October 28, 2010 04:34 PM UTC

"Tea Party Fatigue"--New York Times on the Rise and Fall in Colorado

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• by: Colorado Pols

An excellent set of opinions on the current state of the “Tea Party” in Colorado, published in the New York Times yesterday featuring local opinionmakers Fred Brown, Anne Hyde of Colorado College, Barry Poulson and Scott Adler of CU, Michael de Yoanna of 5280, and Robert Duffy and John Straayer of CSU. Worth reading in its entirety, here are short excerpts from each:

BROWN: One is an effort to further restrict the Colorado Legislature’s ability to address fiscal issues. Libertarian and anti-tax activists in 1992 succeeded in winning voter approval for an amendment, known by the acronym TABOR, that removes from the Legislature any authority to raise taxes. In many cases, revenue increases — without any change in actual tax rates — are considered tax increases and must be approved by the state’s voters. Higher education in particular has been defunded as the Legislature searches desperately for ways to balance the budget in difficult economic times.

The second example of anti-government overreaching is the governor’s race. Republicans in their primary nominated a Tea Party-backed candidate, Dan Maes, who is considered unqualified even by many of the party’s stalwarts. He also faces a challenge on the right from a former Republican, Tom Tancredo, who seems to be more popular than Mr. Maes. Mr. Maes has had difficulty raising money; Mr. Tancredo, a former congressman who crusaded against illegal immigration, is considered too conservative by many voters…

HYDE: Only enormous federal assistance — first in the form of the military clearing out native people, then in great national subsidies for railroads and finally giant water projects — made it possible for people to live in Colorado. Small government and small deficits a la the Tea Party would have made it impossible to immigrate to Colorado, to stake out homesteads or urban lots, or to survive here at all.

POULSON: The three tax measures on the ballot this year never had strong support. They call for a reduction in taxes and fees, but also restrict the ability of state and local governments to issue debt, and roll back property taxes. I think that most Colorado citizens do not see the need for these measures because we have the TABOR Amendment which has successfully constrained the growth of state and local government. I think most Colorado citizens will support fiscally conservative candidates, particularly at the federal level.

DE YOANNA: The decline in enthusiasm for the Tea Party movement and low voter support for the anti-tax ballot measures are somewhat surprising. We didn’t expect this sort of apathy from the Tea Party. What appears to be happening, if only for the moment, is a loss of political heart that can be traced to the state’s once-almighty Republican Party.

DUFFY: The bulk of Tea Party supporters in Colorado either identify themselves as Republicans or as Republican-leaning independents. During the primaries, Republican candidates for governor and U.S. Senate competed to win the support of the Tea Party crowd, because those folks were seen as critical to securing the G.O.P. nominations. Dan Maes and Ken Buck, Tea Party favorites, ultimately won those nominations, despite (or perhaps because of) outright opposition from party leaders.

But in the process, both staked out positions on critical issues that although popular with Republican primary voters, are much less appealing to voters in a general election. This is particularly true of unaffiliated voters who, in Colorado, have tended to be fiscally conservative and moderate to liberal on social issues. Furthermore, neither Mr. Maes nor Mr. Buck had been fully vetted.

ADLER: This experience of weak Tea Party candidates has been repeated in other races that held real prospects for Republican gains: Christine O’Donnell in Delaware, Sharron Angle in Nevada and Carl Paladino in New York, to name a few. The negative mood of voters has attracted a slightly higher than average share of “out-party” Republican challengers with prior political experience. But foibles by these weaker candidates are garnering the lion’s share of news media attention. This is likely contributing to some of the diminished support for the Tea Party movement nationally.

STRAAYER: Unknown Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes became the darling of the Tea-types, and thanks to their support and the scandal-plagued candidacy of former Representative Scott McInnis, Mr. Maes captured the G.O.P. nomination by a narrow margin.

Soon thereafter, the Maes candidacy imploded, and former Republican Representative Tom Tancredo, notorious for his stand on immigration, jumped in on the American Constitution Party ticket. The resulting G.O.P. division pushed Tea Party followers, and conservatives generally, in several directions — a shrinking number for Mr. Maes, many for Mr. Tancredo, some to the sidelines in disgust. Reaping the harvest is Democratic candidate and current Denver mayor, John Hickenlooper.