December 28, 2023 11:49 AM UTC

Boebert's Safe-Seat Switcheroo Blasted By Basically Everybody

•  
• by: Colorado Pols

Yesterday’s jaw-dropping announcement by GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert that she would abandon the race for re-election to a third term representing Colorado’s Western Slope and instead run for re-election in retiring Rep. Ken Buck’s Fourth Congressional District has scrambled the outlook for the 2024 elections in Colorado as much or even more than the recent Colorado Supreme Court decision disqualifying ex-President Donald Trump from the 2024 presidential ballot. With this decision reportedly known only to a select few before it was announced, Boebert has thrown the race for her former seat wide open while at the same time dramatically increasing the stakes in the upcoming CD-4 GOP primary–at least in theory.

One thing we can say with certainty the morning after, as Colorado Community News’ McKenna Harford reports, is that a severely weakened post-Beetlebert Boebert will not be clearing the crowded CD-4 primary field upon entry into the race. Today, most of the candidates Boebert will be contending with in the June 25th primary are taking direct metaphorical aim at Boebert as their new principal target:

Several south metro area Republicans are eyeing campaigns to replace Buck, including former state lawmaker Ted Harvey of Highlands Ranch, who had harsh words regarding Boebert’s sudden move.

“Boebert has failed the conservatives in (the 3rd district) to such a degree that they will no longer vote for her,” he told Colorado Community Media. “Now, in what can only be seen as a vain effort to cling to power, she seeks to represent the voters of (the 4th district) — a vastly different constituency. This desperate stunt by Boebert may not only jeopardize the Republican Party’s ability to retain (the 3rd district), but if she were to win the primary, could place [the 4th district] at risk as well.” [Pols emphasis]

…Another hopeful for the seat, state Rep. Richard Holtorf of Akron on the Eastern Plains, called Boebert’s move “seat shopping.”

“If you can’t win in your home, you can’t win here,” Holtorf said in a statement.

He said Boebert could not possibly know the 4th Congressional District as well as candidates from the area.

“She is grossly lacking in understanding the needs of the 21 counties in Eastern Colorado that make up this district,” he stated. “She knew she’d lose in her own district and I’ll show her that she’ll lose here too.” [Pols emphasis]

“MAGA King” CD-4 contender Tent Leisy, who as readers know is organizing an I-25 MAGA convoy this weekend to protest the Colorado Supremes’ decision disqualifying Trump with election conspiracy theorist Joe “America’s Hangman” Oltmann, is similarly outraged at Boebert’s entry in the race, claiming that Boebert promised him in October it wouldn’t happen:

It’s important to keep in mind that although “Beetlebert” and Boebert’s many other personal and professional scandals had done a great deal of damage to Boebert’s re-election prospects, Boebert was nonetheless considered the favorite to defeat her unknown primary opponent Jeff “You’ve Never” Hurd, though perhaps by a smaller margin than her 2022 primary trouncing of former state Sen. Don Coram. It’s clearly the general election rematch against Adam Frisch, who came within 546 votes of ending Boebert’s career in 2022, that spooked Boebert into making the desperate decision to dive into a crowded primary for a safer Republican seat hundreds of miles from her longtime home.

Boebert is banking on her vast social media footprint overwhelming the rest of the primary field in CD-4. The problem with this is that Boebert’s liabilities are increasingly nonpolitical in nature post-Beetlebert, and just as repellent to conservative primary voters in CD-4 as they are in CD-3. Abandoning her relatively safe Republican seat for a chance at an incrementally safer one is an acknowledgment of weakness that not even Boebert’s more ardent supporters can spin. The honorable way for Boebert to have ended her career would have been a showdown against Frisch, not placing third or fourth in the primary for a district on the opposite side of the state. Barring some kind of miracle, the latter is now the most likely outcome.

As for CD-3, Frisch, and Barbora Hurd’s husband? Frisch has amassed a war chest to make him a formidable contender no matter who his general election opponent is, and that opponent at this point is very unlikely to be Jeff Hurd. With Boebert out of the CD-3 race, all eyes are on bigger names in CD-3 who now have no disincentive to jump in. From Boebert’s predecessor former Rep. Scott Tipton to recently retired Mesa State President Tim Foster, current and former Republican legislators in the district, and others simply better known than Jeff Hurd, a whole lot of people have a whole new set of variables to consider. Former Sen. Ray Scott alluded to the chaos that may be about to envelop the CD-3 primary:

With nothing like the fierce primary battles setting up among Republicans in these two districts, Democrats looking at 2024 have had the luxury of space to plan the retention of their huge legislative majorities and shoring up freshman Rep. Yadira Caraveo in the state’s newest and swingiest congressional district. Ending Lauren Boebert’s reign of error was the priority that came right after those…and now Boebert may well have taken care of that herself.