March 28, 2006 09:00 AM UTC

A Weak Statement of Neutrality

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• by: Colorado Pols

The Be the Change group apparently caved in to pressure in their discussions surrounding the three Democratic candidates for CD-7 and today issued a “Statement of Neutrality,” which is the worst thing they could have done for their organization. 

We wrote in December that organization figurehead Mike Miles wanted Be the Change to make an official endorsement in CD-7 as a way of creating some political legitimacy for their organization. In order for their support to carry some weight, they needed to officially back a candidate — and what better race to do that in than in the most heavily-contested seat in the country?

What happened? As we wrote last week, Be the Change had decided to issue a joint endorsement of both Ed Perlmutter and Herb Rubenstein. They hadn’t formally announced the endorsement, but the decision definitely had been made. When word got out, via Colorado Pols and elsewhere, Peggy Lamm supporters started heavily lobbying members of Be the Change on her behalf, and rather than stick to their decision the membership chose the least controversial move they could make: They did nothing.