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January 05, 2006 09:00 AM UTC

From Chasm to Royal Gorge

  • 7 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

The chasm between right-wing conservatives and the more moderate Republicans is looking more and more like a Royal Gorge. From The Denver Post:

A cultural war that has been brewing within the Republican Party for years is threatening to split the state GOP at a time when it needs unity to retain the governorship and take back the statehouse. The divide between social conservatives and moderates in the party – exacerbated by infighting over Referendums C and D – appears ready to widen as the two factions fight over who should set the agenda.

“Things have gotten really bad for the party,” said state Sen. Steve Johnson, a Fort Collins Republican and a self-described moderate conservative. “The right wing of the party has the attitude that if we don’t agree with them on every item on their litmus test, then we aren’t a good Republican. I think it’s going to hurt our chances of winning back the statehouse.”

And perhaps it’ll hamstring the party’s ability to get things done during the upcoming legislative session. With such issues as intelligent design, immigration and gay marriage hovering, an inability to compromise could cause big problems for the party as a whole…

…Simmering tensions among GOP legislators bubbled up early this week when state Sen. Norma Anderson, a former majority leader from Jefferson County, announced she was resigning after 19 years. Among her reasons were the expanding rift in her party and the increasing influence of “ideological Christian conservatives.”

“The division has been here for a long time, but the name- calling really began during C and D,” she said Wednesday. “Owens has tried to be a good governor, and they criticize him because they don’t agree with everything he says.”

Additionally, former U.S. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell said Tuesday that he was fed up with the blind loyalty that was demanded by right-wing Republicans, and state Rep. Mark Larson, who announced last month that he was not running for re-election, said he was leaving in part because he was tired of fighting the more extreme faction of his party. “I am a 1964 Goldwater Republican, and I don’t want government in my life, including my private life,” he said. “But the party’s changing. They’ve abandoned issues like the environment and have litmus tests. They’ve forgotten about President Reagan’s big tent.”…

…The Republicans lost control of the statehouse in 2004 for the first time in 42 years, and some, such as [John] Straayer, attribute that to the GOP division. It may also be the reason, he said, that they can’t win it back this year. “The socially conservative candidates often win in the primary and lose in the general election,” he said. “To the extent that wing dominates the nominating process, it can cost you in the end.”

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7 thoughts on “From Chasm to Royal Gorge”

  1. Oh please… Norma quit because she knew there was no way her handpicked squishy successor could win in that district.

    Coloradans vote Republican when the Republican candidates stick to their core values. When they don’t, Coloradans vote for the guy in the cowboy hat.

    There is only one reason Norma and Larsen are in the GOP… It was the party in power for most of their careers. Neither of them care about principle, it is all about being in the “popular club” that is in power. Now that they helped the DEMs win by cultivating this very culture of division they whine about, why stick around?

    I got ten bucks that says Norma endorses Peggy Lamm sometime this year and Larsen endorses Salazar again.

    Is there a division in the GOP? Sure, you got Norma and her power player ilk on one side and the rest of us on the other. Well the rest of us are in the majority and we’re sick of it. It’s time to take our party back. We do that and the State House will follow.

  2. Mark Larson represented his district very well for quite some time.  Any time I heard him respond to a question, the response was short, sweet, and to the point.  Mark never left a doubt about his beliefs or his feelings.  I think that his not running is perhaps a true sign of the real split in the Republican party — the elitist, ultra-right wing theocratic conservatives vs. the centrists who have long held sway in Colorado.

  3. I agree with you Rocky.  Mark committed the unpardonable sin of representing his district instead of pandering to the far right of his party.  I am really sorry to see him go, but maybe if the party elite lose enough power, they will rethink their treatment of moderate Republicans.

  4. I agree with you Rocky.  Mark committed the unpardonable sin of representing his district instead of pandering to the far right of his party.  I am really sorry to see him go, but maybe if the party elite lose enough power, they will rethink their treatment of moderate Republicans.

  5. Funny you should make that post on this thread Squishy. The comments on the “Line in the Sand” thread make it pretty clear that quite a few folks in his district felt Larson was a sell out, who like Norma, went to the State House not because of any convictions, or to try to make this a better state, but just to play “Let’s Make a Deal” with out tax dollars.

    What really gave Larsen and Norma the clue though is their stand on C & D. Those two have always abandoned the GOP on the other planks of the platform, but when they cast their lots with the DEMs for C&D they proved they were never with us to begin with. Even Bill Owens has a chance at redemption after years of faithfully holding the conservative line. But Larsen and Norma? Fat chance.

    Norma had to jump out now because her hand picked successor, had no chance at all of winning a GOP Primary in that District. I don’t know Larsen’s District well enough, but I would not be surprised if his run for the State Senate got cut off for the same reason.

  6. Iron Mike,
    You make my point.  It seems to be that if one does not toe the party line, regardless of how the people being represented feel, then you are no longer one of the chosen.
    I’d also bet that you are not a native Coloradoan.  It seems that our politics have gotten polluted by coastal immigrants.  Thus the change from centrists to polar politics.

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