February 13, 2010 01:57 AM UTC

Buck Scores Significant Right-Roots Endorsement

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• by: Colorado Pols

We keep trying to write off GOP Senate candidate Ken Buck, who raised a pitiful amount of money last quarter, and who we think would probably have a better shot running for Congress in CD-4 than a Senate race he has yet to demonstrate the aptitude to participate in.

And then the Greeley Tribune reports:

Senate candidate Ken Buck picked up the endorsement Thursday from national Republican heavyweight Erick Erickson, the conservative editor in chief of the influential RedState.com.

“There are some others in the race, but I think Ken’s background is going to help him win,” Erickson wrote in the endorsement on the site, which is described as an online community for conservatives. “I like him. We’re not going to have to wonder if he’s one of those ‘split the baby’ politicians.”

Erickson noted that Buck, who is the Weld district attorney, is a defender of Colorado’s Taxpayers Bill of Rights and that he’s a candidate who recognizes that interference from the federal government weakens states.

“I think it’s great news,” Buck said of the endorsement. “It is confirmation that we’re being recognized around the country as the grass-roots Senatorial campaign in Colorado.”

RedState.com, which is often referenced by conservative pundit Rush Limbaugh on his show, is frequently credited in playing a role in Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown’s success in his Senate campaign and was one of the key critics of liberal New York Republican Dede Scozzafava…

“It is the blog that’s read by Capitol Hill staffers and Capital Hill lawmakers. It’s the place in the Republican Party you can go to get a pulse of what’s happening in the heartland,” Robert Bluey, director of online strategy for the Heritage Foundation and a former RedState contributor, told the Miami Herald. “And if you’re working at the (National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee or National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee), you’re always on edge about what Erick Erickson is going to do because he can either be your biggest advocate or a huge thorn in your side.”

This is correct: every bit as much as you’d consider an endorsement from Markos Moulitsas to be significant on the left, Erick Erickson is a central figure in the conservative blogosphere and his nod matters. Whether or not this means anything in terms of actually affecting the outcome of the GOP Senate primary against Jane Norton remains to be seen, but you can’t just blow off a nationally prominent endorsement like this one–Erickson’s write-up easily doubled the number of people in Washington who have heard of Ken Buck, probably more.