-wing bloggers keep reporting you were pushed out. There's talk that some high-roller donor backing McInnis approached you or your people and threatened to spend a fortune attacking you.
A: Those bloggers are also sitting in their underwear in their grandmothers' basements. They're making stuff up out of thin air.
I wasn't pushed out. No one approached me. I made a shrewd decision based on the realities around me.
Scott has some significant advantages that I recognize, financial and otherwise. He was in Congress for 12 years. He has a bunch of third-party money backing him. The Republican Party historically nominates people who have been down this road before. The insurgent newcomer rarely wins it. I'm not whining about it, but it's a reality.
Enough of the spin and posturing. We're not saying anything that isn't completely obvious: Josh Penry is not running for Governor because he was the weaker candidate and was pushed out by a much stronger candidate. The idea that Penry just decided not to run because he is the "bigger man" is horseshit. Penry's polling numbers were in the toilet, and he could only raise money from a small base located on the Western Slope. Democrats wanted Penry to be the GOP nominee for Governor because everybody knew that he was the weaker candidate.
Bottom line: If Penry really thought he could beat Scott McInnis, he would still be in the race. Period. Does anybody really think for a minute that Penry just got out of the race out of the kindness of his heart? He's spinning as fast as he can here, and we understand the effort -- but reality, uh, bites.
Penry actually looks pretty sad in this interview, claiming over and over that he is the bigger man for bowing out of the race.
At some point somebody's got to be the adult and say, "I'm going to step back and do what's right for the cause." Ironically, it was the 33-year-old who made the decision.
Here's a tip: If you have to tell everyone that you are the coolest guy in the room, then you're not the coolest guy in the room. The more you try to spin your exit as though you did it because you are a leader, the more people see right through it. Penry would have been much better off sticking with "it wasn't the right time for me, etc." than this sour grapes silliness.
And as for the whole "bloggers sitting in their underwear in the basement" thing...really? That line is sooooo lame. Penry's campaign blogged. Mainstream reporters blog. Everyone blogs. And it's "sitting in their mother's basements," not their "grandmother's." If you're going to spew cliches, at least get it right. (Not to mention the "527 that was set to go after Penry" was reported by MSNBC and the Denver Post before any 'bloggers in their underwear' said anything. Don't get us wrong, we're not offended, but that's just incredibly stupid on several levels.)
Q: Speaking of retro, here we are talking about McInnis, Tancredo, Owens and Wadhams. It feels a little like 1998 here.
Rumor has it that Tom Tancredo has decided against running for Governor--not that we ever really thought he would, no matter what he said--and will formally endorse Scott McInnis on Monday in a press conference that will include Josh Penry.
For all Tancredo's boasting and blustering, running for Governor is a serious commitment--in both time and money spent--not really something Tancredo is up to after retiring from a congressional seat that required no effort on his part to maintain. There's also been an exceeding amount of "pressure" put on him to not run by Republicans who know they can't afford a primary with a moderate McInnis if they hope to knock off the moderate Gov. Bill Ritter next November.
That all said, we can't help but wonder what the real purpose of this "threat" of a Tancredo candidacy was, and the "concessions" supposedly demanded of McInnis by Tancredo and Penry. There's something about the timing of all these related op-ed columns and news articles that stinks of contrivance--of theater to appease angry conservatives.
UPDATE #2: No Penry run for Rep. John Salazar's CD-3 seat or Lt. Gov., says MSNBC (pretty much what we said at the bottom of the post a little earlier):
A campaign source says that up-and-comer Josh Penry decided against a CO-GOV primary challenge against Scott McInnis, his former boss when McInnis was in Congress, because he was scared off, in part, by a 527 that was ramping up for McInnis that was set to go after Penry. [Pols emphasis] He is sitting out the 2010 cycle and is NOT running for CO-3 despite the rumors...
The source added that Penry's Name ID, they were seeing, was only about 15% to 20% statewide, and Penry felt that a 527 and a nasty political fight could have ruined or significantly damaged his reputation and hurt his political capital with Republicans. This path helps Penry, who's only 33, build up political capital, the source said.
UPDATE:Denver Post puts uncertainty to bed, though Penry himself has yet to make a statement:
Two sources who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak on Penry's behalf confirmed for The Denver Post that Penry intends to leave the race.
One source said an announcement was imminent and that Penry met with McInnis Monday morning to inform him of the decision. Penry explained he was leaving the race for "personal reasons," the source said.
