September 15, 2010 09:27 PM UTC

George Culpepper Pulls a Trifecta, But Not in a Good Way

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• by: Colorado Pols

Lynn Bartels reports over at the main Denver newspaper that Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes has hired George Culpepper to assist his campaign.

Culpepper, you may recall, was once the campaign manager for the gubernatorial bid of Republican Scott McInnis. McInnis hired Culpepper back in September 2009, but Culpepper left the campaign just a few months later to start his own political strategy firm.

Last spring, Culpepper started working for the gubernatorial campaign of Joe Gschwendtner, although “Joe G’s” campaign seemed designed only to discredit Maes prior to the GOP State Convention (in which Maes defeated McInnis anyway). Joe G since failed to make the ballot, ending his campaign.

Culpepper is now back…working for Maes…despite the fact that he was once working for Maes’ chief rival…and despite the fact that he was once on a campaign that had the sole purpose of trying discredit Maes. Given the anemic fundraising of the Maes campaign, perhaps the joke is on Culpepper, whose salary can’t be much more than bologna sandwiches and pocket change for gas money.

Nevertheless, Culpepper will have an interesting tale to tell; he’s got to be the only person in Colorado history who will have been directly involved with three failed campaigns for governor in the same election cycle. That’s hard to do.