April 13, 2016 03:18 PM UTC

Perry Who-ney? Morgan Carroll Unanimously Nominated in CD-6

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• by: Colorado Pols

With all the attention this big political week focused on the weekend’s GOP state assembly in Colorado Springs and the chaotic Republican presidential primary, we’d be remiss if we didn’t take note of a much less-discussed but certainly newsworthy anticlimax from the Democratic CD-6 assembly. As the Aurora Sentinel reports:

Sen. Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora, received the nomination of the Democratic Party for the 6th Congressional District race this year, the unanimous pick of the almost 300 delegates assembled Sunday, April 10, at Overland High School.

Carroll, who was the first Democratic candidate to announce for CD6, faced a virtually nonexistent challenge from Greenwood Village spinal physician Perry Haney, who filed to run about two weeks after Carroll’s announcement last summer. Haney previously ran for the CD6 nomination in 2012 before eventually dropping out.

By the time Democrats gathered over the weekend to make it official, the full delegation was behind Carroll, who said she was “honored” by the unanimous nomination.

“This furthers our resolve that our people-powered campaign, based on the voices of the community, will prevail in November.” Carroll said, “Thank you to all the CD6 delegates, volunteers and grassroots activists for supporting my campaign.”

After Carroll’s entry into the CD-6 congressional race last year, local media mostly at the behest of pro-Coffman Republicans made an enormous deal out of the “entry” of Perry Haney into the race as a primary opponent. The Denver Post’s then-reporter Lynn Bartels stenographed the GOP’s delight:

Republicans gleefully welcomed Haney. The winner of the Democrat primary faces U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Aurora.

“Democrats better buckle up, because there’s a big primary brewing in the 6th District,” said Zach Hunter, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee.

“A long, bloody fight seems inevitable, badly hurting whoever is the eventual Democratic nominee’s chances in the general election.”

Uh yeah, as it turns out, not so much! After Haney’s previous abortive runs for office in this district and briefly in CD-3, we would have been a little more hesitant to build Haney up as some kind of viable primary challenger to Sen. Carroll. But as usual in today’s short-attention-span news cycle, Haney’s complete nonfactoring at the assembly has received far less press attention than his “entry” did.

That’s annoying, but hopefully Carroll’s CD-6 assembly video above–chock full of press cites reminding viewers that she is a nationally recognized top-tier candidate in one of the nation’s most targeted races–will jog the narrative back toward reality.