July 19, 2009 08:01 PM UTC

Penry Will Not Resign Senate Seat

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• by: walk progressively

(Another politician on the dole, decrying government spending… – promoted by ClubTwitty)

POLS UPDATE: Just one question, from the Grand Junction Sentinel’s coverage of Penry’s announcement:

Penry has now traveled regularly over the Continental Divide to Denver as a state representative, now a state senator, for five years. While he’s been a legislator, his family has been 250 miles away in Grand Junction.

In the coming months as he pursues the Republican nomination for governor, he’ll travel the state, but not alone.

Penry, his wife, Jamie, son, Chase, 7, and daughter, Emma, 3, gradually will pull up stakes and move to Denver as his bid proceeds. [Pols emphasis]

No doubt they’ve got this all arranged to pass muster legally–though the appearances are, fair to say, subject to negative spin. We suppose he’ll pop in for a town hall or two in his titular Senate district, right? Original post follows…

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According to Lynn Bartels in today’s Denver Post Senator Josh Penry will not resign from the Senate in order to run for governor.

Penry says he has no intention of resigning his leadership post or his state Senate seat while running for governor.

Speculation has swirled for weeks that Penry, a Grand Junction Republican, might step down before the 2010 session. Two years ago, Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald resigned her seat to focus on her congressional race.

As Joan Fitz-Gerald points out in the article, this presents several problems for Penry’s campaign.

Fitz-Gerald, a Jefferson County Democrat, lost the 2nd Congressional District primary but said her situation was different than Penry’s because she oversaw the Senate and he’s in charge of his caucus. Still …

“More power to him if he thinks he can do both jobs,” Fitz-Gerald said. “I don’t see how.”

And she said fundraising is an issue.

State law bans donations from lobbyists “or their principals” to elected officials and state candidates while the legislature is in session. That means all the gubernatorial candidates are affected.

But Fitz-Gerald noted that much of being a candidate is spending hours on the phone raising money, and Penry will be tied up during the session.

Penry is already going to have money woes on the campaign trail in my opinion.  Once he picks the low-hanging fruit from the far-right donors, that will pretty much be it for him.  Ritter and McInnis both have far more extensive donor lists and fundraising capabilities than Penry, and both men appeal more to the mainstream than Penry.  Staying in his Senate seat will make his life even harder, but I guess he has to earn a living somewhere, since he’s never done it in the private sector.  Josh “Public Dole” Penry;  milking it for all it’s worth.

http://www.denverpost.com/poli…