And That's Why I'm Running for Congress...Somewhere in Colorado

28 Comments

by: Colorado Pols

One of the quirks that come in a redistricting year is that the Federal Election Commission is a bit lax on requiring candidates seeking a Congressional office to actually state which office they plan to run for. Take, for example, the case of Democrat Perry Haney, a wealthy Greenwood Village chiropractor who wants to run for Congress…somewhere.

Haney has been meeting with Democrats in Colorado and in Washington D.C., telling them that he plans to run for Congress, but he won’t say where he plans to kickoff his campaign. Is it against Republican Rep. Mike Coffman (and Democratic challenger Joe Miklosi) in CD-6? Is it to take on Republican Rep. Scott Tipton in CD-3, where Democrat Sal Pace has been running full-steam ahead for months?

We visited his website, paid for by “The Perry Haney for Congress Exploratory Committee,” to “explore” that question, and it doesn’t indicate anywhere that he has decided where he will run, though a look at some of the pictures and the text makes it appear as though he’s definitely leaning more towards CD-3 than anywhere else. We did get a kick out of his issue statement “On Career Politicians,” where Haney talks, of course, about how he is not a career politician; but he’s got the career politician thing figured out, it seems, since he won’t even commit to a district.

Haney recently sent a mail piece to Democratic delegates in CD-3 that left a UPS Store P.O. Box in Grand Junction as the return address, giving more indication that he may, perhaps, choose to run in Southern and Western Colorado (though he never explicitly says in the letter that he is running for Congress in CD-3). If he does run there, he will have a lot of explaining to do about being a wealthy Denver resident with little previous involvement in politics. Haney has made several donations to Democrats over the years, but he has also donated regularly to Republicans; Haney gave Scott McInnis a $500 check in his campaign for Colorado governor in 2009, $250 to Republican Attorney General Gale Norton in 1995, and $200 to the National Republican Congressional Committee in 1996. This won’t help him earn any friends in a Democratic primary, either.

We don’t see how Haney could possibly win a Democratic primary wherever he ultimately decides to run for Congress. We hear that he does have some personal wealth that he might commit to a campaign, and he had better hope so — we don’t see him raising much money as an unknown Denverite with no natural base in CD-3 or CD-6. But maybe he’ll figure this out as part of his grand “exploration.”

28 thoughts on “And That’s Why I’m Running for Congress…Somewhere in Colorado”

ChuckZ says:

July 21, 2011 at 12:09 am

I mean really, which politician actually lives in their district and knows their community. You guys are just idealists.

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1. Leonard Smalls says:
  
  July 21, 2011 at 7:13 am
  
  DeGette will never see his primary challenge coming.
  
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WitnessProtectionForGeeks says:

July 21, 2011 at 12:19 am

Jared was rich and largely self funded (I know he also raised a bunch of money), but he had spent years working up to a run, including prior elective office.

It also cracks me up the “career politician” knock. Do people seriously want the only professionals to be non elected government employees or the paid lobbyists? That is not a recipe for good governance in this, or Plato’s, era.

Please don’t give me the career Doctor, Mechanic, or tight end–just give me somebody who read a few articles and thinks they can do better.

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Gardnerpath says:

July 21, 2011 at 12:20 am

All 13 of them. Judging by his Facebook page, Haney’s been quite busy meeting folks. This is definitely the first I’ve heard of him. I hope he adds some spice to whatever campaign he is thinking of running in.

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caroman says:

July 21, 2011 at 1:23 am

I’m jealous.

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BlueCat says:

July 21, 2011 at 4:03 am

this guy will go over real well in CD3.

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Awen says:

July 21, 2011 at 4:11 am

When he dropped the news to the DP ed board about Shaffer and Pace back in May, Hoyer also mentioned Haney as a challenger to Tipton. Although he lives somewhere near CD6, he also owns property in CD3, according to Hoyer.

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bjwilson83 says:

July 21, 2011 at 4:25 am

You almost make me feel sorry for you. All that hard work for Pace down the drain. Almost.

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1. Aristotle says:
  
  July 21, 2011 at 4:33 am
  
  I don’t think, between you and Pols, that Pols is the one deserving pity.
  
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2. Ralphie says:
  
  July 21, 2011 at 4:34 am
  
  about CD-3?
  
  You don’t even understand your own district.
  
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  1. bjwilson83 says:
    
    July 22, 2011 at 1:40 am
    
    I bow before the wisdom of Betsy Markey. Because of course she understood her district so much better.
    
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    1. Ralphie says:
      
      July 22, 2011 at 4:15 am
      
      I do.
      
      Your point?
      
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LemonLyman says:

July 21, 2011 at 5:23 am

Why doesn’t someone call him up and ask which district he’s running in?

970-987-2704

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1. RedGreen says:
  
  July 21, 2011 at 7:54 am
  
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  1. LemonLyman says:
    
    July 22, 2011 at 12:57 am
    
    it’s on his website. it’s public. don’t be a wuss.
    
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    1. RedGreen says:
      
      July 22, 2011 at 2:14 am
      
      That doesn’t mean posting them in a forum encouraging people to call them is cool. It’s not.
      
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      1. Ralphie says:
        
        July 22, 2011 at 4:17 am
        
        are phone numbers on websites.
        
        When someone puts a phone number on a website, they have no reasonable expectation of privacy.
        
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Half Glass Full says:

July 21, 2011 at 7:18 am

Just ask any Denver-area lawyer about the good Dr. Perry Haney. Issued citations for improper medical practices – excessive treatment (massage) – by both Colorado and Iowa: http://www.sate.ia.us/ibme/Pre…

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1. Half Glass Full says:
  
  July 21, 2011 at 7:23 am
  
  Google wouldn’t let me cut and paste it. It should be:
  
  http://www.state.ia.us/ibme/Pr…
  
  And if that doesn’t work, just Google “perry haney suspended practice” and it’s the top result.
  
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  1. Gray in Mountains says:
    
    July 21, 2011 at 5:02 pm
    
    hurting a job creator
    
    Seriously, many, many chiropractors have engaged in many, many questionable practices both in business and their practice. I look forward to some indepth research.
    
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pueblogrouch says:

July 21, 2011 at 9:30 am

At Tuesday nights executive committee meeting, our chair, Ron Greenwell, came in with a Haney `campaign tee shirt. He had met with him a day or two before. He told Ron that he had ties to one of the towns east of Pueblo.

We looked up his voter registration info and learned that he lives in Greenwood Village. His campaign site says Grand Junction. I presumed that he is a dino that Scott talked into giving Sal a primary.

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1. MADCO says:
  
  July 21, 2011 at 4:09 pm
  
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2. ColoSquare says:
  
  July 21, 2011 at 8:09 pm
  
  I can’t imagine Pueblo County Dems will take too kindly to his support of a Denver Doctor over a candidate who, you know, lives in Pueblo.
  
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  1. pueblogrouch says:
    
    July 22, 2011 at 8:08 am
    
    Our chair doesn’t support him, he just brought the shirt in to warn us.
    
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    1. ColoSquare says:
      
      July 22, 2011 at 10:28 pm
      
      Sorry I misread your first post
      
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