May 01, 2018 04:10 PM UTC

Lamborn Makes The Ballot Because Election Law Means Squat

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• by: Colorado Pols

That’s the word from Denver7’s busy political reporter Blair Miller:

Six-term U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn will get the chance to try for a seventh term, as a federal judge on Tuesday ruled that Lamborn should be on the Republican primary ballot in Colorado’s 5th congressional district.

U.S. District Court of Colorado Judge Philip A. Brimmer made the ruling Tuesday afternoon, a day after Lamborn’s attorney argued that Colorado’s residency requirement for signature gatherers violated the U.S. Constitution…

The group that had originally petitioned to get Lamborn off the ballot will appeal to the 10th Circuit and hope that ballot certification will be postponed further, a spokesman for the group, Kyle Fisk, told Denver7.

“We are disappointed that a federal chose to overrule the unanimous decision of the Colorado Supreme Court as well as overturn the will of the people of Colorado as expressed by their elected representatives,” Fisk said in a statement sent to Denver7. “We have filed an immediate appeal to the 10th Circuit. We have also requested that Secretary Williams not be allowed to certify the ballot until the 10th Circuit hears the appeal.”

It’s a decision that effectively upends Colorado law on petition signature gathering, and there will be fallout from this decision that could seriously weaken the ability of not just Colorado, but other states to regulate their own election processes. At the same time, there’s the argument, apparently successful in federal court, that a six-term incumbent member of Congress should not be forced off the ballot by a technicality.

For the record, we don’t buy that argument for a minute. And the can of worms opened today, just so Colorado’s least beloved member of Congress can get another two years of uninspired representation of Colorado’s foremost conservative bastion, will in all probability not be worth the trouble.