UPDATE: The focus of today's Statesman story is the money raised by Rick Perry in Aspen last week, but we'd be remiss if we didn't acknowledge this fascinating quote from his speech:
"When it comes to economic growth, I know this," Perry added. "The answer is not trickle down stimulus coming from Washington, D.C. but is truly up to freeing up those individuals unleashing corporate growth and the investment on Wall Street freeing them up from over taxation, over regulation and over litigation."
"Freeing up...Wall Street?" Probably not coming to a bumper sticker near you.
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Texas Governor and Republican Presidential candidate Rick Perry banked $175,000 for his campaign in a fundraising trip to Aspen last Thursday. And as The Colorado Statesman reports, the money came with the help of two high-profile Colorado Republicans, Marc Holtzman and Scott McInnis:
Perry's short side trip to the mountains that day netted the conservative candidate $175,000 for his campaign coffers - the most lucrative such event in the history of Republican politics in Pitkin County, according to a local and national source - and put him in front of a well-heeled Aspen crowd, many of who said afterwards that the prospect of a Perry presidency truly excited them. There were numerous pledges of support from the approximate 60 people there, including promises of additional financial backing in the future, and a general joy at having rubbed elbows with, as Holtzman proudly announced more than once that afternoon, the next president of the United States.
That's a lot of money for Perry, but perhaps more significant is the commitment he has received from Holtzman. While his 2006 campaign for Governor fell apart when he -- shockingly -- failed to gather enough signatures to qualify for the primary against Bob Beauprez, fundraising was one area in which the wealthy Holtzman had little trouble. Holtzman raised nearly $2 million despite basically ending his campaign in June, nearly two months before the Republican primary. If Holtzman is going to be bundling money for Perry, which we would assume to be the case, then we'd assume a fair number of Colorado Republicans are going to be getting phone calls very soon.
(Many commenters have been (rightly) confused as to why this map includes states in 2010 that are not even in play. See the update below. - promoted by Colorado Pols)
UPDATE: This map is part of a presentation created by the RGA earlier this year called The Four Year Plan. It's possible the map below is mislabeled and should say "Best Case 2012," but the message is the same either way: Colorado would still have a Democratic Governor under the best case scenario laid-out by the RGA.
We've found it a little curious that the Colorado Governor's race is rarely listed among the top 10 most likely to switch parties nationally, but perhaps there's good reason for that. Check out this image from a presentation made recently by the Republican Governor's Association (RGA), which maps out a state-by-state "Best Case Scenario":
So what does this mean? Well, it means that polling doesn't look favorably on Republican chances to retake the governor's office in Colorado, and more importantly, it means that the RGA isn't likely to spend a lot of national money helping Republicans to defeat Democrat Bill Ritter in 2010.
In other words, Scott McInnis and Josh Penry, good luck...but you're on your own.
Republican Marc Holtzman told friends and supporters over the weekend that he would not run for governor in 2010 after all.
Holtzman had been widely expected among Republicans to formally enter the race for governor this summer. He had strong support from heavy-hitters in the business community, and would likely have had the full backing of folks such as Larry Mizel and Mike Fries. Business community leaders who wanted to see a businessman run for governor will be left looking elsewhere now, since both Scott McInnis and Josh Penry are lawyer/lobbyists and career politicians, respectively.
So why did Holtzman, who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2006, decide against a run in 2010? Holtzman works in International banking and development, and he told friends that he could not in good conscience pull out of his many business responsibilities given the current economic crisis.
Of course, it's probably not a good year to run for higher office with banking and/or finance in your title, either, but those close to Holtzman say the perception problem wasn't what pushed him out of the race (and neither was a potential primary with McInnis and/or Penry, since Holtzman would have raised the most money of the three).
Almost three weeks ago, the Denver Post reported that former congressman Scott McInnis "privately" had announced his intentions to run for Governor. You know, privately, as in "reported by the Denver Post" from a GOP state party function. Which seems not very "private" at all, being the talk of the GOP's biggest annual event, and reported in the state's newspaper of record--we'll revisit that in a moment.
A couple of days ago, word circulated of a letter sent by McInnis to lots of registered Republicans, asking for "advice" solving the "problems" facing the GOP and Colorado in general. This letter didn't explictly say "I'm going to run for Governor," but it was clearly intended to plant his name in people's minds.
An "enthusiastic" supporter of Scott Mc Innis has registered six political domain names for the former congressman, including ScottMcInnisforGovernor.com.
Another name is ScottMcInnisforColorado.com.
McInnis told friends and supporters he is running for the GOP nomination for governor in 2010 but has yet to make a formal announcement.
