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December 30, 2008 07:29 PM UTC

2008 Top Ten #6: Rep.-elect Jared Polis

  • 21 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

One of this year’s most interesting success stories, Rep.-elect Jared Polis’ long road to glory, not to mention history as the first openly gay man elected to Congress…started out a little bumpy.

Most people agree that his early primary campaign was a calamitous affair, with Polis showing commitment in the form of large personal checks but little else to suggest he was serious about winning. He was plagued with terrible media relations, too often entirely self-inflicted, which resulted in “Polis bias” hostility in press coverage about his run. Add a few eye-popping off-reservation moments and totally unnecessary contributions from infamous right-wingers and you had what looked very much in the spring of this year like a train wreck in the making.

But then something changed: people are quick to say that Polis merely started writing even bigger checks to himself, and it’s true that Polis ultimately self-funded to an unprecedented extent even by his own internal projections–but that’s not the full story. The whole strategic landscape of the primary began to shift with Polis’ belated hiring of Robert Becker as campaign manager, who immediately set to work plugging the endless flow of gaffes and press mishandlings, turned Polis’ halting field campaign into an incredibly efficient (and massive) operation, and pressed home key attacks against Polis’ opponent in a way they never managed before. Polis rolled to victory August 12th over a much more experienced and institutionally-supported frontrunner.

Bottom line? The mercurial and often-sidetracked Polis decided sometime in there that he actually wanted to win this seat, and stopped treating his campaign like a startup tech tinker toy that somebody else was responsible for. That diffidence, or aloofness, of whatever you want to call it, was all that ever stood between him and inevitability.

And now that he’s elected, he’s finding life as a prominent, courted, fabulously wealthy freshman on Capitol Hill pretty cool, as we discussed a few weeks ago:

Markey’s anticipated high profile adds to the big coup scored earlier by fellow incoming freshman Jared Polis, whose appointment to the pivotal Steering Committee gives him instant major-player status. Not to mention he’ll be critical to helping other Coloradans get on the right committees (nudge).

John Salazar’s recent appointment to the powerful Appropriations Committee is a pretty clear indicator that Polis is putting his newfound influence to good work for the rest of the state. And Polis will be a reliable Democratic vote on the key initiatives next year–don’t let his occasional veering into “free-market” fantasyland trouble you overly. The Bill Gatesy out-of-box thinking was part of his appeal to many voters for good or ill, and reality will smack the unworkable stuff down without anybody’s help.

Congratulations to Rep.-elect Polis, while we can’t predict his whole future we feel pretty confident that his election to Congress will not be the last history he makes.

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21 thoughts on “2008 Top Ten #6: Rep.-elect Jared Polis”

    2. will be Jared’s first I believe/hope. I don’t think that an out gay person will be able to win in Colorado for quite some time. Unfortunate, but I think that’s just the political landscape for the time being. However he’s young, talented, wealthy, already on the leadership track, and will never have to worry about his own re-election in his safe district. That’s a very good position for speaker. 2nd most powerful elected official (barring another Cheney-like vice-presidency) and 3rd in line to become president. Now that would be excellent.

  2. More credit should probably be given to Robert Becker who appeared to save the campaign despite the candidate.  Although I’m sure that $8 million in personal funds from Jared didn’t help either.  Outspending your opponent 3-1 while securing a meager 3.7% margin isn’t mind-blowing political maneuvering or a success.

    This story is certainly a mixed one — an amazing political salvage while being one of the most egregious examples of ego-driven self-funding the country has ever seen.  Only time will tell whether Jared will be able to keep the gaffes to a minimum over the next two years without the discipline of a campaign.

    It will be interesting to see if his libertarian/free-market thinking reemerges later like his proposals with the auto industry or to privatize the US Postal Service.  More interesting will be if Jared will actually demonstrate leadership and courage on the major issues facing GLBT Americans — marriage equality, federal domestic partnership benefits, etc…  

    I agree with pols that it was an interesting story and certainly deserves the #6 ranking for the top stories of 2008.  However, I hesitate to call it a success.

    1. not necessarily for his constituents.

      So far Polis’ stunts are attracting all sorts of extremist right-wing support; here’s a Randian who thinks universal health care is Communism, and is sure Polis will agree.

