President (To Win Colorado)
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(D) Kamala Harris
(R) Donald Trump
80%
20%
CO-01 (Denver)
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(D) Diana DeGette*
(R) V. Archuleta
98%
2%
CO-02 (Boulder-ish)
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(D) Joe Neguse*
(R) Marshall Dawson
95%
5%
CO-03 (West & Southern CO)
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(D) Adam Frisch
(R) Jeff Hurd
50%
50%
CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado)
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(R) Lauren Boebert
(D) Trisha Calvarese
90%
10%
CO-05 (Colorado Springs)
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(R) Jeff Crank
(D) River Gassen
80%
20%
CO-06 (Aurora)
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(D) Jason Crow*
(R) John Fabbricatore
90%
10%
CO-07 (Jefferson County)
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(D) B. Pettersen
(R) Sergei Matveyuk
90%
10%
CO-08 (Northern Colo.)
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(D) Yadira Caraveo
(R) Gabe Evans
70%↑
30%
State Senate Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
80%
20%
State House Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
95%
5%
December 26, 2008 04:37 PM UTC
40 Comments
Another Democrat is jumping up and down hoping that the Guv will notice them. http://www.greeleytribune.com/…
At this rate, every elected Dem in the state will be putting themselves in the running.
How easily can she win in 2010?
I think she would have a hard time raising name ID and dollars. Assuming the GOP runs a credible candidate (ie – not Tancredo), it would be a difficult campaignb that would consume all Democratic resources in 2010 when we have to focus very heavily on the legislature due to redistricting.
Although, as a spectator sport, I would love to watch Polly take on Tancredo!
She’s been out of the State Legislature for close to 20 years and I think that probably hurts her. Folks that have moved to this state in the last 20 years don’t recognize her as readily although she has remained active and I think still has some name recognition among low information voters.
I think her age (66) also plays against her.
Pluses regarding her as a candidate are her lengthy experience in the House and Senate, her contacts with major players in DC and her ongoing work with the Democratic Party. I think they would back her bigtime so I’m not sure I agree it would be as difficult to raise dollars.
If she has the talent to make maximum advantage of all the free press over the next 2 years – then she can do it. If she doesn’t have that skill (anymore), then no.
“Baca, a Democrat from Denver, reminded Ritter that if she were appointed, Colorado would be the first state to send a Latino woman to the Senate.”
Senora Baca’s whole life seems to rotate on the fact of who she is. How can we ever move past one’s origins if we keep talking about it? Isn’t that the goal, a homogenous society? It won’t happen if we keep re-segregating into milk and cream.
rearing “its ugly face?” The only thing I find ugly of late are your comments regarding women and minorities.
Baca has been a hell of a representative and a driving force for the Democratic Party. Maybe you’ve been in Florida a little too long and don’t realize her contributions.
Or maybe you’re just a guy who has serious issues with minorities and women, as reflected by other comments you have made here, including the one that you made regarding agreeing with Rush Limbaugh’s assessment of black football players.
I find making an issue of identity as revolting as ……
Oh hell, what’s the use.
Seriously, give it a read.
http://www.answers.com/topic/p…
There is legitimate reason for pointing out that she would be the first Latina from Colorado to serve in the United States Senate. It would have been ridiculous of her not to point that out, considering her background and her extensive career.
She isn’t basing her qualifications on her ethnic identity. It happens to be a part of who she is and who she has advocated for.
Can you really not see that?
as I said here it’s not selecting someone based on who they are, but it is taking it into account as this does matter to many people.
Oh, I’ve managed to avoid any really touchy issues so far in my tenure on ColoradoPols, but have to jump in now. Polly Baca would be qualified to be Senator because of her extensive experience as a legislator, her ability to represent the needs of her constituency, her contacts nationally, and a bit of a go-get-em attitude, it seems, not because she is a Latina, a woman, a Coloradoan, right-handed, or doesn’t need to wear glasses, all of which have nothing to do with whether or not she would make a great Senator. Yes, being a Latina is part of her identity, just as being a geeky geologist is part and parcel with Hick and being Jewish is part of Andrew Romanoff’s identity (I was hoping to point out that this would be a Colorado first too, but that damned Simon Guggenheim beat Romanoff to it in 1907!), but there are plenty of Latinas and geeks and Jews in Colorado who are immensely unqualified to be Senator.
