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March 20, 2009 07:14 PM UTC

CO Senate - GOP Scrambling for Bennet Challenge

  • 34 Comments
  • by: ClubTwitty

( – promoted by Colorado Pols)

Today’s Politico has this story, “Colorado GOP is slow off the mark” describing the state of the party in Colorado as it circles the drain prepares for the 2010 election.

By all accounts, newly appointed Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) should be one of the Republicans’ leading targets in 2010.

…But the GOP doesn’t yet have any candidates running against him.

Katy Atkinson wonders if the party is ready to take on Bennet, but Wadhams claims it’s no problem:

“With so many Republican losses over the years, the obvious people that would make up the bench have been defeated,” said Colorado-based Republican consultant Katy Atkinson. “The bench right now is very young, which may bode well for the future, but there’s a question whether they’re ready for these top-of-ticket races yet.”

Colorado GOP Chairman Dick Wadhams said three candidates are seriously considering jumping into the Senate race: former Rep. Bob Beauprez, Aurora City Councilman Ryan Frazier and Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck.

“They all understand it takes time to put these campaigns together, organizationally and financially,” Wadhams said. “I think that, by May, we’ll have the field set.”

Beauprez is ‘pretty darn serious’ about threatens making another comedic effort run, while Ken Buck is busy inciting the Tancrederthal wing.  

 

As far as the issue of immigration is concerned, Buck proposed America shut down the U.S./Mexico border. “Find a legal way to bring people into this country if they are willing to work,” he said. “Once we close the border, then we deal with other issues about immigration.”

Perhaps DA Buck means ‘secure’ rather than ‘shut down’ or ‘close’ the border (?), but the Valley Courier Online articles provides an interesting read in imaging how the GOP smack down might shape up.

ALAMOSA – Weld County’s District Attorney Ken Buck (R) made a stop on his listening tour across Colorado in Alamosa Wednesday afternoon to meet with the Alamosa County Republicans.

Buck will file his application in April to run for U.S. Senate in 2010. In the meantime, Buck has visited almost 50 of Colorado’s 64 counties, meeting with the Republicans in the area to answer questions and begin to gain support for his proposed campaign.

DA Buck apparently thinks that more Americans should have invested their life savings in the stock market:

Social security has become a large concern for most as the government continues to put out reports on the depleting amount that can be paid out to those entering into retirement. “Allow people to invest their own money,” Buck suggested. “It should be up to you to invest in a retirement framework.”

He warned that, because of Obama, the dollar might soon collapse:

Buck said the stimulus money came from China purchasing bonds from the United States. He warned that if China ceased to buy the bonds from the U.S., American currency wouldn’t work anymore.

Apparently he supports massive centralized planning and government subsidies to prop up otherwise unviable industries:

“Eighty percent of France is powered by nuclear energy,” Buck said. David Osborn, chairman for the Alamosa County Republicans asked Buck which state would become the dumping ground for nuclear waste. “If France can do it, we can do it,” Buck said.

Interestingly enough, however, the Courier piece fails to mention one of the most newsworthy item about DA Buck–that he is currently being sued for a sweeping tax return dragnet that may have violated basic American law.  

The Denver Post reports on the ongoing matter:

The ACLU’s lawsuit is not the first time the confidentiality of the records has come into question. On Dec. 9, Weld County District Judge James Hartmann Jr. ruled that no more arrest warrants could be issued if they were based on information from federal tax returns.

On Monday, Hartmann issued another ruling on a claim by a defendant in the identity theft probe who said his tax records were illegally seized. The 30-page decision said the search warrant executed by county authorities was deficient and was “nothing more than an exploratory search based upon suspicion that some unknown person or persons” committed a crime.

Hartmann also said that federal and tax return information is confidential and can’t be used in a criminal case. Buck said he is considering an appeal.

Being sued by the ACLU for violating privacy laws is probably a plus for the GOP primary. Beauprez, of course, knows a thing or two about using illegally obtained records for political purposes.  

It’s likely to be an interesting election season.

 

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34 thoughts on “CO Senate – GOP Scrambling for Bennet Challenge”

  1. Why mention Ryan Frazier when he knows he’d get stomped in a primary? Frazier is an interesting pick, but Both Ways Bob would stop at nothing to let every far-right Republican activist know what his stance is on gay rights. Maybe once he establishes himself a little better in the state and the party, then the GOP leadership will look the other way on that (much like they did with Hank Brown and abortion.)

    So that leaves Mr. Folksy himself (I reckon) and Ken “I enjoy Mexican food” Buck.

    Yeah, nice try Dick. Neither of those guys is going to beat Bennet.

    What else ya got?