      If Polis can keep a low profile until he’s sworn in, I’ll be impressed. Still wondering how his future colleagues reacted privately over his characterizations of them.

      1. Polis has a health care plan, remember?  Whatever people think JP will or won’t agree with doesn’t matter much.  JP has his own plan, until he shows he wants to deviate from it, let Hsieh and the “Randians” think what the want.

        And what exactly are these “stunts?”  He wrote an article you and others don’t like.  Sounds like a singe thing to me.  I’m sure he’ll keep a low enough profile for you over the next week before he’s sworn in…

        1. without making any effort to disagree. Clearly he thinks it’s a valuable opinion.

          I suppose if we eliminate capital gains taxes for health care investors, we might insure everybody!

          1. isn’t a tacit endorsement of anything.  Hsieh offered an opinion, the “major” (haha) paper in JP’s district printed it, he thanked him.  He can do that, ya know? You don’t have to like it, but you can’t honestly claim it as a “stunt.”

  3. Congress has plenty of people who take the same approach and look at the same solutions. With Jared we benefit from…

    don’t less his occasional veering into “free-market” fantasyland trouble you overly. The Bill Gatesy out-of-box thinking was part of his appeal to many voters for good or ill

    1. musn’t upset people.  No thinking outside the box for JP.  He might veer into evil republican land w/ his ideas, thus jeopardizing the entire Obama admin while he does it…  🙂

        1. Jared had a campaign manager that was clueless. Jared was headed for the same fate as the others who had the poor judgment to hire this ersatz manager: Jay Fawcett, Darrell Watson and later Cindy Carlisle.

          Jared had the intestinal fortitude to make a dramatic change and hire a qualified manager. Instantly the Polis campaign went from laughing stock to juggernaut. Neither Shafroth or Fitz-Gerald knew what hit them. Fitz-Gerald blames her loss on the money but she and Shafroth had plenty to spend. Polis spent his money well after hiring Becker. Shafroth and Fitz-Gerald squandered their money on lousy ads.

          Than  to the surprise of everyone Polis became an instant major player in the House. Perlmutter expected the Appropriations nod. Polis, he of the long memory remembered Perlmutter’s support of Fitz-Gerald and nudged the seat to his friend John Salazar. Not only is Polis in Congress but possibly the most powerful member of the Colorado delegation.

          1. As much as I like Jared, this is ridiculous…

            Yes, for whatever reasons, JP did end up with a fantastic CM in Becker.  But did this same…ahem…”ersatz manager” actually run Cindy’s campaign or just support it?

            And to say JP is a “major player” in anything is a bit premature.  He’s the frosh representative on the steering committee.  It’s a great spot to land, but he’s still at the top of the very bottom rung of the house.  

            Next, do you care to show anything even remotely proving EP was pursuing one of the two open seats on approps?  Anything?!  JS went after it, had support from others, and got the seat…Jared’s “nudge” was hardly the deciding factor.  And that little thing called seniority might have had something to do with it as well…

            Oh, and it’s a little tough for JP to be “the most powerful member…” seeing as he hasn’t even taken office yet.  Diana DeGette, who actually holds a leadership position (sort of) and sits on a major committee, might have something to say about that as well…

            1. Jared sits on the Steering and Policy Committee.  That is the most powerful Committee a Freshman member can sit on. In that position Jared was able to place John Salazar on Appropriations and certainly helped other friends as well.  Jared has serious juice.  

      2. always seems to match up with discredited Republican proposals for you guys.

        Seems no right-wing idea is too stupid for your pristine moderate liberal minds, as long as it pisses off people slightly to your left. That’s the same kind of idiotic attitude that got us into the Iraq war.

        1. As I said when you started whining about JP’s WSJ article, I DISAGREE WITH THE PROPOSAL.  But I have no problem with him making it.

          So where exactly am I agreeing “discredited Republican proposals?”  Oh, that’s right, I’m not.  Try again.

          Stop talking out of you ass.

          1. for responding to your smug bullshit wanking of today rather than going through your comments from three weeks ago to see if there’s anything that might contradict it.

        2. The fact that I appreciate people who have a lot of different approaches to solving a problem does not mean that I agree with those proposals.

          But I have found that putting all ideas out there and working through them, you end up with something better that steals the best from each proposal.

          Lockstep marching behind the convential wisdom is a receipe for mediocrity.

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