November 03, 2009 06:44 PM UTC

Tom Wiens Gets Statewide Buzz

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• by: Colorado Pols

He’s getting more play than Ken Buck ever did, and there’s a good reason–as the Grand Junction Sentinel joins in the statewide reporting:

In what sounds like a reprise of the race between two Grand Junction Republicans running for governor, a former Grand Junction resident is gearing up to run against a Grand Junction native for the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate.

Tom Wiens, a former broadcaster in Grand Junction and now a southwest Douglas County rancher, filed papers as a candidate for the Senate seat now held by Democrat Michael Bennet.

That puts him on a collision course with Jane Norton, a former lieutenant governor and Grand Junction native, who also wants to run for the U.S. Senate seat…

Wiens, a former board member for Club 20, was the 29-year-old GOP candidate against incumbent Democrat Ray Kogovsek in the 3rd Congressional District in 1982.

He sold his radio station, KSTR, when he no longer could rely on air transportation to get him in and out of Grand Junction, and had to move.

He was able to sell the station, but otherwise lost everything in the oil shale bust, he said.

Wiens served in the Colorado House and Senate and had set up an exploratory committee for the U.S. Senate.

Tom Wiens, as we’ve been saying since well before his candidacy was a done deal, is a far more potent theoretical challenger to Jane Norton than Buck or any of the minor GOP Senate candidates. He’s pledged half a million dollars of personal funds to the campaign, but his real strength lies in deep business and personal connections to wealthy donors. If he can execute on his bold promises to raise first-tier U.S. Senate bid money, and if Norton continues to uninspire the GOP base, Wiens could be the “real Republican” this race has been waiting for.