May 18, 2009 11:25 PM UTC

GOP Gubernatorial Candidates Make Rounds

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• by: Colorado Pols

Although neither of the two men expected to compete for the GOP nomination in next year’s race for Governor have actually filed their papers to run, we defy you to tell the difference between Scott McInnis, Josh Penry and, well, actual candidates.

Which is getting kind of stupid in McInnis’ case, as the Steamboat Pilot and Today reported from this weekend’s Routt County Lincoln Day dinner:

Former Colorado Congressman Scott McInnis all but guaranteed he will take on Gov. Bill Ritter in the 2010 gubernatorial election at the Routt County Republicans’ Lincoln Day Dinner fundraiser Friday.

McInnis said Colorado campaign laws prevent him from formally announcing his candidacy but promised the local audience, “I’m ready for a little fight.” When local party Chairman Jack Taylor said McInnis was “seriously considering” running for governor, McInnis replied, “That would be an understatement.”

We can confirm this is an understatement, since we’ve already heard McInnis describe in detail how he’s polling voters, got staff on the “day-to-day” operations of the campaign, and Sean Tonner running his a 527! An obviously full-blown candidacy, McInnis’ temporizing is more plainly a matter of skirting the law with each passing day. He basically admitted as much above. How long does this charade go on before the Secretary of State or the ethics watchdogs go ballistic? The word we hear is “not very much longer,” lest campaign laws become even more of a joke.

Meanwhile, all-but-declared primary opponent Josh Penry is making rounds of his own, as the Craig Daily Press reported this weekend:

Moffat County’s legislators, Sen. Al White, R-Hayden, and Rep. Randy Baumgardner, R-Hot Sulphur Springs, were joined during the second day of the Fueling Thought Energy Summit 2009 by Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry, R-Grand Junction…

Each of the legislators spoke out against new energy industry regulations created by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Com mission and approved this year by the Legislature…

“To suggest these rules have no impact on the precipitous decline of oil and gas on the Western Slope is to ignore the realities that are there,” Penry said.

Permit applications are down, rig counts are down, just about every indicator associated with the energy industry is down, he said.

The “most frustrating” part, Penry added, was that there was no compromise among legislators, even those from the Western Slope, who normally stand together. The vote broke along part[y] lines.

Wow, this again? Penry must assume that nobody checks his facts, or reads about how his “facts” have already been checked–and debunked. Colorado is not suffering a bigger drop in energy exploration than other states–that’s a lie by Penry’s own numbers. And as soon as you realize that Colorado’s new drilling rules cannot possibly be the cause of a drop in explotation that is affecting every state in the country, you can’t help but wonder why you’re being fed a line of bull.

But as intellectually bankrupt as Penry’s stump speech may be, we have to say that he’s in a better position than McInnis so far. While McInnis has swung haplessly from gaffe to gaffe, Penry is rapidly amassing support among elite Republicans. GOP Chairman Dick Wadhams claimed in the Steamboat Pilot article above that the “new” GOP was all about “grass-roots involvement and internal competition rather than strategizing by the party elite,” but we don’t know anybody who believes that–Wadhams is the face of the “party elite.” And it was a “party elite” who received, then leaked though a GOP website, McInnis’ damaging voice mail–wasn’t it?

Penry is defying our earlier speculation that he would fall behind other contenders and perhaps even decide not to run at all. All indications are at this moment that Penry not only fully intends to run, but that the right-wing base in Colorado will soon lock in behind him.