Polly Baca should argue that she has much more legislative success and the proper Rolodex to get things done in DC, compared with the three top contenders. I don’t think anyone is ruling her (or Cary Kennedy or Peter Groff or anyone else mentioned previously) on account of their identity, or even shaping the criteria to eliminate them. Look at the three top contenders – they all got to their present position (consider this their “stepping stone” to the Senator, should they get selected) through an election, where DavidThi808 mentions correctly that Colorado has a good track record of diverse winners. This just means that the current wave of first-tier candidates happen to be a bunch of white guys, but that is just now. Look at it this way – Groff or Kennedy or Polis were all discounted because they are all early in their careers and need to make something of themselves first unlike, if I dare say, Tom Strickland or Mike Miles for example, two white guys who seem to be occasional punchline to jokes instead of viable contenders. A Senate seat isn’t something to be frivolously handed out, unless you’re talking Illinois or Alaska. In 2010, there may be so few “qualified” white guys by these same standards compared to all the aforementioned up-n-comers, that this whole line of thought would be a moot point.
That’s a new one.
Mike is Japanese, it seems. Goes to show how much of an impact it had on my evaluation of his candidacy (it didn’t, because I don’t feel any different about it in light of this). My apologies…
A Coloradoan of Japanese/African/American descent? Sorry, the brain’s been on holiday for almost a week now.
mixed race, as long as African American is among the mix, is considered Black. Have you ever seen Mike Miles, Missing? You could say that Obama is white, since he’s just as much white as he is black, but the fuss being made over his being our first Black President would definitely make that a minority view.
Her Rolodex indicates exactly that, everyone else is using PDA’s. Probably a lot of disconnected numbers by now.
And Hick doesn’t make being a geologist part of his “Why you should vote for me” riff.
Based on the two of us being in a seminar and discussion group, I think it fair to say that her immigration beliefs are not in line with most Coloradans.
Just to be clear, parsing, I do agree with you – I had never heard of Polly Baca before the Greeley Tribune article and had to look her history up. I wasn’t arguing for her candidacy (Andrew’s my guy); I was trying to frame her qualifications in a way that compares apples to apples with the other candidates for Senator. Now, I haven’t a clue where she stands on immigration (or most other topics of Senatorial domain – see my ignorance above), but that seems like a more valid point on which to judge her than where her parents came from or how many X chromosomes she was born with.
Except when watching football? Perhaps with Rush Limbaugh?
…Jennifer Veiga should be named because she would be the first lesbian of Portguese descent to represent Colorado in the Senate.
Touche!
Not to mention that being lesbian is also female an obvious but important redundancy.
…what fantasy is this where all the ladies want to get it on with one another?
Unless there’s something I’m missing (along with parsing…).
Parsing wrote (with my annotations…) ‘being lesbian is also female’, [which is] an obvious but important [extra point in filling some perceived goal of equality].’ I’m not sure “redundant” is the exact word…
…redundant is the wrong word, unless one harbors the fantasy of which I spoke
A redundancy is excessive wording, not necessarily duplicated meaning. Still, there are connotations to “redundant” that could confuse people.
…which is what he implied when he called the 2 terms “redundancies.” Anyway, doesn’t matter, I’m just playin’!
That saying a lesbian is female is redundant – and I think it is.
He said saying female would be redundant after saying lesbian.
Good sub-thread!
She’s Portuguese? I had no idea. I don’t like those people.
23% of Americans polled will miss the Shrub when he leaves office on 1/20/09.
75% will not!
…if you add up the CEO’s who have plundered our treasury and economy and benefited from deregulation, and military types who find their existence justified by the war in Iraq. Oh, and the hyper-evangs-authoritarians.
There, 23%.
Aim lower.
They probably won’t have the material writing itself like that for the rest of their careers. They’ll have to do it themselves.
23% of Americans are Dick Cheney.
That’s it. I’ve decided. I’m throwing my name in to replace Senator Ken Salazar when he leaves to become Secretary of the Interior.
As a regular poster to Colorado Pols, I know how to reach out across the aisles.
But at the same time, I have unimpeachable Progressive credentials as an “old-timer” at Daily Kos, a vocal Mike Miles campaign supporter, and as head of a very Progressive local party.
As I have no voting record, the GOP will find it harder to make ads against me.
I’m not from Boulder, or from Denver, so I should appeal well to rural voters.
As a seasoned IT professional, I can add a lot to any Senate debate on technology or computer security.
I don’t really add much to the ethnic, gender, or sexual preference mix but… – doggone it, people like me!
</campaign> </snark>
For your donation you’ll have a very nice, signed and numbered photo to hang on your wall. I’ll get some money, and some of it will even go back to protecting the places I photograph.
If you ever did decide to run for office, you would have my vote.