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October 09, 2020 10:37 AM UTC

Denver Post (Mostly) Exorcises Itself of Cory Gardner

  • 5 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols
President Trump and Sen. Cory Gardner.

Six years ago, the Denver Post editorial board delivered an endorsement of Cory Gardner to unseat Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Udall in the 2014 U.S. Senate race that outraged and demoralized Colorado Democrats ahead of an election they went on to lose by less than two percent of the vote.

Although the relative value of newspaper endorsements is perennially disputed by the side who doesn’t get the nod, in retrospect it is generally acknowledged that the Post’s endorsement of Gardner was indeed a factor in Gardner’s narrow victory–in no small part due to specific assurances offered by the editorial board that concerns about Gardner’s threat on “culture war” issues was overblown:

If Gardner had been a cultural warrior throughout his career, we would hesitate to support him, because we strongly disagree with him on same-sex marriage and abortion rights. But in fact he has emphasized economic and energy issues (and was, for example, an early supporter among Republicans of renewable energy).

For that matter, his past views on same-sex marriage are becoming irrelevant now that the Supreme Court has let appeals court rulings stand and marriage equality appears unstoppable. And contrary to Udall’s tedious refrain, Gardner’s election would pose no threat to abortion rights.

In March of 2019, following Gardner’s about-face on President Donald Trump’s national emergency declaration to obtain funds for construction of Trump’s wall on the southern U.S. border, the Post’s editorial board admitted that for this and so many other reasons brought to light by Trump’s presidency, their 2014 endorsement was a mistake:

We endorsed Sen. Cory Gardner in 2014 because we believed he’d be a statesman. We knew he’d be a conservative voice in Congress, to be certain, but we thought his voice would bring “fresh leadership, energy and ideas.”

We see now that was a mistake – consider this our resolution of disapproval.

In today’s endorsement of former Gov. John Hickenlooper to unseat Gardner, the Post’s institutional regret for their 2014 endorsement of Cory Gardner, widely credited rightly or wrongly with steepening the Post’s circulation decline in subsequent years, is blisteringly apparent:

Gardner declined to meet with The Denver Post editorial board for our endorsement process. In part, we are sure, that is because of a harsh editorial we wrote in 2019 after he didn’t join 12 other Republicans to repudiate the fake emergency declaration President Donald Trump used to steal congressionally appropriated funds from the Department of Defense. “Gardner could still prove to be a great senator for Colorado, a man who puts his state and his principles above party and politics,” we wrote concluding it was a mistake to endorse him in 2014 if he was not going to stand on principle when the nation needed him most.

Gardner traded unyielding party fealty for election-year favors: the Arkansas Valley Conduit, moving dozens of Bureau of Land Management employees to Colorado, and securing billions of dollars a year for the Land and Water Conservation Fund to purchase additional public lands and pay for a backlog of projects in our nation’s parks.

The price for these wins was too steep at the federal level. [Pols emphasis] President Donald Trump reigned unchecked — crashing through norms, knocking down constitutional protections, stirring up racial animus, leaving American allies abroad out in the cold, and claiming more and more authority for the executive branch of government. Gardner had many opportunities to oppose the administration’s “burn it down” approach to governance. Instead, he joined the enablers who turned a blind eye to Trump’s corruption.

It’s troubling that nowhere in this endorsement does the Post address the enormous mistake they made in 21014 in declaring that “Gardner’s election would pose no threat to abortion rights.” The solidification of a conservative majority on the Supreme Court since Trump took office, now on the verge of a 6-3 majority, has placed abortion rights in Colorado and across the nation in immediate danger–a shift Gardner is directly responsible for with his actions as a U.S. Senator. The case made by the Post to remove Gardner from office for his fealty to Trump over Colorado is correct, but missing a crucial detail directly relevant to Coloradans’ votes–both for Gardner and Proposition 115, the abortion ban measure on the ballot this year.

For today, though, the Post has done a great deal to put this regrettable decision six years ago by a different editorial board behind them. Gardner’s victory in 2014, against the prevailing political trends in the state before and since, damaged reputations and ruined friendships across Colorado’s political class. Gardner’s defeat next month, assuming the polls are correct, marks the end of the greatest electoral error by Colorado in a generation.

Comments

5 thoughts on “Denver Post (Mostly) Exorcises Itself of Cory Gardner

  1. "Six years ago, the Denver Post editorial board delivered an endorsement of Cory Gardner to unseat Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Udall in the 2014 U.S. Senate race that outraged and demoralized Colorado Democrats"

    And I have not subscribed to that rag ever since.

  2. In a television ad for his U.S. Senate campaign in Colorado, he[Cory] declared that the pill should be available “ ’round the clock, without a prescription.”

    And I'm certain Cory will get around to that non-prescription birth control medication ANY DAY now.

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