June 18, 2009 03:36 AM UTC

Some CO4 GOP candidates shy away from Republican label

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• by: BobMoore

( – promoted by Colorado Pols)

Aaron Blake and Reid Wilson at The Hill suggest that Republican candidates will emphasize that they’re conservatives and de-emphasize their party affiliation. They cite recent polling that shows the GOP very unpopular while more voters self-identify as conservative than any other ideology.

See their piece here:

http://thehill.com/campaign-20…

I wanted to see how that theory played out in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District, which has two announced and one semi-announced challengers to freshman Democrat Betsy Markey. I looked at their campaign Web sites to see how prominently they played up party affiliation and ideology.

Cory Gardner, who was part of the GOP leadership in the state House, makes his Republican ties evident, using the word three times in the third paragraph of his campaign bio. He also describes himself as a “fiscal conservative.”

Web sites promoting Tom Lucero and Diggs Brown, on the other hand, never mention the word “Republican,” at least that I could find. They do describe themselves as fiscal conservatives, though they don’t use that phrase.

More details at my Coloradoan blog:  http://tr.im/oRxi

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