  2. setting Washington on fire with his bold leadership and innovative ideas.

    Both Bennett and Ritter are beatable but the public actually want someone who can walk and chew gum at the same time and understands that complex issues require compromise and courage.  Those two traits are in short supply on the right side of the aisle.

  3. Bob Beauprez did win twice in a highly competitive Congressional District.  Beauprez has a lot of personal money that he can throw into the race as well.  

    Speaking of the US Senate what if anything is Andrew Romanoff going to do?  Will there be a Democratic primary?

    1. What spurns the “tee-hee” comments is that he might win. That’s not going to happen. Plus, CD-7 in 2002 was not the same CD-7 as it is today. It was much more heavily slanted Republican in those days, much like the rest of the state.

      The fact of the matter is that this is a statewide election, and no matter how much money Beauprez throws down the hole, it’s not going to make a lick of difference because he’s at a completely different end of the political spectrum than most Coloradans. This is still an azure-tinted purple state, and Bob is just too far right to win anymore.

      Bennet, on the other hand, will appeal to Coloradans with his intelligence and pragmatism. Beauprez will just look wing-nutty as ever.

      1. When the 7th was created it was fairly distributed amongst Ds, Rs, and Us. He only won the first one by ~121 votes and the second by ~1000. Those weren’t huge wins. The rest of your post I agree with.

            1. When he ran in CD-7. His campaign for governor showed that Beauprez clearly cannot handle a statewide campaign. Even if national Republicans came in and took over Beauprez’s campaign, he’s far too damaged a candidate for it to matter much. What Beauprez did in winning the CD-7 seat is irrelevant because of the damage he caused himself in 2006.

              1. the same tired and just plain factually wrong assertions he made in 2006. Without citing any evidence, he states that he knows Saddam Hussein was one of the primary supporters of Al-Queda and the Taliban and therefore we had to take him out. All of the evidence proves the exact opposite. We don’t need someone who believes that kind of fantasy as one of our United States senators.

    1. it’s firmly planted up his rectum.

      Mexico bashing isn’t in style anymore, and if he hasn’t noticed the stock market, it’s not so hot for investors.

  6. Would this be the time for Walker Stapleton or Caplis to start making noise?

    If Katy is serious about a “young bench”, then one or both of these “tried and true conservative warriors” might be possible stop gaps while the bench matures.

    One guy with no mileage left is Beauprez. That disasterous run in ’06 exposed way too many flaws in Bob’s game.    

  9. Even if they do come up with somewhat viable candidates, Republicans at some point have to decide whether to target the governorship or senate, because they won’t have financial resources to compete for both. The RNSC will have to defend 5 open Senate seats, 4 of which are in the split delegation states of FL, MO, NH and OH (plus what to do about Spector in PA). Republicans have no hope of taking back the senate, but instead have to play to control the filibuster.  

    http://www.thegreenpapers.com/…

    As much as they would like to pick-up some governorships, the Senate will be ground zero for the national Republican Party. They won’t be willing to throw a lot of money at relatively unknown, one-issue (and a toxic issue at that) candidates like Ken Buck just to take on another relatively unknown incumbent. So where does the money come from? Local business interests won’t be interested in the Senate race either because there is much more at stake in terms of fighting Ritter’s state agenda.

    Left as it, the Democrats are not vulnerable with Bennett. The main event will be against Ritter, whoever emerges as the Republican nominee. The senate seat has almost been written off.  

  10. Name recognition won’t matter, just look at Palin’s success. (OK, her near-miss.) The Republicans will run with female or minority candidates claiming they represent change since the weakness of the Dem ticket are white males running for re-election.  

      1. We are getting very close to when whoever runs must be campaigning. Myabe not officially or obviously, but campaigning none the less.

        As we don’t see Doug Lamborn working on issues of significant statewide interest from Congress – he’s not running.

        If you look at who’s considering it, and who of them can win the primary, I think we’re left with BWB, Penry, & Tancredo for the Gov & Senate races.

        The thing is, BWB and Tancredo don’t stand a prayer in a general election. BWB has shown how bad he is at campaigning statewide and Tancredo is a one trick pony on an issue that no one cares about anymore.

        Penry I think is still too inexperienced to win a statewide campaign. And he would probably (but don’t assume!) run as a “true conservative” which would kill his chances.

        We’ll have to work in ’10 but I don’t see how we lose either seat.

        1.    Not true.  I saw Doug’s name in the paper the other day.  He met with Christo and he’s given the artist his blessing to hang drapes on the Arkansas River!  

  12. He’s a likable guy but not yet ready for a race like this.  Methinks Ryan would be better suited to run for Aurora Mayor next year and use that as a platform for higher office.    

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