July 03, 2018 08:58 AM UTC

Walker Stapleton Just Makes Stuff Up, Again

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• by: Colorado Pols

WEDNESDAY UPDATE #2: Charles Ashby, along with Ernest Luning among the dwindling number of Colorado politics reporters with enough time served on this beat to recognize the problem, reports for the Grand Junction Sentinel:

Historically, governor candidates have made such announcements within a week of the primary, sometimes even before.

Lynn Bartels, spokeswoman for Secretary of State Wayne Williams, admitted that the law is vague, saying there is no way to prove such an appointment has actually been made if it’s not publicly announced…

The Colorado Democratic Party isn’t convinced Stapleton has actually named anyone, saying he’s in violation of the law.

“Either he forgot he needed to choose a running mate by (Tuesday’s) deadline and is lying to cover up yet another violation of law, or he thinks he plays by a different set of rules from everyone else, and feels entitled to hide his running mate from the public,” party spokesman Eric Walker said. [Pols emphasis]

And so another unforced error for Walker Stapleton goes into the record books. Or, nobody wants to be his running mate.

You can pick either, they’re just as good for the Democrats.

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WEDNESDAY UPDATE: Ernest Luning of the Colorado Springs Gazette sorts this strange story out:

The statute only requires making the pick, not announcing it to the world, Fortney said. Officials at the Secretary of State’s Office agreed, though they acknowledge that isn’t the way anyone has interpreted the law previously… [Pols emphasis]

Veteran GOP strategist Dick Wadhams, who managed the 1998 campaign for Owens — the last Republican elected governor by state voters — hasn’t sounded very impressed by Stapleton’s campaign so far, and Tuesday’s developments didn’t change his assessment.

“I think the law is confusing,” Wadhams told Colorado Politics. “But the bottom line is, he probably should have been in a position to make the selection and announce it today. Maybe he needed more time. But it does provide another few days of chaos for his campaign.”

“Chaos” is a word that increasingly sums up Walker Stapleton’s campaign, from the petition fraud that almost made him the next Jon Keyser to getting shredded by the fact-checkers and laughably pretending to be a “fourth-generation Coloradan.” For a campaign trying desperately to project an aura of inevitability, it’s been one stumble after another.

At some point, even the most loyal Republican talking heads will have to acknowledge this.

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UPDATE: Something weird may be going on, gentle readers:

REPORTERS: A reminder. Campaigns need to offer lite guv positions by Tuesday, but don’t need to make announcement until 30 days after the primary. #COpolitics

— Lynn Bartels (@lynn_bartels) July 3, 2018

We did a little research on this question. Since 2000, when the law was changed to allow gubernatorial nominees to pick their own running mates, every single candidate has announced their pick within seven days. Bob Beauprez picked Jill Repella a week after the primary in 2014, and Janet Rowland a week after the primary in 2006. Even Dan Maes picked his unlucky dance partner Tambor Williams within a week. In fact, in 2014, the same Lynn Bartels who tells us now that candidates have 30 days appears to have reported in error:

Bob Beauprez, the Republican nominee for governor, must announce his running mate by midnight. [Pols emphasis]

The former congressman won the Republican primary one week ago, beating three rivals for the chance to square off against Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper in November.

The law states: “No later than seven days after a primary election, the {major} party’s candidate for governor shall select a candidate for lieutenant governor.”

But now, apparently, with no statutory change whatsoever, that isn’t true anymore! That’s what this bolt from the blue clarification from the Secretary of State last night means, right? That this story from four years ago is in error, right?

If Walker Stapleton doesn’t announce his pick for lieutenant governor today, by the interpretation of the law as it’s been reported for many years he’s broken the law. Either way it’s unprecedented under current law. Rumors that Stapleton’s first choice for the position, CU Regent Heidi Ganahl, turned Stapleton down make this apparently further delay look very much like the campaign is having trouble finding a running mate.

That’s, needless to say, very bad news for Walker Stapleton. And this “rushed announcement” business (see below) is preposterous enough to merit another round of incredulous bad press.

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The response from Republican gubernatorial candidate Walker Stapleton to yesterday’s announcement of Dianne Primavera as Jared Polis’ running mate is…well, it’s puzzling observers today on account of it not exactly making what you’d call logical sense:

“This rushed announcement [Pols emphasis] from Jared Polis can’t distract from the fact that Democrats are not united heading into the general election and remain divided over Polis’s plans to destroy Colorado’s energy industry and its 230,000 jobs, force Bernie Sanders-style single-payer healthcare on the state, and raise taxes on hardworking Coloradans,” said Stapleton for Colorado Campaign Manager Michael Fortney.

Here’s the thing: the announcement of Polis’ running mate was not “rushed” in, like, any conceivable way. Under Colorado law, the statutory deadline for this selection is seven days after the primary, which is today. In past years this was apparently much better understood, with the press reporting it uncontroversially:

The law states: “No later than seven days after a primary election, the {major} party’s candidate for governor shall select a candidate for lieutenant governor.”

Four years later, the collective memory of Republicans has apparently eroded to the point where they don’t even know the law regarding the selection of running mates! “Rushed” would have been last week, this week it’s complying with the law. It was our understanding that Michael Fortney was at least minimally competent, enough that he didn’t allow his candidates to make unforced asses of themselves on the campaign trail. But between Stapleton’s silly falsehoods in campaign ads that he refused to correct, his joke of a claim to be a “fourth-generation Coloradan,” and now this nonsensical response to Polis’ running mate pick, it’s a honest question whether Fortney can manage a political campaign out of a proverbial wet sack.

Also we can’t wait to meet theirs, and they’ll need to “rush” to meet that deadline.