January 27, 2012 10:12 PM UTC

Eric Weissmann Joins CD-2 GOP Primary (With More To Follow?)

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• by: Colorado Pols

That’s the word we got from Boulder today, confirming an early report by the Colorado Statesman back in December—Eric Weissmann, a political novice investment banker from Boulder, will announce next week that he is challenging state Sen. Kevin Lundberg in the GOP primary to take on incumbent Democratic Rep. Jared Polis in November.

Our understanding is that to the extent Republicans in the new CD-2 are taking the possibility of running against Polis seriously (more on that in a moment), they’re not at all confident about Weissmann despite his potential ability to self-fund his campaign. Weissmann’s background as a Mitt Romney-style “corporate raider” is a liability in Boulder and its liberal environs, and we’ve heard that Weissmann has been known to wax a little nutty with his rhetoric–which isn’t to say that Sen. Lundberg, his only so-far declared challenger, isn’t just as bad.

Either way, in the Loveland Reporter-Herald earlier this month, Boulder County GOP chairman Joel Champion claimed at least five Republican candidates are considering this race. With both Sen. Lundberg and the relatively unknown Weissmann possessing their own special liabilities, we’re also watching for somebody from a bigger league to perhaps jump in.

What might possibly stop that as-yet-unnamed more credible GOP challenger from emerging in this race is the better understanding of the newly redistricted CD-2 all parties have now. Although the new district is nominally closer in terms of party representation, with Democrats only at about a 4% advantage, historical voting patterns in the new district show it was in fact solidly carried–62%–by Barack Obama in 2008, and 55% for Michael Bennet in 2010. We’ve said before that despite the party registration shift in the new CD-2, Jared Polis will remain very hard to beat there, and analysis of the new district bears that out quite clearly.

But who knows? Maybe Hank Brown will come out of retirement.