October 17, 2017 09:25 AM UTC

Just How Safe Is Colorado's Most Worthless Congressman?

• 4 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

As the Denver Post’s John Frank reports–Rep. Doug Lamborn of Colorado Springs, who has weathered numerous primary challenges ever since winning his own cut-throat Republican contest to succeed now-long retired (and fondly remembered) Rep. Joel Hefley, has stepped into scandal just as he prepares to face a whole pack of fresh Republican faces in 2018:

U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn of Colorado Springs bought shares of stock in a company at the center of a recent congressional ethics investigation into possible insider trading involving one of his House colleagues…

Lamborn and his wife bought stock in the company in 2016 and again in 2017. Financial disclosures show the couple currently owns between $30,000 and $102,000 of Innate stock.

But the six-term congressman is refusing to answer questions from The Denver Post about his stock purchases, declining multiple interview requests through a spokesman.

An inauspicious development for sure, as Frank points out the trouble:

The ethics investigation comes at a precipitous time for Lamborn. Four fellow Republicans are now challenging him in the party’s 2018 primary, including state Sen. Owen Hill and El Paso County Commissioner and unsuccessful U.S. Senate candidate Darryl Glenn.

For readers who haven’t followed the primary machinations in what is traditionally considered Colorado’s safest Republican congressional district, Lamborn won his congressional seat in 2006 in that year’s GOP primary. Two years later, Lamborn survived a narrow and contentious victory over activist Jeff Crank that was largely the result of opposition to Lamborn being split between Crank and a third candidate, former Gen. Bentley Rayburn. Since that time Lamborn has used the power of incumbency and rubber-stamp support for anything the military-industrial backbone of his district’s economy wants to ward off primary challengers. And naturally, whatever Focus on the Family wants too.

The problem for Lamborn is that he has failed to distinguish himself in any meaningful way after over a decade in Congress–much like his service in the Colorado legislature, where he was best known for his campaign to swap the names of Mount Democrat and Republican Mountain so the latter would be taller. He has not significantly advanced in House leadership, and has essentially no legislative accomplishments to point to. With an ideologically strident electorate in El Paso County, this is a seat that could support a far more vocal and agenda-driven conservative leader.

Instead, they’ve had the opposite. And the big pack of comparatively big names coming after Lamborn in 2018 is strong evidence of dissatisfaction. Lamborn’s insipid and uninspiring brand of leadership is just not what today’s energized conservative base wants and everybody knows it–including Lamborn’s own handlers.

Add in a little scandal, and Lamborn could easily be shown the door.

The biggest obstacle for CD-5 conservatives looking to rid themselves of their milquetoast congressman, just as in 2006, is that Lamborn’s opposition is splitting behind too many (meaning more than one) qualified opponents. As of now, the most likely outcome of the battle for second place emerging between Sen. Owen Hill and 2016 U.S. Senate candidate Darryl Glenn is another term for Doug Lamborn. It’s not like anybody can dictate to these ambitious politicians what’s best for the district, but if they could flip a coin or something and the winner gets to go head-to-head against Lamborn they’d be doing their overall cause a favor.

We would suggest arm-wrestling, but Hill is going to lose.