Penry has not returned phone calls seeking comment...
Colorado state Sen. Josh Penry (R) plans to end his gubernatorial campaign and endorse former Rep. Scott McInnis (R), according to two sources familiar with his thinking.
Penry's decision to opt out of the race is a stunner as many national Republicans had touted him as a potential rising star (and we had featured him in our "Rising" series that looks at up and coming politicians).
Chatter in the immediate aftermath of Penry's decision suggested he may well be considering a run against 3rd district Rep. John Salazar (D) who won the Western Slope seat when McInnis retired in 2004. Salazar's seat is one of 49 held by Democrats that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) carried in 2008. (McCain won it 50 percent to 48 percent for President Barack Obama.)
McInnis, who spent six terms in Congress, now has a clear shot at Gov. Bill Ritter (D) next fall. Democrats have expressed serious concern about Ritter's electoral prospects and his poll numbers have lagged badly since he was elected in a landslide in 2006.
Obviously this would be a major move, but it would make a lot of sense. For all the "rising star" accolades, Penry is clearly not yet ready for a race like this, and badly losing a primary is a quick way to end both the "rising" and the "star." A Penry loss also knocks him out of the State Senate and his Minority Leader status, leaving him in a tough spot to make a jump to higher office at a later date.
If this is true, it makes much more sense for Penry to run for re-election to the Senate and then re-assess his future later. Leaving this race to take on Rep. John Salazar and his million-dollar warchest would be silly and completely counterproductive. You don't leave a tough race that you might lose in order to run in another tough race that you might lose (especially when there is no way to transfer the money you raised for Governor to a Federal campaign).
As for McInnis, internal polling numbers and fundraising reports obviously show that he is in a great position. This is what we said when McInnis announced he wouldn't debate Penry -- clearly McInnis knew he was in the catbird's seat.
The timing of Penry's announcement does put McInnis in an interesting predicament where Gov. Bill Ritter is concerned. McInnis was in a great position where he was -- raising money and not having to stake out positions on tough issues -- but now he can't avoid the spotlight as the presumptive GOP nominee (sorry, Dan Maes). Whether McInnis is really ready for that is another question.
And finally, this is the worst-case scenario for Ritter. Both polling and common sense (McInnis is much more moderate than Penry) showed that Penry was the better general election opponent for Ritter; but even if McInnis had won the primary outright, at least he would have had to spend the next nine months in a slugfest. Now McInnis can save all of his powder for the general election.
Republican Gubernatorial candidate Josh Penry has been actively shooting himself in the foot lately, but he's not the only Colorado politician with that same talent.
A Pols reader sent us this newsletter from Democrat Cheri Jahn, who is running for Senate in SD-20 (Moe Keller is term-limited), and, well, let's just say it opens up a wound you might have thought Jahn would have preferred closed:
Washington just doesn't get it! An amendment was added to the Health Reform bill that would drastically increase the cost of medications for many Americans. I was outraged when I read the news. This amendment would extend brand-name prescription drug exclusivity from five years to twelve years, and in the process block affordable generics from being developed. Working families and our elderly would be hit especially hard with the increased costs of their medications if this amendment isn't stripped from the House version of the Health Care Reform Bill.
Too many Coloradans can't afford to pay the premium prices on brand name medication just to fatten the wallets of the big pharmaceutical corporation executives. We need to be working to make prescriptions MORE affordable - not less! In the Colorado State House I worked to do just that, and in the State Senate I'll keep fighting to make sure that everybody can afford the medications they need to stay healthy. [Pols emphasis]
That's all well and good, except that Jahn's vote essentially killed a prescription drug reform bill when she was in the State House in 2006:
The state House on Tuesday rejected a key Democratic measure to lower the cost of prescription drugs for some uninsured Coloradans.
The 35-30 defeat of House Bill 1100 raises doubts about whether Democrats will be able to deliver on their promise to provide discounted drugs to the uninsured...
...Democrats had planned to send both Senate Bill 1 and House Bill 1100 to Owens with the hope that at least one would become law. But the leadership lost support for House Bill 1100 when pharmacies, HMOs and a business coalition joined lobbying forces against it.
Democratic Speaker Pro Tempore Cheri Jahn said she opposed the bill because not all the groups affected were involved in the negotiations.
Besides, she said, the bill offered discounts that are already available in the private market.
"I do not think it's fair to ask one industry to pay for the bill - pharmacies," she said. [Pols emphasis]
