October 09, 2020 12:30 PM UTC

Boebert Unites Colorado Media...Behind Her Opponent

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• by: Colorado Pols

It can be difficult to find common ground in today’s bitter political environment, but Republican Lauren “Q*Bert” Boebert is proving to be a uniter in at least one sense: Colorado media outlets agree that she should absolutely not be elected to Congress.

As the editorial board of The Durango Herald writes in its endorsement of Democrat Diane Mitsch Bush in CO-03:

Boebert has held no elective office, nor been a member of any city or county committee or panel. In response, she might say that raising with her husband their four boys, and going from a McDonald’s employee to small business owner, required full time attention and energy. She is 33 with a high school equivalency degree…

…Boebert’s ascendancy to Congressional candidate could be an example of what makes this country so special.

But the Herald’s editorial board believes experiences build on one another, that to expect to advocate for legislation in office building hallways, to participate in Congressional hearings, to go to the microphone in the House chamber, requires some time in community and state decision-making positions, even very local ones. A term on a school board can be a significant learning experience.

Boebert has had none of that while wanting to be one of Colorado’s seven House members (likely soon to be eight).

Colorado’s third congressional district has been a pretty safe Republican stronghold for the last decade; it is certainly not a foregone conclusion that the Democratic candidate for Congress would sweep up every newspaper endorsement in 2020. Mitsch Bush deserves plenty of credit for running a strong campaign for Congress in her second time around (DMB lost to incumbent Republican Rep. Scott Tipton in 2018), but she’s had plenty of help from Boebert.

Mitsch Bush has thus far swept the relevant newspaper endorsements in CO-03: The Denver Post, The Pueblo Chieftain; and now The Durango Herald. The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel did not make an official endorsement, but made it very clear in a recent editorial that Boebert is an unqualified mess. Boebert hasn’t helped her case by either refusing to meet with editorial boards or stonewalling them at every turn.

Boebert’s shtick as an angry mom with a gun was enough to vault her past Tipton in the June Primary, and she still has a chance to win in November thanks to the Republican tilt of the district overall. If Boebert does eke out a victory in CO-03, it will be in spite of herself; as these endorsements have shown, Boebert has failed to make an argument that she is anything more than the silly caricature she portrays.