September 28, 2022 11:49 AM UTC

The Heidi Ganahl Campaign Is Completely Off the Rails

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• by: Colorado Pols

THURSDAY UPDATE: right-wing “parent’s group” Jeffco Kids First promises to prove Heidi Ganahl right on the supposed “furry” invasion:

We can’t wait.

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We wrote on Monday about Republican gubernatorial candidate Hiedi Heidi Ganahl’s completely ridiculous claim on right-wing radio that there are “furries in Colorado schools.” Somehow, the Ganahl campaign figured out a way to make this story even worse for themselves.

Kyle Clark of 9News touched on the subject in a brief segment on Tuesday that absolutely CRUSHED Ganahl for her comments, noting that this is a subject that has already been thoroughly debunked and promoting it could be harmful to transgender students who already face high suicide rates.

The Ganahl campaign actually responded to 9News when asked to provide proof of her allegations, which Clark covers at about the :30 second mark in the video above. This is what the Ganahl camp sent to 9News as evidence of her claims that furries are invading Colorado schools:

That is exactly what you think it is: A random picture of a person in a costume pulled off the Internet. This makes less sense than presenting a photo of Chuck E. Cheese as proof that restaurants in Colorado are infested with rodents.

We can laugh at all of this, though only to a point. This entire episode is one of the more bizarre events we can recall in our many years of covering Colorado politics, but it speaks to a bigger issue: What in the hell is going on over at the Ganahl campaign? This is not a normal political operation. This is complete insanity.

It’s been clear for a long time that Ganahl is an unserious person running an unserious campaign for the top job in Colorado. Ganahl is not going to come close to defeating incumbent Democrat Jared Polis, and thank goodness for that. We’ve zoomed past the partisan political argument at this point; it is not hyperbole to say that putting Ganahl in charge of an entire state would be flat-out dangerous. 

The more important story for Republicans for the next few months will be about assessing the collateral damage from what will unquestionably go down as the worst major campaign in state history. Every single person who had any association with the Ganahl campaign will be forever tainted (for example, Danny Moore’s political career is over).

Colorado Republicans should now hope that Ganahl just goes away quietly. The more desperate Ganahl becomes in the final weeks of this race, the more likely she is to make increasingly offensive statements that reflect negatively on the entire Republican Party.

Ganahl is going down. That’s inescapable. The only mystery remaining is about who she takes down with her.