The domain names were registered by Joshua Green of Colorado Springs. Green and McInnis' former chief of staff, Mike Hess, last year worked together on Bentley Rayburn's congressional campaign...
We don't know about you, but do you buy the "enthusiastic supporter who just happens to be a seasoned campaign worker" bit for a moment? Didn't think so. Because you're not stupid.
This is where we turn it over for discussion--kind of like Bob Schaffer'sendless stalling of his "formal" announcement that he was running for Senate--how long do they get to "unofficially" set up their campaigns, when everybody knows that's what they're doing, before they have to file papers and report donations like everybody else? When does that clock start ticking, or more to the point, when should it?
We'd say the question is worth asking any time these guys try to pull this "shadow campaign" stuff, a seeming favored tactic of nervous Republicans these days--but in the case of McInnis and his history of questionable campaign fund expenditures, we'd say it's doubly worth asking. Because as we've said repeatedly, we'll believe McInnis is running only when he starts a formal campaign for governor, starts raising money, and starts going around the state as a candidate. Until then...this is just another in a long list of races that McInnis has "strong interest" in running for.
Perhaps the moment you've all been waiting for--given Scott McInnis' track record of expressing 'interest' in running for everything, from the U.S. Senate to Mesa County dogcatcher (and the Grand Junction Sentinel's rush to print a story anytime McInnis farts), we'll only fully believe it when the Secretary of State gets the papers. But no question there's intense jockeying going on behind the scenes in the GOP right now, as the Grand Junction Sentinel reports:
The battle for the Republican nomination for governor in 2010 could be a Western Slope affair, pitting former Congressman Scott McInnis against his onetime aide, Josh Penry.
McInnis, who retired from Congress in 2004 after six terms representing the 3rd District, is interested in the job, as is Penry, now the minority leader in the state Senate.
Penry served for a time as McInnis' spokesman in Washington, D.C., before returning to the Grand Valley to run for the state Legislature.
Dick Wadhams, chairman of the Colorado Republican Party, said he was aware of interest by both men in the opportunity to run against incumbent Democrat Bill Ritter of Denver.
"They're both terribly formidable people," Wadhams said...
The thing is, they're not--at least one of them isn't. Handpicked by Wadhams, Josh Penry's brief tenure as Senate Minority Leader has nevertheless been an unqualified disaster, from mismanaged public embarrassments to an "opposition" strategy that gained his party no sympathy--if anything the opposite of sympathy--with either the public or the media. If this was supposed to be the big test of Penry's mettle, paving his way to a Bobby Jindal-style meteoric rise, well, spectacular fail.
On the other hand, as the Sentinel continues:
McInnis said Tuesday he still has political ambitions and, "My focus is more on the governor's seat."
...he's not interested in the Senate seat occupied by Denver Democrat Michael Bennet, McInnis said.
"My interest is not there," he said. "I came home (to Colorado), and I'm staying home."
Nobody can forget the moment of high drama one week before the last election, when McInnis broke his silence about the way he was forced out of the Senate race in favor of Chairman Dick Wadhams' pal and GOP insider-anointed candidate Bob Schaffer. You'll recall that Wadhams "strongly disputed" McInnis' accusations, and within a week every Republican elder statesman in Colorado was penning guest editorials denouncing McInnis with eerie Mao-style unanimity.
Well, dear reader, a few days from the GOP state party reorganization, Wadhams has a credible challenger and Scott McInnis just might have enough backlash behind him to make people forget all about that paying the wife to run your fictional campaign thing and seriously consider him for governor. Until Marc Holtzman reminds them in a big glossy mailer, of course. We digress.
Bottom line: If the last few weeks have proven anything, it's that Josh Penry is not anywhere near ready to head up a ticket. What he needs is several more years to mature and a more statesmanlike haircut--we're serious about this, it's unelectably bad, a mullet kept in check with a beard trimmer. And what Wadhams needs, assuming he survives the weekend, is to realize that he's no longer the kingmaker of the Colorado Republican Party--and the choice of who will top the 2010 ticket is no longer his to dictate.
As for McInnis, what he needs is to stop talking about races he might possibly one day perhaps potentially consider. Because he's starting to look more than a little silly "expressing interest" in virtually anything.
Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry is apparently beginning to seriously engage in discussions about running for Governor, and may soon file paperwork to make it official. Penry is doing this quietly while he tries to gauge support for a potential run against Gov. Bill Ritter, and trying to keep this quiet is probably the smartest thing Penry has done in months.
Our prediction? Penry doesn't actually end up running for Governor in 2010. And here's why...
