August 03, 2009 07:01 PM UTC

Beauprez Will Run for Senate

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE #2: Beauprez is a little more up front about it with Politico:

Former Republican congressman Bob Beauprez told POLITICO that he is “leaning towards running” against Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) because he doesn’t think any of the party’s current crop of candidates can win. [Pols emphasis]

“There’s a general sense that our field isn’t really set on our side, and Bennet is quite vulnerable,” said Beauprez. “We’re looking at it — with an increased sense of urgency.”

Look! Something we agree with Beauprez about: The current crop of GOP candidates cannot beat Bennet. But being on the top of the trash heap still leaves you on the trash heap. Beauprez may or may not be better than Buck, Frazier and Cleve, but if he is better, he’s not that much better.

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UPDATE: Beauprez tells Lynn Bartels over at Politics West that he isn’t definitely in or definitely out. But the most telling quote, perhaps, is this:

Beauprez said he is “asking the questions that need to be asked” as he deliberates about whether to run.

“I don’t want to go in assuming everything is just going to work out, somehow, and the team will come together, somehow, and the money will be there, somehow, and at the end of the day we will win, somehow,” Beauprez said.

Indeed.

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Following up on a post from Mountain Dem a little earlier, it sounds like Bob Beauprez will indeed run for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. We hear that Beauprez is telling friends that “he’s in” and is already beginning to solicit financial support.

Coming off one of the worst campaigns in the country in 2006, and what many — us included — have called the worst statewide campaign in Colorado history, Beauprez would seem to be a poor choice to be the Republican candidate against Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet. But Beauprez does have a deep financial rolodex and should easily be able to outraise both Ken Buck and Ryan Frazier. Whether or not he can convince GOP primary voters that he is not the same disaster that he was in 2006 is another story entirely.