9NEWS’ Marshall Zelinger Tweeted photos from today’s “rally” for the so-called Unite Colorado slate of candidates, formerly known as the Centrist Project–an out-of-state funded project supporting state legislative candidates running mostly in swing Democratic districts, with the clear purpose of splitting Democratic votes and electing Republicans despite an oncoming Democratic “wave year.”
As we’ve discussed it’s a novel strategy, but judging from today’s turnout it’s not amounting to much:
The “Unite Colorado” candidates running to disrupt tight Democratic races (with a few token Republican-held districts thrown in for what we assume are diversionary purposes) have quite a bit in common strategically with the “Walk Away” movement being promoted by conservative media outlets–both attempting to demoralize and divide Democrats, and thereby reduce what are almost universally expected to be major Democratic gains in the midterm elections. None of the Unite Colorado candidates need to win in order to achieve their objectives, only pull enough votes away from Democrats in close races to swing them–much the same way that Libertarian candidates have undercut Republicans in swing races for many years.
But where Libertarians have a well-established party apparatus and ideological niche they speak for, Unite Colorado is a contrived movement, led by a young conservative activist who actually says that “It doesn’t really matter to voters” where you “stand on the issues.” It doesn’t even matter if you agree! It’s only important, says Nick Troiano, that your candidates be “different.”
All told it’s an insult to the intelligence of all voters, but especially Democratic voters.
As of today, though, it doesn’t look like many real-life Democrats are buying in.
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darlinglittle Nutter is easily confused by the letters 'y' and 'e'. It's not the Unity gathering that was a bust, it's Unite. He’s a modern-day Nostradamus.Back to our regularly-scheduled, (adult) programming.
Damn. That's a bad turnout for a Capitol tour
“Walk Away” also a Russian Bot tactic. Colorado a swing state – and target – for a reason.
You'd think they have better things to do…like supporting Space ISIS?!? (starts at 1:36)
Gee, where did I hear that before? Oh, it was before the 2016 election.
The party in power almost always loses seats. How "major" remains to be seen.
Maile Foster is running on the Unite Colorado ticket in EPCO's HD18. It's a winnable district for Dems, in my opinion – in the primary, Dems together garnered 9,557 ballots turned in, while the Republican candidate, Likness, only received 5.929 votes.
In every other EPCO race, Republicans received twice as many primary votes as Democrats, except in squeaker HD17, where incumbent Exum got 38 votes more than his opponent, Kit Roupe.
So the Foster candidacy is a transparent attempt to weaken Dems in this swing district.
Didn't the Republican drop out of that race?
Yes, she did, ( see recent Likness diary – I can’t post links from iPad). So theiy have to scrounge up a replacement candidate . But Foster, as I noted is essentially a Republican running as an independent.
If Foster is essentially a Republican, won't she weaken Republicans?
We can hope so. Her choice of language on her website would support that; she talks about being pragmatic, about her background as a financial adviser, about helping people to save and invest money, and uses adjectives such as "pragmatic" and "independent' to describe herself. She also talks about not having to "answer to party bosses or special interests", which is a dog whistle for anti-union and anti-labor policy.
But she also has the warm fuzzies and empathy-inducing biography of being a single mom and grandma,, encountering discrimination and economic hardship, so she could appeal to people who want to see more compassion in legislation. She talks a good game about healthcare reform and education funding.
So she could hurt both major parties, I'm thinking.
Short of actually winning, she can't hurt both parties. If she siphons off 200 Democrats and 100 Republicans, she hurts Democrats, period.
The ploy which is being funded by Republican donors is to appeal to Democratic leaning independents of the Jill Stein hue and peel them away from the Democratic candidate. They just need to shave a couple of percentage points to swing races to tip the balance. This is asshole cheaters pretending they care about the environment or economic equality. It's a scam and this group should have to register as a political party and identify who they are and how they are funded.
If it is a Dem vs. an Indy in that district, chance of a Dem win there is 95%, easily. Not that the Dem should rest on their laurels.
Are you warming folks of the dangers associated with wasting their votes on third party candidates?
You're welcome, MJ.
I think the point of Pols original post is that "Unite Colorado" isn't really a 3rd party, more like a Republican party in disguise. Some research into funding sources might be revealing.