( – promoted by Colorado Pols)
I’m not an impartial observer of the campaign process here in Colorado and don’t pretend to be. But numbers are numbers and sometimes they speak for themselves with no need for spin.
Consider this…Democrats have won three special elections in the last few weeks in districts that are about as red as they get.
Look at the numbers:
IL-14: Bush won the district with 55% in 2004 and House Speaker Dennis Hastert received 60% of the vote in 2006. Hastert held the seat since 1986. Coincidentally, this district is Ronald Reagan’s boyhood home.
LA-06: Bush won the district with 59% in 2004 and Republican Congressman Richard Baker got 83% of the vote in 2006. Republicans had held the seat for more than 20 years.
MS-01: Bush won the district by 62% in 2004 and Republican Congressman Roger Wicker received 66% in 2006. The fun fact here was this seat has been in Republican hands since 1941…it was represented by the same Republican (Jamie Whitten) from 1941-1994 – a longer tenure than Michigan Congressman John Dingell.
How does this stack up against Colorado’s 4th District?
CO-04: Bush won the district with 58% in 2004 and Marilyn Musgrave received only 45.6% of the vote in 2006. In fact, Musgrave had the lowest percentage of ANY winning candidate – Democrat or Republican, incumbent or challenger – in 2006. She’s held the seat only since 2002 and her winning percentage has decreased by an average TEN points since she was first elected. The fun fact here: Democratic Governor Bill Ritter won this district with 53% of the vote in 2006.
So with all due respect to ColoradoPols Big Line – 2006 was not our best shot here. 2008 is.
I’ll be the first to admit though that all the numbers can be in your favor…but without a great candidate you won’t go anywhere.
Tomorrow night in Colorado Springs the CD-4 Dems are going to nominate Betsy Markey to take on Marilyn Musgrave.
Betsy is the only candidate in this race who is out talking about the economy and has offered her own plan on how to tackle the issues that matter, which you can find right here: http://betsymarkey.com/plan
And she’s not afraid to take your questions in person. She already held one town hall on the economy in Greeley last week…and this coming Wednesday, May 21 at 5:30 she’ll be holding the second in Fort Collins at Boltz Junior High cafeteria at 720 Boltz Drive.
There’s been a lot of talk about Marilyn Musgrave changing her image…but not much has really changed and we will make sure that voters are aware come November.
And quite frankly, most of Congresswoman Musgrave’s image makeover is laughably ironic compared with Betsy’s background.
Consider the much talked about visit Musgrave made to the Larimer County Food Bank in late 2007. There were a lot of press pictures and much made about her image makeover…but in order to get in the front door of the Larimer County Food Bank you need to pass the large sign on the wall thanking former Food Bank Board of Directors President Betsy Markey for raising nearly a million dollars for their capital campaign.
We are glad to see that Congresswoman Musgrave has come around on the Farm Bill…after all, only a few months ago she voted against it.
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/200…
We’d also like to see her turn some of her attention to drought and disaster assistance for the Eastern Plains – measures she has voted against in the past. http://clerk.house.gov/evs/200…
And it would be nice if she was with America and the district on the issue of turning over those big oil subsidies to incentives for renewable energy. http://www.coloradoan.com/apps…
And it is interesting that even as Musgrave is touting her support of the farm bill in the district, she’s hoping people ignore the other vote she took today – to oppose an amendment to restore full GI Bill educational benefits to the veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmsp…
Maybe fear of losing her seat will do what nothing else has done – force Marilyn Musgrave to focus attention on issues that matter to her district as opposed to issues that matter to the extreme right wing of the Republican Party.
But given the results in Illinois, Louisiana and Mississippi…we are betting that voters will be a little less forgiving this year.
Anne Caprara
Manager, Betsy Markey for Congress