Down Goes Frazier. Again. Probably for Good.

22 Comments

by: Colorado Pols

We’ve always been mystified by the interest in Aurora city council member Ryan Frazier, who seems to get a lot more credit than he deserves. But after losing his bid for Aurora Mayor last night to Steve Hogan in a race that wasn’t really close (Hogan won by 10 points), Frazier should be pretty well done in Colorado.

Frazier was touted as a rising star among Colorado Republicans when he tried running for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in 2009. He eventually dropped that race to take on incumbent Democrat Ed Perlmutter in CD-7…and promptly got the crap kicked out of him. Perlmutter beat Frazier by 11 points, yet for some reason Frazier was widely praised by local and national media for having been a strong candidate.

Here’s what we wrote about Frazier following the 2010 mid-term elections, when we named him one of the “Losers” of the cycle:

Sometimes a candidate will lose a big race but do well enough that he or she is considered a rising star. Frazier? Not so much. He got bullied out of the Republican Senate primary to run in CD-7, where he proceeded to get the absolute crap kicked out of him by Rep. Ed Perlmutter. Frazier is a good fundraiser and is decent at delivering a prepared speech, but his campaign was amateurish at best and he otherwise proved to be immature, vacuous and just plain silly in unscripted moments. In one debate, he repeatedly demanded that Perlmutter tell him the page number of something in the health care bill; when your big attack is that your opponent can’t recall page numbers, you’re running a student council campaign.

It’s not losing the race that hurts Frazier, but the fact that he couldn’t even be competitive in a Republican year. Frazier lost by 11 points to Perlmutter and received about 13,000 fewer votes than 2008 GOP candidate John Lerew, a guy whose own yard signs said “John Who?”

Ryan Frazier has now lost high-profile races in consecutive years by double digits, and there’s now no denying the fact that he’s just not a very good politician. Sure, he’s a good speaker (even if he sounds like he’s doing an impression of Barack Obama) and a decent fundraiser, but his campaigns have been downright ridiculous at times. Whether traveling to the Mexico border to stare at the fence, or claiming in a recent robo-call that the “Occupy Wall Street” crowd was out to get him, Frazier was less statesman than used-car salesman. And voters have noticed; it’s worth repeating that Frazier hasn’t just lost — he’s lost in a landslide in consecutive elections.

If the shine wasn’t completely off of Frazier after 2010, surely it is today. Donors aren’t going to back him a third time, not after that performance record, so we’ve probably seen the last of Frazier as a candidate for public office.

22 thoughts on “Down Goes Frazier. Again. Probably for Good.”

cybersoul says:

November 3, 2011 at 12:05 am

This is the Aurora/Arapahoe/Adams GOP we’re talking about here. He’ll be back.

In fact, he may lose the next race he’s in and then be elected the next GOP state chair…

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MADCO says:

November 3, 2011 at 12:09 am

If he waits a few more weeks to announce, no one will know anything about him – perfect.

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ProgressiveCowgirl says:

November 3, 2011 at 12:19 am

Did he take a fence?

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1. Skyler says:
  
  November 3, 2011 at 12:21 am
  
  But I had to log in just to commend you on one of the cheesiest jokes I’ve ever seen on here.
  
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  1. ArapaGOP says:
    
    November 3, 2011 at 12:29 am
    
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  2. ProgressiveCowgirl says:
    
    November 3, 2011 at 12:36 am
    
    You DO know I used to be a Redditor. Just sayin’.
    
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2. Sir Robin says:
  
  November 3, 2011 at 2:27 am
  
  when a large stainless steel milk transporter pulled out in front off us. I turned to the kids and said, it’s ok, if we would have hit him everything would have turned out allwhite.
  
  Shortly afterwards, we passed the cheese factory the tanker has pulled into, I threatened to crash our car into it claiming that an accident had just okurd, as we had lost our whey.
  
  My kids think I’m funny:-)
  
  …doffs hat and takes a bow…lol
  
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  1. ProgressiveCowgirl says:
    
    November 3, 2011 at 2:28 am
    
    But this still made me wonder.
    
