July 06, 2015 03:47 PM UTC

Republicans Find Senate Candidate Willing to Run in 2016...Sort Of

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: Longtime Colorado politicos may remember that Lopez ran for State Senate (SD-30) back in 2000 and lost to John Evans after a pretty meek campaign.

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Republicans have unearthed another candidate for U.S. Senate in 2016, as Lynn Bartels reports for the Denver Post blog “The Spot”:

Greg Lopez, the former director of the Small Business Administration in Colorado, announced Monday he plans to run for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate.

Lopez said he’s not worried that other Republicans, including U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman of Aurora and state Sen. Ellen Roberts of Durango, have already said “no” to challenging Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet next year.

A former Mayor of Parker, Lopez tells Bartels that “His Democratic friends have told him they would back him publicly and financially if he ran for office,” though we can’t imagine those friends ever thought Lopez might run for United States Senate. Lopez is bilingual and has served 10 years on the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, and along with his time with he SBA, he has an interesting resume…on paper.

Lopez is probably a better Republican candidate than Darryl Glenn — though that isn’t a very high bar to clear — but he’s certainly not a game-changer who will pose a serious threat to Democratic incumbent Sen. Michael Bennet. Put it this way: If your campaign announcement for Senate is only picked up by the political blog of the Denver Post, you’re obviously not generating a lot of buzz or excitement.

It also doesn’t help Lopez that he left the U.S. Small Business Administration in April 2014 “because of clashes with his bosses in Washington over the Veterans Administration hospital project in Aurora that was beset by cost overruns…” Being involved in the mess that is the VA Hospital project in Aurora should be a big bonus!