March 18, 2009 05:57 PM UTC

McInnis Makes His Move?

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• by: Colorado Pols

Perhaps the moment you’ve all been waiting for–given Scott McInnis’ track record of expressing ‘interest’ in running for everything, from the U.S. Senate to Mesa County dogcatcher (and the Grand Junction Sentinel’s rush to print a story anytime McInnis farts), we’ll only fully believe it when the Secretary of State gets the papers. But no question there’s intense jockeying going on behind the scenes in the GOP right now, as the Grand Junction Sentinel reports:

The battle for the Republican nomination for governor in 2010 could be a Western Slope affair, pitting former Congressman Scott McInnis against his onetime aide, Josh Penry.

McInnis, who retired from Congress in 2004 after six terms representing the 3rd District, is interested in the job, as is Penry, now the minority leader in the state Senate.

Penry served for a time as McInnis’ spokesman in Washington, D.C., before returning to the Grand Valley to run for the state Legislature.

Dick Wadhams, chairman of the Colorado Republican Party, said he was aware of interest by both men in the opportunity to run against incumbent Democrat Bill Ritter of Denver.

“They’re both terribly formidable people,” Wadhams said…

The thing is, they’re not–at least one of them isn’t. Handpicked by Wadhams, Josh Penry’s brief tenure as Senate Minority Leader has nevertheless been an unqualified disaster, from mismanaged public embarrassments to an “opposition” strategy that gained his party no sympathy–if anything the opposite of sympathy–with either the public or the media. If this was supposed to be the big test of Penry’s mettle, paving his way to a Bobby Jindal-style meteoric rise, well, spectacular fail.

On the other hand, as the Sentinel continues:

McInnis said Tuesday he still has political ambitions and, “My focus is more on the governor’s seat.”

…he’s not interested in the Senate seat occupied by Denver Democrat Michael Bennet, McInnis said.

“My interest is not there,” he said. “I came home (to Colorado), and I’m staying home.”

Nobody can forget the moment of high drama one week before the last election, when McInnis broke his silence about the way he was forced out of the Senate race in favor of Chairman Dick Wadhams’ pal and GOP insider-anointed candidate Bob Schaffer. You’ll recall that Wadhams “strongly disputed” McInnis’ accusations, and within a week every Republican elder statesman in Colorado was penning guest editorials denouncing McInnis with eerie Mao-style unanimity.

Well, dear reader, a few days from the GOP state party reorganization, Wadhams has a credible challenger and Scott McInnis just might have enough backlash behind him to make people forget all about that paying the wife to run your fictional campaign thing and seriously consider him for governor. Until Marc Holtzman reminds them in a big glossy mailer, of course. We digress.

Bottom line: If the last few weeks have proven anything, it’s that Josh Penry is not anywhere near ready to head up a ticket. What he needs is several more years to mature and a more statesmanlike haircut–we’re serious about this, it’s unelectably bad, a mullet kept in check with a beard trimmer. And what Wadhams needs, assuming he survives the weekend, is to realize that he’s no longer the kingmaker of the Colorado Republican Party–and the choice of who will top the 2010 ticket is no longer his to dictate.

As for McInnis, what he needs is to stop talking about races he might possibly one day perhaps potentially consider. Because he’s starting to look more than a little silly “expressing interest” in virtually anything.