61% '06 Drubbing Apparently Not Enough For Tipton

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by: Colorado Pols

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.

12 thoughts on “61% ’06 Drubbing Apparently Not Enough For Tipton”

WesternSlopeThought says:

November 12, 2009 at 10:00 pm

Not to mention that Tipton was absolutely clueless in his debates against John. It was one of those instances when you feel sorry for the guy on the stage. How a second face plant will help the GOP, is beyond me. Maybe it is all done just to make Ricky Wagner happy?

“When you have a losing record, you tend to go through a rebuilding process. But the Republican Party appears to be doubling down on all its failed talent.” –Max Blumenthal

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1. gertie97 says:
  
  November 13, 2009 at 3:15 am
  
  But I’ll bet Wadhams promised him lots of money for his campaign and for some reason Tipton believed him. They apparently think there’s enough anti-health care bill vote out there to beat Salazar, but there’s no indication Salazar has lost any of his considerable support in the southern half of the district.
  
  As for Wagner, he operates in the Mesa County echo chamber and thinks Mesa, Montrose and Delta counties are all Tipton needs to win. In Wagner’s world, it works. In the real world, it doesn’t.
  
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ardy39 says:

November 12, 2009 at 10:39 pm

It seems that the Scott Tipton announcement, following shortly after the Penry early withdrawal announcement, has the “conservatives” in Mesa County all twitterpated. Here’s a LTE in today’s Sentinel:

‘Year of Scotts’ may hurt the GOP

It seems that 2010 will be the “Year of the Scotts” for Republicans. With the withdrawal of Josh Penry, it seems that from within the cigar-and perfume-filled backrooms of the Republican establishment, it was decreed that Scott McInnis will run for governor while Scott Tipton again faces John Salazar. It remains to be seen if Ray Scott, running for the District 54 seat, will be invited to join the club.

Republicans went from having a great candidate capable of beating Gov. Bill Ritter or Rep. John Salazar to recycled party favorites. This reeks of internal party politics.

I guess the message of the tea parties and town halls was lost on Republicans. Planet Earth to Republicans: An “R” in front of your name means little to conservatives, independents and even for many unwashed Republicans. It’s the candidate, stupid.

DANA ISHAM

Grand Junction

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1. Ralphie says:
  
  November 12, 2009 at 10:46 pm
  
  He’s a little out on the fringe even for here.
  
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  1. ardy39 says:
    
    November 12, 2009 at 11:05 pm
    
    but now his name is frequently linked with the Western Slope Conservative Alliance – they host tea parties and town halls and various rallies, usually in public parks or public buildings.
    
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  2. WesternSlopeThought says:
    
    November 12, 2009 at 11:07 pm
    
    And sharpening the tines on his pitchfork is just the tip of the iceburg for this loon.
    
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  3. WesternSlopeThought says:
    
    November 13, 2009 at 1:15 am
    
    is not a registered R, seems to me, after talking with a few of my R friends, that there is indeed a right-wing effort here to make sure McInnis is not elected. And it might not be the “clandestine” effort I wrote about yesterday. It appears that there is certainly a lot of anger toward McInnis and his kingmakers after the way they treated Penry.
    
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    1. Ralphie says:
      
      November 13, 2009 at 5:07 am
      
      The Teabaggers hate everything.
      
      That’s why they’re teabaggers.
      
      Don’t go looking for reason in any of this.
      
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      1. RedGreen says:
        
        November 13, 2009 at 5:26 am
        
        hate each other:
        
        http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpoi…
        
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        ClubTwitty says:
        
        November 13, 2009 at 5:41 am
        
        No follow the gourd!
        
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      2. WesternSlopeThought says:
        
        November 13, 2009 at 6:31 am
        
        you’ll find that they are the leaders of the teabag circus. One and the same. Indistinguishable. And I believe the Mission Statement from their Articles of Confederation quote H. L. Mencken:
        
        “The mob man, functioning as citizen, gets a feeling that he is really important to the world – that he is genuinely running things. Out of his maudlin herding after rogues and mountebanks there comes to him a sense of vast and mysterious power-which is what makes archbishops, police sergeants, the grand goblins of the Ku Klux and other such magnificoes happy.”
        
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DavidThi808 says:

November 13, 2009 at 6:44 am

We’re a democracy and that requires that both parties foght for every seat. We support Dems who choose to run against Lamborn and wish them well on their impossible quest. We should treat Tipton the same way.

Scott – thanks for running.

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