January 17, 2024 11:31 AM UTC

Sorry Lauren Boebert, You're No...Marilyn Musgrave?

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• by: Colorado Pols

The switch by sputtering Republican incumbent Rep. Lauren Boebert from the Third Congressional District seat she wrested from her predecessor “Sleepy” Scott Tipton in 2020 to run for the Fourth District seat being vacated by Rep. “KenSNBC” Buck, a race that already had a slew of candidates in the mix when Boebert made her switch public, has been met with an overwhelmingly negative reaction locally, even after Boebert was endorsed House Speaker Mike Johnson. Not only has Boebert failed to clear the CD-4 primary field, but opponents are excited to take Boebert head-on and capitalize on her recent foibles for their own badly-needed name recognition.

Unfortunately, the full story of why Boebert is undeserving of another term Congress requires an understanding of her record that today’s conservative bubble of “alternative facts” simply does not allow for–and this deficiency becomes glaringly evident as fellow red-meat Republicans like Hillman take aim at Boebert in the CD-4 primary. We don’t normally cite columns from former Eastern Plains Rep. and RNC committeeman Mark Hillman, but there’s plenty of subtext to unpack in his broadside against Boebert in the Colorado Springs Gazette’s political blog today:

Like many Coloradans, I knew little about Boebert when she upset an incumbent in the 2020 Republican primary. Charismatic and vivacious, she had an inspiring story — a high school dropout who supported herself by working unglamorous jobs and ultimately found success and notoriety at the restaurant which she and her husband opened. Wanting Republicans to keep that seat, I donated to her campaign.

After the election, her early association with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was troubling, so it was encouraging she later parted ways with the Georgia conspiracy peddler…

The first problem here is Hillman’s claim that Boebert has “parted ways” from fellow fringe Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, which can only be considered true on a personal, very much non-policy level, where the two continue despite their differences to see eye-to-eye. In terms of “conspiracy peddling,” the truth is that MTG did more to repudiate the “QAnon” conspiracy theory while apologizing for her past statements before a Democratic-controlled House than Boebert ever has.

From here, Hillman invokes the memory of one of the great cautionary tales of Republican overreach even in a safe Republican district, ex-CD-4 Rep. Marilyn Musgrave:

CD4 voters have been through this before. Marilyn Musgrave riled Democrats with her advocacy for defining marriage as solely between one man and one woman. Billionaires Tim Gill and Pat Stryker funded relentless attacks on Musgrave, creating parody commercials with an actress dressed to resemble her. Her margin of victory dwindled (13%, 6.3%, 2.5%) until she was defeated in the Obama wave of 2008.

But there’s a big difference between Musgrave and Boebert. Musgrave is a fundamentally decent person who never sought the spotlight but didn’t duck her principles. She never embarrassed herself with public misbehavior. That’s why her opponents had to create commercials to mock her. By contrast, Boebert’s own behavior mocks what she claims to stand for. I believe in grace and do not wish Boebert ill, but Congress has not brought out the best in her…

This is where Hillman’s partisan perspective skews history and necessarily misses the point. The “relentless attacks” on Musgrave were the result of Musgrave making herself a target, not Musgrave being unfairly singled out. Musgrave’s ouster in 2008 was quickly followed by Cory Gardner’s retaking of the seat in 2010, more proof that the problem was not any external factor but Musgrave herself. Similarly to Boebert, Musgrave relentlessly flogged divisive wedge issues while the real problems facing the voters of her rural district were neglected. This made Musgrave harder to defend than the district’s partisan makeup suggests, again just like Boebert in CD-3. While it’s true that Musgrave didn’t have a “Beetlebert”-type incident of her own, Boebert’s vulnerability was well-established before that event.

It’s the inability at high levels to recognize these fundamental deficiencies that leads to the nomination of bad Republican candidates who go on to lose general elections in Colorado by disproportionate margins. In 2022, gubernatorial candidate Heidi Ganahl’s campaign crashed and burned with voters as her campaign became hopelessly mired in election denial and Ganahl’s bizarre quest to uncover the “furry menace” in Colorado schools–but even after that humiliating experience, the state’s top Republican donors are plotting a comeback with her.

The biggest reason Boebert is going over like a lead balloon in her new district’s Republican primary is the same reason she was driven out of CD-3. Since exploding on the scene with her primary challenge to Rep. Tipton in 2020, Boebert has never bothered to help fellow Republicans in any tangible way. Boebert spent more time on the campaign trail with Matt Gaetz in Florida than she has for Colorado Republicans at any level. It’s too late to reverse that now that Boebert is thoroughly toxified, and she has nothing left to offer Republicans in return for support.

That’s a lot easier to understand than the denial Mark Hillman requires to land his punch.

The truth is that Boebert and Musgrave have more in common than any Republican dares to admit.