In an interview with The Denver Post, former Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez compared himself to former Denver Broncos starting quarterback Jake Plummer:
“I heard one of the Denver sportscasters say the best reason you can come up with for going with Jay Cutler is that he hasn’t had an opportunity to offend anybody yet,” he said. “I feel like Jake Plummer.”
Um…okay. That might not be the best comparison you could have made, Bob.
Beauprez should feel like Plummer, but not for that reason – because they both were really bad at their jobs in 2006.
Beauprez also seems to think that he lost the race for governor because his base just didn’t turn out. He doesn’t seem very interested in accepting any blame for that loss, however.
“If we would have had about 80 percent of our base turn out and even a fraction of the unaffiliated, we would have won,” he said. “I guess I’ve got to accept some of that blame, but I don’t know.”
In the governor’s race, Beauprez acknowledged missteps. Asked for examples, he said only that “maybe we made a mistake in not getting out there earlier with some policy, some positions.”
The campaign chose to hold that information until after Labor Day, when voters traditionally start paying attention to elections, he said.
Beauprez took some criticism for not campaigning Labor Day weekend when Ritter stumped in five counties. Beauprez said he didn’t think Ritter outworked him.
Beauprez also reiterated to the Post that he isn’t ruling out running for the Senate in 2008. That’s okay. He doesn’t need to rule it out. Everyone else already did.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
BY: JohnInDenver
IN: Labor Day Weekend Open Thread
BY: 2Jung2Die
IN: Labor Day Weekend Open Thread
BY: MichaelBowman
IN: Labor Day Weekend Open Thread
BY: Duke Cox
IN: Who’s Paying For These Racist Anti-Harris Sign Stunts?
BY: davebarnes
IN: Labor Day Weekend Open Thread
BY: notaskinnycook
IN: Labor Day Weekend Open Thread
BY: 2Jung2Die
IN: Labor Day Weekend Open Thread
BY: notaskinnycook
IN: Labor Day Weekend Open Thread
BY: Colorado Pols
IN: Who’s Paying For These Racist Anti-Harris Sign Stunts?
BY: JohnInDenver
IN: Labor Day Weekend Open Thread
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter to stay in the loop with regular updates!
The guy lost the election and still gets run down on this liberal blog.
Oh well. At least ColoPols admits that Plummer sucks too.
Beauprez does not get run down by Pols because Pols is liberal. Beauprez gets run down by Pols because Beauprez is an idiot.
I know BB is not stupid. He would not be where he is, accomplished the things he has, or even had a chance to run for Gov if he was an idiot.
What is your definition of ‘idiot’?
Not running the best of campaigns does not make one an idiot in my mind.
An idiot is someone of low IQ.
That is my opinion, and BB does not fit that mold.
How about saying he is in denial?
“Didn’t run the best campaign?” That’s like saying that Hoover had a few problems during his presidency.
that the man is NOT an idiot.
How many thousands of us voted for him for the Gov office? And how many voted to elect him to his previous positions?
Saying he is an idiot is akin to calling these people idiots too.
That said, if it is ok in liberal’s eyes to call him an idiot, is it not ok to call the Dems first choice for Gov an idiot for how the elections were run in the black hole known as Denver? Or for Hick’s denial that the same black hole is a sanctuary city?
with someone who called him an idiot. I was AGREEING with you on that point.
That said, he’s clearly not accepting his responsibility for his own hand in his pathetic showing at the polls – and yes, in this state a Republican of his stature, although not guaranteed victory, should not have been blown out at the polls so his showing can be rightly called pathetic. That’s all I’m saying.
Gecko, you have a good point.
Beauprez is NOT an idiot. The people who voted for him are idiots.
… Beauprez may be the genius of this century but he acted like an idiot in the interview in question by not accepting any blame for his failure.
If his base didn’t turn out 80% to vote for him, who should accept responsibility for that?
On Dec 20, BB was an idiot.
And Bush is a fucking brilliant politician. It ain’t about what you know, it’s what your connections are.
The guy does it to himself, over and over.
he’s an idiot. and suffers from foot in mouth disease, to boot.
I knew he was standing too close to that horse when they filmed those commercials.
