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DeVos Tours Bob Schaffer’s High School, Because Of Course

Brooklyn Dance of the Fort Collins Coloradoan reports: U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos will visit Fort Collins charter school Liberty Common High School and Greeley’s Aims Community College with U.S. Rep. Ken Buck on Thursday. DeVos and Buck, who represents Colorado’s 4th District in the U.S. House of Representatives, are visiting the two schools […]

Charter School Led by Bob Schaffer Is First to Apply for a Waiver to New Sex Ed Law

(Promoted by Colorado Pols) Liberty Common School in Ft. Collins is the first applicant for a waiver to Colorado’s new sex-ed law. If granted by Colorado’s State Board of Education, the waiver would allow the charter to completely or partially ignore the law’s requirement that public schools, including charter schools, teach a comprehensive sex-ed curriculum, […]

Colorado Senate Seat “Likely Democratic”

Roll Call has an early rundown of where the 2014 Senate races are ranked in order of competitiveness. Colorado is listed as “Likely Democratic” among the 33 Senate races, which puts Sen. Mark Udall’s seat well outside the top tier:

The early read from both sides is that Udall is in a strong position for re-election. Even Republicans concede that he has deftly positioned himself as a moderate on fiscal and social issues.

But the DNA of Colorado is a swing state, and midterm races are typically difficult for the president’s party, especially during a second term. Republicans fell just short of ousting Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet in 2010. Therefore, the GOP is optimistic and several names have already surfaced. The Republican who strikes the most fear in the hearts of Colorado Democrats is Rep. Cory Gardner.

Other possible challengers include 2008 Senate candidate Bob Schaffer, former Rep. Bob Beauprez and state Attorney General John Suthers.

Nothing new there (at least not to readers of Colorado Pols). Republican Rep. Cory Gardner is mentioned as the “scariest” potential GOP candidate, and also picked up a mention in a similar story on The National Journal (subscription required).

Is Gardner really “The Republican who strikes the most fear in the hearts of Colorado Democrats?” On the whole, of course not. But this is all relative to other potential GOP candidates, and with that background Gardner is definitely the one that would be most worrisome for Udall.

Gardner’s relative strength is key in this discussion, because Udall would still be a heavy favorite for re-election if Gardner was the GOP candidate. And that is exactly why Gardner won’t run for Senate in 2014. He’s doing the smart thing by letting his name float out there for 2014, because any discussion of Gardner as a Senate candidate only enhances his name ID and perceived strength among Republicans.

Gardner won’t run against Udall because it is too big of a political risk. He can hold his current House seat for as long as he wants, so there’s no rush to move up. If he did decide to run against Udall and lost, Gardner would be out of elected office without having had time to grow his political network (a Republican would likely replace Gardner in CD-4, which would preclude him from trying to retake his old seat in 2016).

Gardner is in a great position to be mentioned as a top Senate challenger, which is only happening because the GOP has no bench in Colorado. He won’t run, but for now there’s no benefit to officially removing his name from the rumor mill.

Three Names You’ll Soon Forget (If Republicans Want To Win)

Before Thanksgiving, FOX 31’s Eli Stokols profiled three Colorado Republicans who profess, or are at least rumored to be interested in statewide office in 2014–one of whom appears on our introductory 2014 Big Line, the other two do not. In none of the three cases do we see a winning prospect for the GOP, but that does, we suppose, merit a brief explanation.

Three Colorado Republicans whose names are being mentioned as possible statewide candidates in 2014 all tell FOX31 Denver that it’s way too soon to even think about mounting a campaign.

But none of those three – former U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer, state Sen. Greg Brophy and former Congressman Bob Beauprez – would rule out the possibility that their name might be at the top of the GOP ticket in two years.



Bob Schaffer parasails off the Northern Mariana Islands. Photo credit: CSU Library

Former Rep. Bob Schaffer’s run for the U.S. Senate in 2008 against Mark Udall almost certainly ended his viability for high elected office. In the course of Schaffer’s 2008 campaign, several incidents in his record emerged as permanent disqualifiers. The worst of these was Schaffer’s alleged assistance in the coverup of labor abuses in the Northern Mariana Islands, a place Schaffer visited as part of a junket arranged by now infamous ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Schaffer’s involvement in Abramoff’s lobbying campaign to prevent federal labor law from being applied in the Northern Mariana Islands was exposed in a devastating series of front-page stories in the Denver paper by Michael Riley. Although other items in Schaffer’s record would certainly cause problems, such as his time on the board of directors of an energy nonprofit that collapsed in allegations of defrauding the federal government, the Abramoff/Marianas scandal is the one we honestly think Schaffer cannot live down.

Failed 2006 gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez is the one person in this story who does appear on the 2014 Big Line, as a possible candidate for U.S. Senate against incumbent Democrat Mark Udall. He also has more familiar aspirations for statewide office: in 2010, Beauprez’s name briefly circulated as a potential alternative to the imploding GOP gubernatorial candidate, the laughably unqualified Dan Maes. This year, Beapurez faithfully served as the leading Colorado surrogate for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign.

We listed Beauprez only because of the recent work he has done to re-up his name ID after several years of relative obscurity, and the lack of the kind of career-ending scandal in his past like Schaffer’s Abramoff debacle. But as we noted in our write-up of the Line, Beauprez was perhaps the worst serious gubernatorial candidate in the state’s history–certainly the worst before Maes himself. Beauprez’s 17-point loss to Bill Ritter in 2006 was a truly disastrous end to Beauprez’s long and expensive effort, which began with a nasty (though aborted) primary challenge from Marc Holtzmann.

The fact is, now that Beauprez is not in line for a Romney administration job, we can’t rule him out of a 2014 run. We can, however, pretty safely rule him out from winning.

