We already asked if Marc Holtzman would have been better for the GOP than Bob Beauprez, but that isn’t the only ‘What If’ that Colorado politicos are pondering today.
Speaker of the House Andrew Romanoff is said to be openly regretting not running for either governor or treasurer. His former aide, Cary Kennedy, is now higher on the totem pole than he is after winning a state treasurer race that would have been Romanoff’s for the taking.
Democrats Dan Grossman and John Walsh are kicking themselves for not running against John Suthers for attorney general, since Suthers had a tough time dispatching a candidate (Fern O’Brien) who did virtually nothing to get elected.
Republican Mark Hillman, meanwhile, is openly regretting his decision to accept spending limits because of advice that the Trailhead Group would spend a lot of money on his race for state treasurer. Hillman probably could have outraised Kennedy significantly, but instead he watched Kennedy go up on TV while all he could do is run radio ads.
Of course, it’s hard to look back too harshly on these decisions. Nobody would have predicted in mid-2005 that Beauprez would be such a complete disaster as a candidate for governor and a total drain on the Republican Party as a whole (and nobody would have thought that Suthers would be so uninspiring as a candidate for AG). A lot of people thought Beauprez and Suthers were going to be awfully tough to beat, and that line of thinking led to some decisions that don’t look so good today.
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he could have been the beneficiary of Denver’s screwed up voting system, still waiting for a final tally…….
There’s absolutely no way that would have happened. Dan Grossman carried the smoking bill for two years in a row. The bill is supported by a majority of Colorado, but:
a) its opponents are *really* mad, and
b) a lot of the opposition now comes down to issues of whether and how strictly violators will be prosecuted. That’s unlikely to involve the attorney general, but it’s too close for comfort of a large group of voters.
I am very certain that, had Dan Grossman won, this would have been a HUGE issue, and Suthers would’ve won by a far greater margin. Fern O’Brien benefited from two things: the letter D next to her name, but also a lack of tangible negatives.
With all due respect, since the smoking ban was enacted, it’s popularity has shot up.
Hillman’s the one that got it shot down last year and look how well that worked out for him.
Not to mention that smoking bans just passed in AZ and OH by the voters and a pretty significant margin. (despite being outspent by RJ Renyolds 10-1)
Dan would have been a great AG and anybody trying to throw the smoking ban in his face would have just looked stupid.
and the Dems may have had a full sweep. To bad Ritter’s staff couldn’t see the bigger picture.
Ritter won and your candidate still has not emerged. I think this bitching is a little premature, but so be it. You can no longer go by the name badboy. I declare you, BitchingBoyBilly