May 07, 2009 11:16 PM UTC

Cory Gardner Announces CD-4 Bid

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• by: Colorado Pols

From CQPolitics:

Colorado Republican Cory Gardner, the minority whip in the state House, is challenging one-term Democratic Rep. Betsy Markey in the state’s 4th District in northern and eastern Colorado.

Gardner, who’s served in the Colorado House since 2005, told CQ Politics that he will formally announce his candidacy later Thursday. “It’s time that we stopped business as usual in Washington,” Gardner said, adding that federal spending during both Democratic and Republican rule has been “absolutely out of control, and it’s got to stop.”

“The 4th Congressional District is a conservative, common-sense Colorado district, and no one will reflect its values better than me,” Gardner said.

Markey last year trounced three-term Republican Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, 56 percent to 44 percent, and is seeking a second term.

Markey beat Musgrave even as John McCain was carrying Colorado’s 4th over Barack Obama — albeit narrowly, by a margin of 49.5 percent to 48.7 percent. Markey is one of 49 Democrats from districts that McCain carried in the 2008 election, according to a compilation first calculated by CQ Politics…

Gardner isn’t the only Republican running in Colorado’s 4th. Tom Lucero, an elected regent of the University of Colorado, also is seeking the Republican nomination.

Markey reported raising $344,000 in the first three months of this year, one of the highest first-quarter totals among House freshmen.

Gardner, as was noted a couple of weeks ago, has a surprisingly small advantage over other GOP candidates for this seat in early polls, and scores only slightly higher than his peers in terms of favorability–Gardner’s inevitability as GOP nominee for CD-4 is far from guaranteed, despite the overconfident bluster we hear from his gaggle of well-placed supporters (you know who you are). Item #1 in that lesson: The inexperience or ineptitude that would convince you to not make this announcement to, you know, LOCAL press.