The inclusion of state Sen. Greg Brophy in any list of potential candidates for 2014 statewide office is one of the more humorous developments in the aftermath of the GOP’s sweeping losses in Colorado this year. For reasons that even were forced to occasionally concede, Brophy has been regarded as an intellectual heavyweight in the Colorado Senate Republican Minority. As one example, we gave Brophy props during this year’s legislative session for joining with the ACLU to abolish criminal libel in Colorado.

Unfortunately, Brophy has otherwise done everything he can to ensure the GOP stays a minority.

The biggest profile-raiser in all of Brophy’s years in the legislature came this year, after he crassly insulted Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke via Twitter over insurance coverage for birth control–in defense of radio shock-jock Rush Limbaugh’s infamous reference to Ms. Fluke as a “slut.” In doing so, Brophy gave a local face to the Democrats’ “War on Women” campaign, while Fluke began campaigning in Colorado for Barack Obama.

The result is that more Colorado voters, especially women voters, know Brophy’s name for his insults to Sandra Fluke than anything else he’s done. For a man frequently touted by Republicans as a guiding intellectual force in the Senate Minority, this was unforgivably stupid of him. The facts show once again that women voters were a major component of GOP losses in this state, and Brophy proudly played a key role in setting the scene that alienated them. In any race the GOP would ever hope to win, Brophy is not the candidate.

As a result, our friend Eli Stokols continues:

To many conservative activists, “the Bobs”, Schaffer and Beauprez atop the 2014 ticket, would amount to another GOP ticket of older, white, establishment Republicans…

[Colorado GOP chairman] Call told FOX31 Denver that the party is indeed looking at more people than those who have sought or held elected office before.

One problem the GOP has is many of their “rising stars,” like former Navy pilot Lang Sias and Colorado Springs civic patron Jennifer George, lost their elections. Continued defeats in election after election rob the Republican bench of fresh faces, and leaves the last generation of Republican candidates feebly bearing the party’s standard. As we’ve said, we don’t honestly know how Republicans are going to escape this compounding problem.

But we can tell you that these three has-beens are not the way.

Polling Looks Alright For Hickenlooper, For Now

FOX 31’s Eli Stokols:

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, ranks as one of the safest governors facing reelection in 2014, according to an early survey by Public Policy Polling released Monday.

Hickenlooper, whose political skills may be tested over the next two years now that Democrats control both the state House and Senate and will be free to send more partisan legislation to his desk, leads a generic Republican by a 54-33 margin…

Two Colorado Republicans whose names are being tossed around as potential 2014 gubernatorial candidates are state Sen. Greg Brophy of Wray and Bob Schaffer, who lost four years ago to Sen. Mark Udall in a fight for a vacant U.S. Senate seat.

To be honest, given Gov. John Hickenlooper’s famously stellar approval ratings, we would expect his re-elect number to be higher than 54%. That said, 54% isn’t a horrible place to start from, and candidates like shellacked 2008 Senate candidate Bob Schaffer don’t exactly inspire confidence that the GOP can make a fight of it. And seriously, Greg Brophy? If he gets the nod, you can be sure the GOP has written the race off Rollie Heath style.

One top Colorado Republican admitted to FOX31 Denver last week that the GOP’s best, and perhaps only, shot of winning the governor’s race would be if Hickenlooper set his sights higher and opted against a run at reelection.

“If Hickenlooper runs again, we’ll end up with a gadfly candidate, someone who might be smart enough to know they’re going to get trounced, but willing to do it for the experience and the fun of it,” said that Republican, who asked not to be identified.

A “gadfly” candidate? If not Schaffer, or Brophy, then who might that be? And in the event Gov. Hickenlooper pulls a Bill Ritter and opts not to run again, or for whatever reason were to become politically vulnerable by 2014…who might a serious candidate be?

Bill Owens–Yay! Bob Schaffer? Um…

We noted yesterday that Gov.-elect John Hickenlooper has selected former GOP Gov. Bill Owens as a statewide co-chair of his transition team. This is being widely viewed as an excellent choice, and we think the moderate Owens will do as much as possible to broker the kind of bipartisan cooperation that Hickenlooper wants to lead […]

Bob Schaffer: Twitter Fail

(Slavery gets $#|+ done… – promoted by ThillyWabbit) Bob Schaffer’s twitter account not only pimps the booze but tries to connect to his “followers” and fails. I have a Republican twitter sockpuppet who Schaffer followed for reasons unknown to me. After his requesting to follow my sockpuppet, I decided to follow him back. I received […]

McInnis Inducted Into Bob Schaffer’s Mountain-Moving Hall of Shame

As you may have noticed, your hosts were a little busy yesterday morning doing all of the non-bloggy things we do, and didn’t have a chance to get some posts going until the early afternoon. Fortunately, our observant readers are always on duty. Recounting some familiar-sounding fun from yesterday’s open thread related to gubernatorial candidate […]

Vince Carroll attempts to whitewash Bob Schaffer’s Iraq profiteering

(Ouch – promoted by Colorado Pols) I’m really not sure what Rocky refugee editor Vince Carroll is trying to accomplish with his op-ed today. It look as though he’s defending last year’s defeated Senate candidate Bob Schaffer, against the charge leveled by many including former Reagan administration diplomats, that oil production contracts he negotiated with […]

Bob Schaffer, “Smart Girl”

Former Senate candidate Bob Schaffer, as most of you know, has kept quite a presence up for himself in various online forums, most recently (and curiously) setting up a blog at the conservative social networking site Smart Girl Politics. Which is pretty interesting in more than the obvious gender-bending ways. Let’s start with the definition […]

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