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March 15, 2012 07:36 PM UTC

Let's Make a Trade!

  • 19 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE/CLARIFICATION: We added something to the guidelines (after the jump) to clear up some confusion.

—–

Today is the trade deadline in the NBA, and while professional basketball may not interest you, it got us to thinking about what would happen if you could trade elected officials (insert obvious jokes here).

For example, would you trade Republican Rep. Mike Coffman for Democratic Denver Mayor Michael Hancock? This is a purely political exercise, so don’t worry about policies or ideologies. Think of Democrats and Republicans as two different sports teams, so if they are traded they assume the general ideology of their new party.

In the case above, a Democratic Coffman would let the donkeys gain, and probably hold, another Congressional seat while also taking Coffman out of a potential Senate race in 2014. In exchange, Republicans would get the Denver Mayor’s office, which can be a great bully pulpit and fundraising position (yes, we know that the Denver Mayor is technically “nonpartisan,” but Hancock is absolutely a Democrat). The downside for Democrats is losing control of the city that is the very heart of the state; the downside for Republicans is that Hancock would face a strong challenger for re-election.

Go ahead and propose some theoretical trades in the comments section, and we’ll take the best and most interesting and put them to a vote in a later post; we’ll also post our own mock trades a bit later.

Click to read the guidelines after the jump, and remember: This is a game of politics, not policy. The point of a trade would be to theoretically make your “team” (in this case, your political party) better as a whole and in stronger position to win future elections.

 

Let’s Make a Trade Guidelines

UPDATE: The political office that the person currently holds goes with them in a trade. If you trade Sen. Michael Bennet to the Republicans in exchange for State Sen. Greg Brophy (an example from the comments below), Bennet is still a U.S. Senator — but he’s now a Republican Senator.

  • The trade must be theoretically acceptable to both sides. In other words, you wouldn’t get anywhere by proposing a trade of Sen. Mark Udall for a Grand Junction city council member.
  • If the trade were accepted, the elected officials would change parties and essentially vote/govern the exact opposite of their current stance. Basically, they are playing for a new team and would be expected to help their new friends.
  • Whoever is traded would have to run for re-election as a member of their new party. You could trade Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Denver) for Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colorado Springs), but they would both almost certainly lose a re-election bid.
  • Current and past politicos are eligible to be traded. You could swap Democrat Bill Ritter for Republican Bill Owens and run a former governor for a future office.
  • Don’t be afraid to put together a nice package trade. Would Republicans trade Rep. Cory Gardner and Coffman in exchange for Gov. John Hickenlooper?
  • Feel free to propose trades of national politicians. You can also trade someone who is not an elected official but a serious power broker nonetheless (Tim Gill, Larry Mizel, etc.)

    • If we need to clarify further, we’ll answer questions from the comments thread with updates to this list.

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    19 thoughts on “Let’s Make a Trade!”

    1. It’s an even trade, and I think as a Democrat it would work out perfectly. Perlmutter could hold the new CD6 and Coffman would lose CD7.

      Am I playing this game right? I usually suck at these…

    7. How about D. DeGette for M. Johnston and a plumb job in the next Obama administration.

      A young player with potential goes to Washington and a veteran leader keeps working within the beltway. Can you say Health & Human Services.

      1. Romanoff for DeGette, with a nasty Senate hearing to be named later.

        (“Rep DeGette, why should we appoint you to the head of DHHS when Big Med/Big Pharma pretty much owns your ass?”)

    8. light rail to Fitzsimmons/DIA for bus to Boulder.

      Colorado O&G extraction rules and taxes  for Wyomng’s.

      1/4th of the UC Boulder football coach salary for a velodrome at the UC Denver campus (adjacent to Domo).

      Benson for Skaggs.

      Manning for Tebow.

      Highlands Ranch for a much, MUCH larger Chatfield reservoir.

        1. he’s so damn beautiful to look at but the truth is, he isn’t anywhere near good enough to be the top paid player on any team. Too bad our second half since the trade didn’t match the first.  Not that I had much confidence that we’d beat OKC this time either but it sure looked promising for a while there.  Those two completely inexcusable losses to sub 500 teams are really coming back to haunt us, aren’t they?  

          Oh this is supposed to be about political trades?  Sorry. Can’t get my mind to work that way with everything that’s hit the fan in the NBA the past couple of days. Also pretty interesting that after we sent Melo to the Knicks it was D’Antoni’s days that were numbered, not Carl’s. Bet  the rumor Melo denied that he wanted a trade was floated in the first place by wishful thinkers.  Bet quite a few Knicks fans are experiencing serious buyers remorse.  And then JR showed up.  Linsanity, pretty much tanked by Melo’s return  to play, is probably going to turn out to have been the most fun those fans will have had for the season.  

      2. Cranberg for Stryker.

        Joint Budget Committee for Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck.

        Colorado Peak Politics for Mindy’s Manitou Gardening Blog.

        TABOR for Gallagher.

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