I think “Mommy” needs to take him down to Cancun for some “Mexico Time.” I am glad he hasn’t ruled out the Senate race in ’08. I’m counting on a high level of debate between B.W.B., Tancredo, and perhaps Janet Rowland in the GOP primary.
Bob Beauprez ran one of the worst political races ever. It’s time that he acts like an adult and takes the blame for one misstep after another. When you are running for political office, you should be on top of everything that goes on in your campaign. Don’t put the blame on the voters not turning out; they did, and they voted for the right man for the job.
Who at the Colorado Media Matters clearly stated that the major fault lay with the campaign. Very classy and taking on responsibility for the loss.
I’ll agree BWB’s not truly an idiot. But I can understand people calling him that after the campaign he ran. And for his comments afterwards like the above.
Can we agree that how he ran his campaign was idiotic?
It’s a damned good thing the voters are smarter than he is.
Maybe Beauprez didn’t want to diss his campaign because doing so would, by implication, diss John Marshall – for whom Beauprez despite all retains a great deal of loyalty.
Can’t argue with that.
But he has no business comparing himself to Plummer. Plummer worked his butt off, did the very best he could, achieved a lot for Denver during his time as the top QB, and has been a total class act all the way in the way he’s handled the transfer to Jay Cutler.
People who say Plummer “sucked” are acting like immature kids. He’s a good man, with great skills, incredible drive and more class in his fingernail (yes, even his middle finger fingernail) than those people will ever have.
but saying that the man who flipped the bird to his home fans on one occassion, and who was involved in a stupid road rage incident on another, has any class is simply giving him more credit than he deserves. I won’t dispute your other points about Plummer, but I will dispute this one.
I specifically mentioned the regrettable middle-finger incident. The guy’s been a QB for what, nine years, and he has one situation like this which was due likely to his own frustration with his performance?
And if you start bringing in off-field conduct (conduct for which the other person was willing to drop charges, if I remember correctly), then I’d assume that off-field conduct by even the great John Elway would be open season. And I don’t think that’s fair either.
I just think Plummer has been a terrific class act in the way he’s handled his demotion in favor of Cutler.
then these incidents matter. Classy people don’t let their tempers get the better of them and make them do stupid things. But I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree there.
who strikes me as a pretty classy guy, talks in his book about getting so frustrated with his opponent, Alan Keyes, that he was filmed in an angry exchange where he made the mistake of poking Alan repeatedly in the chest. Everyone loses it occasionally and in the heat of a campaign I can see even the classiest people having lapses.
…between candidates for an office and illegally attacking your opponent to make a last ditch effort to win a race. Beauprez attacks his opponents because he had nothing to hang his hat on. No accomplishments of merit.
and occasional lapses in temper in general. You can lose it from time to time and still be classy, IMHO.
…..which of the two of them was more black?
Keyes had three main issues. Abortion, abortion, and abortion.
But yes, there was that “I’m blacker than you are” issue. Didn’t seem to stick with voters though.
He disowned his daughter because she was gay.
Who’s excited to see Cutler vs. Cincy on Sunday? The kid looks like he’s starting to get into the swing of things.
and still lost. He really never caught on with the base. No excitement, no fierce loyalties, at least that I could see. Combine this with a decidedly blue swing in the state and nation, he really never stood a chance. The Dems would have had to run a completely unappealing candidate to lose this one. Ritter’s pro life stance and DA background made him appealing to the U’s and R’s who weren’t crazy about Beauprez.
Marshall is a class act. I suspect we haven’t heard the last from him.
Glad to see a post that looks further than the “poorly run campaign” defense. Agreed that a well-run campaign could not have overcome poor timing and positioning.
Beauprez was very successful in Congress. This was in part due to adherence to the party line during his tenure. There couldn’t have been a worse time to run as a party-line washington politician.
Beyond that Beauprez staked out his far-right territory and never budged. That positioning may have been required to avoid a Holtzman primary but made it impossible to win the general against a centrist. I am not in the camp that blames the R loss on Holtzman. If the message isn’t strong enough to carry a primary AND a general I blame the candidate not the opponent.
BB is no idiot. He’s an intelligent man that was doing a good job for us in Congress. I always thought that it would be better for the state if he stayed there. Looks like it would’ve been better for him too.
