November 12, 2009 09:06 PM UTC

61% '06 Drubbing Apparently Not Enough For Tipton

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• by: Colorado Pols

As the Grand Junction Sentinel reports:

Three years ago, Scott Tipton, a Cortez Republican who was largely unknown to the 3rd Congressional District, was trounced by the Democrat incumbent, John Salazar.

That was the year Congress changed from Republican to Democrat control.

Tipton wants to even the score in 2010 and oust Salazar, who would be seeking his fourth term.

Tipton announced his official bid for Congress on Wednesday to more than 40 Republicans at El Tapatio restaurant in Fruita.

Now a state representative from Cortez, Tipton said this time around he’ll have the money and support to challenge Salazar.

It still gnaws at him that his campaign had to go dark in the last two weeks of the 2006 campaign, leaving him unable to respond to Salazar’s campaign jabs.

Republicans such as former Gov. Bill Owens, former Sen. Hank Brown and Pete Coors have promised him support this time, Tipton said…

We hope for Scott Tipton’s sake those “promises” weren’t delivered though GOP chairman Dick Wadhams. As 2008’s CD-3 sacrificial lamb Wayne Wolf can tell you, Wadhams’ ‘promises’ have a way of falling through the proverbial cracks.

We don’t mean to unfairly discount Scott Tipton, who we do consider a somewhat more viable candidate than briefly-mentioned CD-3 noncontender Martin Beeson. But John Salazar’s war chest is already in seven figures, despite all the agitation on the hard right we don’t see anything to suggest that Salazar’s popularity in CD-3 is truly hurting, and we just don’t think that’s going to change enough to make a difference. Maybe Tipton doesn’t get buried by twenty points this time, owing to pressure on the party in power in their first midterm, but it’s no less a lost cause.