August 20, 2010 06:02 PM UTC

Perils of the Fringe, Ken Buck Edition

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• by: Colorado Pols

New York Times editorial today:

For months, it has been clear that Republican Congressional candidates would benefit from independent voters’ dissatisfaction with President Obama. With the Republican field now largely in place, all voters might want to take a close look at who those candidates are.

The party has nominated so many at the far right of the spectrum, as well as some other unusual choices – Linda McMahon, the candidate for the United States Senate in Connecticut made millions running the sex-and-violence spectacle known as World Wrestling Entertainment – that the Republican brand is barely recognizable…

The Times goes on to list a few examples of extreme GOP candidates who risk severely damaging that “Republican brand”–Sharron Angle of Nevada, Rand Paul of Kentucky, both of whom we have discussed in this space. But the Times’ #1 example of a Republican “out of touch with mainstream American values?” Ken Buck, of the great state of Colorado:

Ken Buck, the United States Senate nominee in Colorado. A former district attorney, he has said that the separation of church and state is too strictly enforced and wants to eliminate the Energy and Education Departments. Until recently, he supported repealing the 17th Amendment, which provides for direct election of senators. In the primary, he said he should win because “I do not wear high heels” – his opponent was a woman. As a federal prosecutor, he was reprimanded by a United States attorney after he gave information about the weakness of a case against gun dealers to the defense.

We get the feeling that Buck would prefer to not be listed in such company, as his attempts to run to the center after his primary victory last week have demonstrated. His campaign is becoming aware of the danger. As we said a few days ago, it’s not at all unusual for candidates to run to the more ideological side of their party’s platform during a primary, and to retreat from that stridency to appeal to the broader electorate. But we have maintained consistently that many Republicans this year have gone considerably beyond the usual limits of this approach, and won’t be able to walk back their more extreme public positions easily. As a growing chorus in the media has warned recently, these primary victors, if pegged as ‘extremists’ by the general electorate, could significantly undermine the success Republicans broadly anticipate in this year’s elections.

Unfortunately for Buck, Colorado’s long and contentious primary landed him at the top of the list–and he joins Sharron Angle as a poster child for exactly what Democrats want to run against.