How exactly do you define “success”? If you mean that B.W.B. avoided ending up like Tom Delay, Bob Ney, Randy “Duke” Cunningham, Don Sherwood, or Mark Foley, then you’re correct, he was “very successful.” But that’s not a very high bar to traverse, even for most Republicans.
If you are comparing Both Ways to his Colorado Republican colleagues, I guess you could also call him “successful.”
He’s gotten some amendments to legislation passed (most notably, the threatened cutoff of foreign aid to Mexico re: failure to extradite fugitives).
His Colorado GOP colleagues, of course, have been successful in passing squat. Tancredo got the 700-mile fence approved but then failed to get adequate funding for the fence authorized. Musgrave and the Potted Plant have their Federal Marriage Amendment about which to crow.
Joel Hefley actually tried to be effective in disciplining Tom Delay but was bounced from chairing the committee which had jurisdiction over ethics.
No, I don’t consider lack of indictment as an indication of success. Do you consider it an indication of failure? Your disdain for Tancredo, Musgrave, and the others mentioned is not strong rationale that BB did a poor job.
BB rose to a position of influence, was able to represent CO well and succeeded in bringing us funding. He may not align w/ you philisophically and maybe you prefer more of a maverick but it will be a while before we can get one of our delegation back to position where as much good can be done for CO.
What has Beauprez done for Colorado?
why the hell were you awake at 5:45 am on a snow day?!
it’s an affliction. I want to sleep in, I really do!
Beauprez is definitely in denial regarding his gubernatorial campaign loss.
The principal reason Beauprez lost: Beauprez himself.
He flip-flopped on numerous issues, which made his Both Ways Bob nickname stick throughout the campaign.
He opposed Ref C.
He selected Janet Rowland as his running mate.
He wanted to replace the gas tax with an increase in the sales tax.
He stood next to a horse’s rear end, while wearing a black hat and complaining about the bad smell of politics.
He talked about a 70% abortion rate among Black women.
He accepted illegally gained info from the NCIC database, which led to an FBI investigation.
He suggested raising college tuition.
He believed elk could be trained to migrate off oil and gas sites.
He ran one of the 10 worst compaigns, according to the Washington Post.
He was criticized by fellow Republicans Campbell and McInnis for selecting a campaign staff not up to the task.
The national political climate had very little to do with Beauprez’ loss at the state level. Beauprez’ screwups were self-inflicted.
The result of all Beauprez’ missteps: voters questioned Beauprez’ ability to lead, and, thus, voted accordingly.
Colorado voters made the right decision!
Remember, this is still a Republican state with 172,000 more register Republicans than Democrats. (I know, some of them are those damned RINOs.) If Arnold Schwartznegger could win in a blue state like California (the land of fruit and nuts), Jodi Rell could win in a liberal, Democratic state like Connecticut, and Tim Pawlenty could win in Minnesota, the home state of Walter Mondale, Hubert Humphrey, and Paul Wellstone, then why could Both Ways not prevail in a red state like Colorado.
It was because he ran an idiotic campaign.
Colorado Republicans have a registration advantage. But Beauprez did go too far to the right. He wasn’t successful in congress, just more so than his fellow Colorado GOP (except for Joel Hefley). I think most Coloradoans are independent minded and want a state Government and Federal Representatives that are independent minded and Beauprez is definitely not independent minded. Allard’s lack of independence is why he is becoming more unpopular these days.
Colorado is not a blue/Democratic state. It is not a red/Republican state. It is a purple/swing state. A moderate state. This is the reality of Colorado politics.
But I wanted to give this state one more election cycle before proclaiming Colorado truly a purple state.
Besides, it looks alot more impressive when Bill Ritter wins by 15% and Dems increase their majorities in both houses of the legislature when running in a red state than in a purple state.
continue to send hard right clowns to Congress we’ll never be able to call ourselves a blue state, even if a Dem wins the Senate seat in ’08.
At least the 5th had Hefley and now they replace Hefley with the new clown on the block.
but in this election cycle, the stars would have had to align just right for an R to win. If the Dems had run a scary candidate (scary to R’s that is) and the R candidate had been more appealing to the majority of R’s, then yes, an R could have one. None of that happened though, and I still contend that Beauprez would not have won this election against Ritter even without all the missteps and mistakes.