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June 29, 2014 11:31 AM UTC

Beauprez Surrogates Attempt Mandate Damage Control...Badly

  • 15 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols
“Both Ways” Bob Beauprez (right).

Ever since his late entry into the Republican gubernatorial primary, former Congressman Bob Beauprez has been facing questions about his lengthy record from both the left and the right. Democrats have an arsenal of attacks to break out on Beauprez between now and November to motivate the base, from "birther" pandering to prophesying civil war as the Obama administration "pushes the boundaries."

On the right, although there's a wealth of unexploited material left over from the primary to demoralize conservatives, the biggest issue Beauprez has been hit on so far is his one-time support for an individual mandate to purchase health insurance. Beauprez is a longtime ally of failed 2008 and 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney, and especially during the time before Democratic President Barack Obama proposed it, the individual mandate was considered a conservative health care reform proposal.

Today, as you know, the GOP has turned its back on the individual mandate with the kind of airtight doublethink that would make George Orwell blush. This has had the effect of leaving Republican mandate supporters like Mitt Romney and Bob Beauprez in the lurch.

Steve House is just trying to help.
Steve House is just trying to help.

​Since Beauprez's primary win on Tuesday, Beauprez's surrogates have been hard at work on his first logical challenge–shoring up the Republican base in this base-dependent election. Steve House, a former minor gubernatorial candidate who endorsed Beauprez, posted this fascinating bit of damage control on Friday in response to continued grousing about Beauprez's support for the mandate from conservatives:

Gentlemen I thought I would weigh in on this because I spent a fair amount of time with Bob the past 2 and half months. I have written policy and messaging for him and in all cases he was engaged. I absolutely am a liberty minded constitutional grass roots person so when he asked me to help I was skeptical also from his past. He admits that the individual mandate comment was a mistake. [Pols emphasis] Back then people were talking about health insurance like car insurance and I am not convinced that all that many congressmen know the constitution [Pols emphasis] and why this is so wrong but he does now. I am confident he will, over turn the gun legislation, put Nathan Dunlap to death, look to drastically reduce regulation, we have discussed the difference between smaller government and limited government and he gets that. He will have a constitutional expert and a free market expert with his staff, I believe I have convinced him of that. Right now we are working on economic policy and how to move off of Colorado Health Connect. For him to win he has to consolidate the 70% that didn't vote for him first and I would expect to see meetings with Tea Part and Grassroots groups occur very soon so he can answer questions. I believe he was unprepared in 2006 because of the late move from congress to the governor's race. He is very prepared on issues now. I am going to hold his feet to the fire on being a true conservative and if he doesn't pass my test you and everyone else will know. [Pols emphasis] I hope that adds something to your thoughts.

"I am not convinced that all that many congressmen know the constitution," says House. But don't worry, "he does now!" We're not sure the words "damning with faint praise" quite do this justice. And if Beauprez doesn't pass House's "test," which apparently was not the Republican primary Beauprez just won last Tuesday, "you and everyone else will know!" Right you are, Steve, because Democrats will be making ads about it. Maybe with some choice quotes from this Facebook post. Now, if he could just use paragraph breaks…

With surrogates like these, who needs opponents?

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15 thoughts on “Beauprez Surrogates Attempt Mandate Damage Control…Badly”

  1. I believe that he Individual Mandate policy originated with the Heritage Foundation as far back as 1989 and 1992.

    The Individual Mandate is the "responsibility" leg of the ACA, to then ensure that health insurance for all Americans is a "right", rather than only a "privilege" as existed before the ACA.

  2. Fortuntately for Hick, there's plenty of BWB hypocrisy (like this) and flat out crazy to provide fodder for ads from supporters so he doesn't have to go negative in his approved bys. Do think Hick will have to drop the look at me I'm so goofy stuff after his year of fiasco. And he really does need to shut up about what he said to the Sheriffs because absolutely every time he attempts to make it better he makes it worse. Didn't the gun control based recalls teach him anything?

    You aren't going to get Republican Sheriffs to support you if you signed gun control laws regardless of anything else you ever did or how much you make nice.  Whoever let him go talk to the Sheriffs, who were absolutely never going to support him but who were sure to attack him on this issue, should be fired for incompetence. After all, the majority of Colorado voters approve the measures. Why piss off the majority (when you've already pissed off your base on other issues) to pander to the unattainable nut jobs?

    That said, BWB is a proven loser and nobody will ever beat him in any shooting yourself in the foot contest so Hick, who would probably not have a chance against an early 90s style truly moderate R will still win.  What BWB representing the sensible establishment means is that there is no Colorado GOP sensible establishment any more. Period. 

  3. Who is this guy? I know he was a minor candidate for the Republcian gubernatorial nomination at one time but is he really advising about and writing Beauprez's public policy messages? What does he know about the constitution? Or health care or any other issue. Did Beauprez pluck him out of the clouds to be his policy guru? If he did, he's in a heap of trouble. 

    1. I should have added that I love all these right-wingers who think ending our state health exchange somehow ends Obamacare. It doesn't. Repealing our exchange would only put all those insured through our state exchange directly in Obamacare at the federal level.

      1. I am sure the Dems breathe a sigh of relief that Republicans who are as informed, reasonable, and articulate as you, R-36, can't get anywhere near a nomination in the current GOP loony bin.

        I know I do….smiley.

      2. I believe the thinking goes something like: if you take away something that works, the disruption and stress of switching to a troubled system (even if those problems don't exist anymore – perception being reality), the pain will drive voters into the arms of the GOP.

        You know, basically the same idea they've had for the last 6 years– how can we throw so much sand in the gears and make everyone's life so miserable that they'll bring us back into power and so we can really do some damage?

      3. Same but opposite direction goes for those like Senate minority leader and Senator from Kentucky, Mitch McConnell who think everyone who signed up for a state exchange would be unaffected if Obamacare was repealed.

  4. I am going to hold his feet to the fire on being a true conservative and if he doesn't pass my test you and everyone else will know. [Pols emphasis] 

    Of course, he'll have to extract BWB's feet from his mouth first.

  5. I never wanted Congressman Beauprez to be governor.

    But pointing out that he's dumb as a post, and so is his political strategy only implies dumb candidates don't /can't /won't win when available evidence suggests they win all the time. 

    1. Sure they do, but that's usually on a local level; once their stupidity becomes more widely known, the majority of them become unelectable.   While some areas may like 'em dumb, the State of Colorado as a whole has higher standards.  

  6. I have written policy and messaging for him…

    The quality of House's post–in sentence structure and grammar in addition to the logic–indicates he will be contributing to Beauprez' problem.

    1. I went back and re-read the piece, and you are right. Too many mistakes and just generally bad grammar to warrant any grade better than D-minus.

      And, if I found out he was mean to his momma, I would give him an F.

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