February 27, 2019 12:19 PM UTC

Gardner's Campaign Kickoff: Who's Missing Work Now?

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• by: Colorado Pols

THURSDAY UPDATE: For the record,

.@coloradodems spox retracts earlier attack on @SenCoryGardner after @colo_politics asks if it was accurate. “… this isn’t what we strive to do,” @davidkpoursh writes in the extremely rare (and classy) mea culpa. #cosen #copolitics pic.twitter.com/9HOp46vqB7

— Ernest Lee Luning (@eluning) February 28, 2019

Gardner seems to be getting credit for participating in this hearing before heading to his campaign kickoff. Fair enough, it was a short drive anyway.

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On the day of Sen. Cory Gardner’s not-balleyhooed-enough re-election campaign kickoff at an undisclosed location somewhere in Washington, D.C.–the irony of which we took note of a couple of weeks ago–the watchful eyes at American Bridge were obligated to point out a conspicuous absence today from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee:

Meanwhile across the Capitol– @CoryGardner is no longer present at a Senate Foreign Relations hearing. Perhaps he’s en route to his campaign kickoff? #copolitics #cosen pic.twitter.com/bOTUt2XUtR

— Amelia Penniman (@AmeliaPenniman) February 27, 2019

That’s right, folks! With important business before Sen. Cory Gardner’s most prestigious committee appointment, Gardner’s calling card when he pays a visit to such international luminaries as murderous Filipino strongman Rodrigo Duterte, Colorado’s junior U.S. Senator apparently had to bug out to make his campaign kickoff fundraiser.

But wait, you ask, how can we expect Gardner to be in two places at once? The short and entirely correct answer is that you can’t, but his noticeably empty seat is one of the liabilities that any incumbent U.S. Senator running for re-election has little choice but to endure. Readers will recall back in 2014 when Gardner gleefully pressed nearly identical attacks on Democratic Sen. Mark Udall for having to split his day between his duties in the Senate and the rigors of the campaign trail. Today, the shoe is simply on the other foot.

By kicking off his re-election campaign in Washington instead of back home in Colorado, Gardner may have simplified the equation, at least for the time being.

Though not in a way that Colorado voters will appreciate.