September 24, 2013 11:06 AM UTC

Do Ken Buck, Owen Hill Back Government Shutdown over Obamacare?

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: FOX 31's Eli Stokols:

Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck, who was the GOP nominee against Sen. Michael Bennet in 2010, and state Sen. Owen Hill have both signed on to a pledge supporting conservatives in Congress like Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who have vowed to continue fighting to cut off funding of the Affordable Care Act.

It appears as though they also support the effort by Cruz and other conservative Republicans in Congress to risk a government shutdown by tying the defund Obamcare provision to a spending bill that must pass before Oct. 1.

Neither Buck nor Hill’s campaigns returned FOX31 Denver’s phone calls requesting comment; but Buck left little doubt about his support for Cruz with a tweet this afternoon aiming to pressure Udall to #StandWithCruz.

And this statement from Colorado Democratic Party chairman Rick Palacio a short while ago:

"Coloradans have shown tremendous resolve, uniting to rebuild stronger and better in the wake of the recent flooding. However, the Republican Party's U.S. Senate candidates have sided with their extremist colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate who are threatening to shutdown the government and halt critical flood-recovery efforts," Palacio said. "If the Colorado GOP's Senate candidates can't stand up against extreme partisans, how can hardworking, middle-class Coloradans trust these politicians to stand up for them?"

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The Hill newspaper noted that nearly every Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in 2014 supports Republican efforts to sacrifice the entire federal budget at the Tea Party altar in hopes of defunding Obamacare. As The Hill noted, there appear to be few 2014 candidates in opposition:

Two notable exceptions are former South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds (R) and Alaska Lieutenant Gov. Mead Treadwell (R), who have not fully embraced the efforts.

Rounds applauded the House bill, but he didn’t go as far as saying he’d be willing to have the government shut down in order to force the issue.

"I support the House CR — keep government running and shut down ObamaCare,” he said. “We don't know what (Senate Majority Leader) Harry Reid will do to the CR on the Senate side, but it's a fight worth having. This is a prime example of the importance of Republicans recapturing the Senate in 2014."

Treadwell, who is facing Miller, said he supports “any attempt to defund and repeal ObamaCare” but that “shutting down the government is not a good idea.” [Pols emphasis]

Not mentioned by The Hill, however, is how Colorado Senate candidates Ken Buck, Owen Hill, and Randy Baumgardner's mustache think about the budget sacrifice. Both Buck and Hill have signed a petition from the Senate Conservatives Fund to "defund Obamacare" (we just assume nobody bothered to ask Baumgardner), but neither have been publicly chatty about whether they support shutting down the entire federal government as a strategy to try to get there.

Do Buck and Hill have both feet firmly off the fiscal cliff, or are they just peering over the edge and maintaining a link to reason?