May 13, 2009 12:15 AM UTC

Pinon Canyon: Proxy Gubernatorial Battlefield

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• by: Colorado Pols

We’ve been watching the tempest unfold for the last week regarding gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis’ self-insertion into the heated debate over expansion of the Pinon Canyon Army training site. As our readers know, McInnis stunned just about everybody when he publicly came out against a state bill headed for Governor Bill Ritter’s desk that would further curtail the Army’s expansion plans, putting him at odds with much of his own party–not to mention the rest of the state. Likely primary opponent Josh Penry, who supported the bill in question, leapt to condemn McInnis’ position as “politicizing the property rights of these ranchers.”

But as the Colorado Springs Gazette and Denver Post report, McInnis is getting some backup in this fight from Colorado’s two remaining GOP congressmen:

Lamborn, R-Colorado Springs, said the immediate objective was to persuade Gov. Bill Ritter to veto HB1317, a bill passed by the state Legislature forbidding the sale or lease of state-owned lands for purposes of expanding the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site northeast of Trinidad. Without the state lands, an expanded Piñon Canyon would look a bit like Swiss cheese, making the expansion less attractive to the Army.

Local ranchers have led the fight against expansion, fearing their lands will be seized by eminent domain. Colorado Springs interests fear the Army will reduce its investment of troops and money in Fort Carson if the expansion is blocked.

Lamborn argued that “the bad message” that the Piñon Canyon bill sends to the Pentagon makes it less likely to form a fifth brigade of the Fourth Infantry Division at Fort Carson…

Joined by Rep. Mike Coffman, as the Post reported today:

Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman on Monday called on Gov. Bill Ritter, a Democrat, to veto a bill that would prevent the U.S. Army from acquiring state lands as part of its expansion of the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site in southeast Colorado.

Coffman’s call for a veto of House Bill 1317 comes almost a week after a similar veto call from former GOP Congressman Scott McInnis.

Our view: a couple of things going on here. First, Lamborn’s and Coffman’s support for the Army over the Pinon Canyon expansion is natural given the district Lamborn represents and Coffman’s military ties. But more than that, they are backing up one of their own–a former Congressman well-integrated into the same Washington circles that that Lamborn and Coffman travel in. It’s not a stretch to see McInnis as their more natural ally in the Governor’s office than the inexperienced and ideological Penry, and the swiftness with which Penry used this issue to attack his fellow Republican surely gave them pause.

On the other side, we note how quickly Republican blogs in Colorado jumped into this controversy on Penry’s side, and by extension stepped into their own upcoming gubernatorial primary. You can make the case that conservative bloggers are predisposed to a certain side of debates involving government power and takings generally, but we maintain that most of them–far from stereotypical “pajama journalists,” often staffers for local conservative organizations, past campaigns, or consultant firms–would not be wading into a primary proxy fight like this without a larger strategic purpose. And when you realize these were, in many cases, the same blogs melodramatically clutching pearls over McInnis’ infamous voice mail message? What was the high-minded principle at stake with that again? No mystery, folks–a peek at intraparty fissures that will only continue to grow.