April 07, 2022 11:00 AM UTC

Colorado's Worst Campaigns: The "F***ed Four"

• 6 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

After three iterations of our bracket featuring the worst campaigns in Colorado this century, we’ve reached the “biggest loser” stage that we’re calling the “F***ed Four.”

Click here to catch up. Continue below to read our breakdown of how we got to the “F***ed Four” and cast your vote for the finals!

The “F***ed Four”

Bob Beauprez ‘06 (Governor) vs. Tim Neville ’16 (Senate)

Bob Beauprez’s 2006 gubernatorial campaign was always going to be tough to out-awful. Beauprez has the worst TV ad of the last 22 years in his infamous “horse’s ass” spot, and then there’s the raw number factor: He went from being the favorite in the 2006 race for Governor to losing to little-known former Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter by 17 points! We haven’t seen a major statewide campaign decided by such a large margin ever since.

Dan Maes ’10 (Governor) vs. Hiedi Heidi Ganahl ’22 (Governor)

It’s just too soon to declare Ganahl’s campaign as one of the four worst of this century, but she’s absolutely making a run for the title. In the meantime, it’s hard to do much worse than Maes’s General Election finish in 2010, when he captured all of 11% of the vote in a three-way race with Democrat John Hickenlooper and American Constitution Party nominee Tom Tancredo. It’s a safe bet that we won’t soon see a major party candidate in Colorado performing this poorly in a General Election. 

Walker Stapleton ’18 (Governor) vs. George Brauchler ’18 (Governor)

Brauchler pulled off the upset in an earlier round by knocking out Darryl Glenn’s sad 2016 campaign for U.S. Senate. Stapleton’s gubernatorial campaign was definitely not good, but at least he won the Republican nomination and made it all the way to the General Election. Brauchler’s gubernatorial campaign was so bad that he dropped out after about six months — and just weeks after his supporters were claiming he had all the “momentum” in the race. Brauchler went on to run for Attorney General in 2018, a race he lost handily to Democrat Phil Weiser.

Jon Keyser ’16 (Senate) vs. Scott McInnis ’10 (Governor)

This was the closest theoretical battle in the entire bracket. McInnis’s campaign was so bad that he LOST to Dan Maes in the 2010 Republican Primary. But Keyser ultimately advances because his brief campaign for U.S. Senate was epic in its awfulness. His infamous meltdown in front of then-Denver7 reporter Marshall Zelinger inspired a series of inside jokes that politicos still use to this day. Keyser was so humiliated by his performance that he moved out of Colorado altogether just a few months after the Republican Primary Election in June 2016.

So, which of the “F***ed Four” is the worst of the worst? Cast your vote below:

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