July 17, 2009 06:22 PM UTC

Ken Buck: A Rocket From The Crypt

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• by: Colorado Pols

We’ll be honest with you: somewhere between the faceplanted campaign launch, the not-so-good press over invasion of privacy in pursuit of illegal immigrants, and rumors that key campaign consultant firms were abandoning ship, we were beginning to entertain serious doubts about Weld County DA Ken Buck as a viable candidate for the U.S. Senate.

Prematurely, as the Greeley Tribune reports:

Ken Buck’s campaign for U.S. Senate brought in more than twice as much money as that of his Republican challenger in the three-month period ending June 30.

Buck, Weld County’s district attorney, raised $332,655.97 during the quarter, according to a prepared release from Buck’s campaign, Ken Buck for U.S. Senate. Aurora City Councilman Ryan Frazier, the only other Republican who has officially entered the race to challenge Democrat Michael Bennet in 2010, raised $140,000 in just more than two months since announcing his exploratory committee on April 15.

“I think we did very well,” Buck said Thursday. “I was very happy. We’ve got a recession, and we have a lot of challenges to raising money, and I was really happy with the amount that we raised.”

The deadline to report fundraising activities to federal elections officials was Wednesday. Bennet, D-Colo., announced Wednesday he had raised $1.2 million between April and June…

Sure it’s a fraction of what Bennet got, but it was enough–conventional wisdom assumed that primary opponent Ryan Frazier would need and would try to bring the house down with a huge haul, or at least a big enough haul to seriously discourage Buck and what was perceived to be Buck’s declining base of support.

Instead, Buck comes out of Q2 looking whiplash-inducing strong, and Frazier had better get serious on the quick before people start wondering if he really is out of his league after all. We’ve always been skeptical about a Frazier candidacy, not least because he is a virtual unknown whose highest public office is the Aurora City Council. Another quarter like this from both Buck and Frazier, and the GOP primary will be well on its way to being settled.