Welcome Back, J. Paul Brown!

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by: Colorado Pols

Cletus Spuckler.

As the Durango Herald reports today, one of the more colorful additions to the Colorado General Assembly from the 2010 Republican wave is coming back to the Capitol in January:

[A]s of the final tally of La Plata County cured ballots Wednesday night, [Rep. Mike] McLachlan was still trailing Republican challenger J. Paul Brown by 163 votes districtwide.

Brown had 17,246 to McLachlan’s 17,083, with 34,329 votes cast in total across the district.

Since Election Day, McLachlan has run up his vote total in La Plata County, getting 11,949 to Brown’s 10,621.

But it wasn’t enough to tip the scales.

Parker said the 0.95 percent margin of difference wasn’t close enough to trigger an automatic recount.

Rep. J. Paul Brown was ousted in 2012 by Democrat Mike McLachlan by a considerably bigger margin than he just recaptured the HD-59 seat with, which may rightfully make you wonder if HD-59 is destined to bounce back and forth between presidential and off years until the next reapportionment in 2020. It seems like the partisan divide in the district is close enough, and the swing between presidential and off year electorates wide enough, to set that in motion.

Democrats are sorry to lose McLachlan, even as they celebrate holding their majority in the House. Looking ahead, though, as we saw with Brown's last term in 2011-12, the short term loss could become a long-term bonus for Democrats. Rep. Brown frequently made headlines for his UN conspiracy theories, embarrassing homespun gaffes, and bizarre protest votes: once casting the only vote against a homeless youth prevention bill, and famously saying in explanation of his vote against children's health care coverage, "if I’m wrong, I guess, take me out behind the barn and give me a whipping."

In 2012, the voters of HD-59 did so. McLachlan was targeted by the gun lobby for his role in the passage of 2013's gun safety bills, even though McLachlan's primary contribution was to increase the magazine limit from 10 to 15 rounds in order to accommodate a variety of automatic pistols. But for all the money spent to oust McLachlan, a margin under 200 votes in a GOP wave year doesn't inspire much confidence for holding this seat in 2016.

And frankly, neither does J. Paul Brown.

10 thoughts on “Welcome Back, J. Paul Brown!”

Progressicat says:

November 13, 2014 at 9:25 am

It's criminal that you left out Rep. Cletus Slugs the Bear!

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1. JeffcoBlue says:
  
  November 13, 2014 at 9:53 am
  
  I'm sad for Mike McLachlan, but the J. Paul Brown/Chaps one-two is going to be an amazing thing to watch. I hope Mike stays healthy and takes him right back out.
  
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ZMulls says:

November 13, 2014 at 9:47 am

Ah yes. Pop the popcorn and settle in–the battle for the stage between J. Paul Brown and Dr. Chaps is about to commence.

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1. bullshit! says:
  
  November 13, 2014 at 10:59 am
  
  Don't forget Janak Joshi! The Dr. Nick for Brown's Cletus.
  
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Moderatus says:

November 13, 2014 at 1:45 pm

Rural Colorado loves the way city folk refer to them as yokels. This will win some votes!

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1. ZMulls says:
  
  November 13, 2014 at 2:31 pm
  
  One of my good friends several decades ago was from Joes, Colorado (no apostrophe). Joes is a tiny (population: less than 30) place in about as rural a part of Colorado as you could find. Yet, just because he was from rural Colorado, my friend was not tied to rural stereotypes. Even then, he understood and believed in the threat of human-caused climate change. He believed in religious tolerance–including tolerance of Muslims and atheists. He supported reasonable gun regulation. He recognized the threat of giant agribusiness to the family farmers. He understood that, just because it is called the "theory" of evolution, that doesn't mean it is not solidly proven scientific fact. And, he understood that the Constitution was written by men who were not all Christians, and that it was designed to prevent the U.S. becoming a theocratic Christian nation.
  
  Guess what his political affiliation was? Democrat–as were his parents and grandparents before him.
  
  Not all rural Coloradans are bigoted, science-denying, theocracy-supporting, gun-nut morons who belong to the party of hate and ignorance.
  
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  1. MichaelBowman says:
    
    November 14, 2014 at 1:39 pm
    
    I grew up 17 miles from Joes – a great little place we use to call "Little Chicago" in the 70's! Mrs. Nelson's restaurant was the place on Hwy 36 and the short-lived Mexican restaurant across the street was one of the best. About the only thing left in Joes today is the headquarters to what may be one of the best cooperative telephone associations in the US, Plains Cooperative Telephone. Thanks to the ARRA (thanks, Barack Obama) and an $11.1 million Rural Utilities Service loan, (guaranteed by our government), this patch of conservative Colorado landscape has gigabit internet service to every one of its 1,500 members, totaling 2,742 residents.
    
    Yuma County has prospered thanks in large part to Democratic programs – not that you'd know that from reading any of the local newspapers today.
    
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    1. MichaelBowman says:
      
      November 14, 2014 at 1:45 pm
      
      Meant to embed this link re: Yuma County As you can see, we have no aversion to accepting government handouts. (we received over $15 million in ARRA funds alone)
      
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2. Colorado Pols says:
  
  November 13, 2014 at 4:03 pm
  
  Vokels!
  
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vertigo700 says:

November 13, 2014 at 5:38 pm

I always thought Mike McLaughlin would be a great candidate to go against Scott Tipton. In a presidential year, I think he could do pretty well. Somebody from Durango might activate that swingish area of Southwestern Colorado in a way the perpetual Pueblo also-rans never could.

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