November 17, 2011 09:48 PM UTC

Buh-Bye, Don Beezley

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• by: Colorado Pols

Reports Joe Rubino of the Broomfield Enterprise:

A little more than a year after helping Republicans take back a majority in the Colorado House of Representatives, Broomfield Rep. Don Beezley has announced he will not run for a second term in 2012.

Beezley narrowly defeated incumbent Democrat Dianne Primavera in 2010 to claim the House District 33 seat. He was one of six new Republican representatives elected last year to the Statehouse, giving the party control of that body for the first time since 2004. House District 33 encompasses Broomfield, Superior and parts of Erie…

Judy Enderle was recently elected chairwoman of the Broomfield County Democrats. She said she and her fellow local Democrats suspected Beezley would choose not to run again and consider reclaiming the House District 33 seat their No. 1 priority next year.

“That has always been a targeted house district,” Enderle said. “We could regain the majority.”

Rep. Don Beezley always struck us as a liability waiting to happen to Colorado House Republicans–a track record established long before he ever ran for the legislature with his colorful likening of recycling programs to “the Soviets and Nazis,” or smoking bans to genocide. And let’s not forget the astute observation that we “have communist models within the system (public education, for example).” In his half-term so far in the legislature, he’s had some great moments, like when he suggested that “Hollywood liberals” are “in the backyard rolling around in C-notes snorting coke.” Evidently, though, legislative life got kind of boring.

In the most contentious of swing districts, which House District 33 certainly has been, you probably want somebody who’s fully committed–and doesn’t sound so, well, crazy (although this is the same district that was once represented by Shawn Mitchell).

Because “crazy” puts a whole different spin on the word “committed.”