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May 27, 2011 09:06 PM UTC

Ryan Call Doth Protest Too Much, Fearing Brandon Shaffer Edition

  • 16 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

It’s a funny thing about all this clamor and staged hand-wringing over whether, or when, Colorado Senate President Brandon Shaffer plans to start a run for the CD-4 seat presently held by freshman GOP Rep. Cory Gardner–as FOX 31’s Eli Stokols reported Tuesday:

Looking to keep the pressure on Senate President Brandon Shaffer following last week’s statement from a top Democrat that he was planning to run for Congress, Colorado GOP Chairman Ryan Call sent Shaffer a letter Tuesday asking him to “break his silence.”

…Republicans have mercilessly attacked Shaffer over lawmakers’ failure to re-draw Colorado’s congressional district lines during the just-ended session at the Capitol.

That battle, now headed to the courts, stalled when Democrats and Republicans were unable to compromise on a map…

Specifically, Republicans took aim at Shaffer, who they suspected of trying to gerrymander the Fourth Congressional District, which includes his home town of Longmont, so it would be more favorable to him and a potential campaign next year.

So, we’ll start with the obvious thing we’ve said repeatedly when this silly allegation has come up: every Democratic proposed redistricting map drew CD-4 with a significant GOP advantage. What’s more, Shaffer, like House Speaker Frank McNulty, wasn’t even a member of the Joint Select Committee on Redistricting–yet it was McNulty who scotched his party’s maps in favor of his own, remember? Has anybody accused Shaffer of anything even remotely equivalent?

After you dispense with the only material allegation being made against Shaffer, the rest of this is just childish hectoring. It’s the spring of an off year, the midterms were barely six months ago. The world can wait until the summer or fall for these campaigns to begin. It seems like this is some kind of payback for the way Democrats attacked Bob Schaffer in the fall of 2007, but the problem then was Schaffer himself doing the announcing and un-announcing.

So once you cut through the noise, what’s left if the only real allegation here is baseless hypocrisy? Why would well-adjusted adults, who have their jobs because they’re considered to be smart like Ryan Call, waste their and the media’s time biting at Sen. Shaffer’s ankles?

If you don’t see where we’re going with this, you haven’t been watching the news this week.

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16 thoughts on “Ryan Call Doth Protest Too Much, Fearing Brandon Shaffer Edition”

  1. back to Ryan Call saying they’re (we’re) ALL running for CD4.  Remember, it is Congress, and it’s a little fluid re: whether you actually have to reside IN CD4 to run there . . .

    1. in CO you do not have to reside in a congressional district to run there. Remember when Chlouber put up an aborted attempt, complete with burros, against DeGette?

  2. I’d be perfectly delighted to wage this message war all week. “Cory Gardner wants to abolish Medicare as we know it,” to which Call replies, “Oh yeah, well Brandon Shaffer won’t confirm he’s running against Cory.”

    1. But why miss an opportunity to hobble him at the outset?

      No district lines exist yet, David, the R+10 district is just the one Shaffer went to the mat for.  

      1. How exactly does this “hobble” Shaffer? Do they intend to graduate from “childish hectoring” to Tonya Harding knee whackings? Watch out for Jeff Gillooly, Brandon!

        I don’t know when hackneyed GOP framing became so fashionable with Dems, but I hope they start returning the favor sometime. At the very least, maybe we can stop giving Scott Tipton a pass over his ethics problems while ruminating about how Ryan Call’s cornball antics are “hobbling” Shaffer out of the other side of our oh-so-generous mouths? You’d think this is really basic how not to get your ass beat in politics 101 stuff, but maybe I’m missing something?

        Hey LB! I’m working on those anger issues, see?

        1. frame the story as “Shaffer wasn’t honest with voters when he tried to redistrict his house into the 4th District,” then they’ve hobbled him out of the gate, if he decides to run. Would it be fatal, if they’re successful getting this story going? No. But it puts Shaffer at a disadvantage.

          Describing that this is what Call is trying to do isn’t the same as agreeing with with what he’s saying.

  6. that he’s running in 2012?

    Hey Ryan, isn’t about time you call on your guy to “break his silence”?

    On second thought, it’s probably better that he doesn’t, he stands a lot better chance if he keeps his fucking mouth shut.

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