    Dad’s favorite, repeated hundreds of times over the years:
    
    “You’re going to visit your horses? I’m glad you’ve finally found a stable environment.”
    
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    1. Sir Robin says:
      
      November 3, 2011 at 2:44 am
      
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      1. ProgressiveCowgirl says:
        
        November 3, 2011 at 3:19 am
        
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abraham says:

November 3, 2011 at 3:09 am

It is a manifestation of one of the unexpected effects of term limits. With instability among the ranks of elected officials and an inadequate amount of time for them to master issues and the craft of being an elected official, people with superficial attractiveness can pop on to the scene and advance much further than their talent should have allowed. The pop up and then fade away as quickly without leaving a legacy. The churn among elected officials is really quite costly to the taxpayers.

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A-bob says:

November 3, 2011 at 3:43 am

ColoradoPols is a liberal reporting sight, not the actual political situation of Colorado. Frazier lost by 7 points, not 10. And in case you’re forgetting, he’s in his 30s. He has a lifetime to get back into politics and win. He could come back in 20, 30 years and spend decades back in elected office.

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1. Ralphie says:
  
  November 3, 2011 at 4:33 am
  
  It might take him a fucking lifetime to get back into politics.
  
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2. Aristotle says:
  
  November 3, 2011 at 5:22 am
  
  If he’s done for the short term, which you aren’t disputing, he’ll face an uphill battle (to put it kindly) when he decides to get back into it. Have you seen how well Newt Gingrich is faring with the GOP? He was once the most powerful Republican in the land.
  
  And the word is “site.” Not “sight.” Alright?
  
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  1. DavidThi808 says:
    
    November 3, 2011 at 7:58 am
    
    Yet after that he went on to be Speaker.
    
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    1. Aristotle says:
      
      November 3, 2011 at 6:14 pm
      
      … and his current ambition to be president.
      
      He got out of the way, and the establishment apparently is not willing to let him cut back in line.
      
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3. raymond1 says:
  
  November 3, 2011 at 6:16 pm
  
  Yes, there generally is such a bright future for councilmen from mid-sized cities who then lose two consecutive races for more substantial jobs.
  
  And yes, failed-pol councilmembers get even stronger if they sit out politics for 20 years following their repeat losses. Kind of like how it’s so common for a fat 55 year-old to return to the career as an NFL linebacker that fell apart 20 years earlier.
  
  There’s a point at which looking on the bright side just denies reality, dude.
  
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John Tzekara says:

November 3, 2011 at 6:39 am

In a year, he can show up in a conservative think tank, speaker at party fundraisers, that kind of thing. As you said, he’s good at hitting the partisan points like the border fence, and a pretty good speaker.

Another campaign is right out though, at least until he can prove to potential donors and his own party that he can succeed at something else…somewhere else.

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davebarnes says:

November 3, 2011 at 6:50 am

The Repubs need him.

1. Good looking.

2. Young.

3. Black.

Ryan is everything an old Tea Party fart is not.

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1. thiokuutoo says:
  
  November 3, 2011 at 11:46 am
  
  5. Willing to be a token
  
  6. Interesting campaign finance spending
  
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Mark G. says:

November 3, 2011 at 5:15 pm

Frazier was on the radio pre-election. I think it was Rosen however Brown was filling in. A caller, who sounded like they were from Pols, asked Frazier how he would represent the people and not just himself.

His answer was pathetic. He went on a long rant about how his mother and God taught him to be successful.

Me Me Me, basically selfish. Self-interest is healthy and okay to an extent.

This is how I would answer.

There is no way I can represent all of the people because all of the people never agree. I cannot even represent those who will vote for me because they do not agree. The best I can do is listen intently and stay informed. You are electing me because you trust me to represent you and your neighbors. If you want me to vote for you, you should replace representative government with direct Democracy and vote for yourself.

I will do the best I can to stick to Republican values such as the individual, freedom, personal responsibility and limited yet effective government.

You have to trust the constitution, rules and system I must abide.

You have to trust my decisions, if you do not, elect somebody else.

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1. raymond1 says:
  
  November 3, 2011 at 6:17 pm
  
  B/c that would explain a lot.
  
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