August 21, 2023 01:09 PM UTC

Boebert Enters the Stapleton/Gardner Political Death Spiral

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• by: Colorado Pols

In recent years, big-name Republican politicians in Colorado have tended to follow a similar pattern in advance of their electoral demise — a political death spiral that ends with a thud in November.

In 2018, it was Republican gubernatorial candidate Walker Stapleton who couldn’t get out of his own way en route to an 11-point drubbing at the hands of Democrat Jared Polis.

In 2020, Republican Sen. Cory Gardner endured so many self-inflicted wounds that Democrat John Hickenlooper just needed a finger to push him over the edge and into a 9-point loss.

In 2022, Republicans Heidi Ganahl (Governor) and Joe O’Dea (Senate) never really got off the ground in the first place. But now, in the midst of the 2024 election cycle, it is Republican Congressperson Lauren Boebert who appears to be in full “political death spiral” mode.

The guidelines are relatively simple: The incumbent Republican (or in Stapleton’s case, a candidate with a different elected position at the time) starts to feel as though their rhetoric has become so impossible to defend that they just stop showing up in front of Colorado voters altogether.

Gardner infamously refused to conduct in-person town hall meetings during the final three years of his one and only six-year term in the Senate. Gardner went to absurd lengths to avoid his constituents, a decision that led to the creation of the “Cardboard Cory” phenomenon that rammed home the idea of a U.S. Senator who refused to be bothered by the people who elected him in 2014.

But at least Gardner still went to work from time to time. Stapleton was in his second term as Colorado State Treasurer when he ran for Governor, at which point he just stopped showing up at the office entirely (seriously — keycard data showed that Stapleton hadn’t actually entered his office since being re-elected in 2014). Stapleton’s absenteeism became a running joke, to the point where the Colorado Democratic Party regularly sent out images of his empty parking space at the State Capitol.

Boebert now appears to be following the same script — even though she only won re-election by 546 votes in 2022 and even though public polling and anecdotal evidence demonstrate that voters in CO-03 would like their elected Member of Congress to do some actual work.

Not only is Boebert NOT doing what her constituents want — she’s tripping over her own stilettos by drawing more attention to her absenteeism. Take a look at this Tweet (or ‘X,’ or whatever) that Boebert mashed out last week:

This is pretty standard nonsense from Boebert on a topic that is completely irrelevant to the good people of congressional district three. More important is the response Boebert received, pointing out that people can’t even get in the door at Boebert’s in-district offices:

Whoops!

Boebert does make photo-ready appearances in her district, but they are always only revealed after the event has taken place; constituents only get to see where Boebert was, and never where she will be next. This is exactly what Gardner did in 2020, when his strategic gambit was that it was better to take the hit for being inaccessible than to be forced to answer difficult questions from voters. As we know, that bet did not pan out.

Colorado voters will put up with a certain level of political showmanship, but only if the politician in question is still doing the actual job required of them. Playing hide-and-seek with your constituents is a proven recipe for failure.