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August 27, 2010 01:42 AM UTC

Tancredo's Man in SD-16

  • 20 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

Just up from the Colorado Independent’s David O. Williams:

State Senate District 16 candidate Tim Leonard shocked the mainstream Republican Party and a lot of Democrats when he trounced moderate 5th Judicial District Attorney Mark Hurlbert at the GOP’s SD 16 assembly back in May…

While Leonard may present himself as a fiscal conservative fed up with runaway government and ballooning taxes, he helped found the ACP in Colorado the 1990s with other Republicans who were disenchanted with their party’s increasingly moderate stance on abortion issues.

“The pre-born child, whose life begins at conception, is from that moment fully a human being created in God’s image,” reads the ACP’s platform. “The first duty of the law is to prevent the taking of innocent human life. It is, therefore, the duty of all civil governments to secure and safeguard the lives of the pre-born.”

…Hurlbert, from Breckenridge, was considered a highly electable moderate Republican by most observers, and the district as a whole is considered key to the GOP regaining control of the state Senate.

But it wasn’t to be, as we noted back in May. Mark Hurlbert got the snot kicked out of him by “Tea Party”-backed upstart Tim Leonard at the assemblies, and then wasn’t even able to muster enough support to petition on to the ballot–though we’ve heard that after the assembly defeat, his heart wasn’t really in it. Either way, Hurlbert’s defeat was a harbinger of stridently conservative underdog primary wins to come (see: Buck, Ken).

This article presents a fascinating backstory for Tim Leonard, including his co-founding of the now-nationally known American Constitutional Party in Colorado, and membership of the board of the too-strident-for-Bob Schaffer Colorado Right to Life. Best of all, Williams attributes at least some of Leonard’s smashing success to a “big boost” at the state assembly provided impassionedly by none other than…Tom Tancredo. This was, naturally, before Tancredo decided the time was right to bring the Colorado GOP to its knees.

Which brings us to the moral of this story–Tim Leonard, we feel pretty confident telling you now, is going to lose. SD-16 will elect well-supported moderate Gilpin County commissioner Jeanne Nicholson over anyone who can be so easily tied to the fringe–Nicholson smartly directs the conversation in this story to her admiration for the style of much-loved GOP Sen. Al White, a far more ingratiating message than blathering on about “the separation of school and state.”

Hurlbert, the sad song will play here as it may elsewhere, might have been different.

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20 thoughts on “Tancredo’s Man in SD-16”

  1. Jeanne Nicholson is a Gilpin County Commissioner.  Dan Gibbs the current SD16 senator is from Summit County.

    Regardless of where she lives in SD16, she is well qualified to bring mountain issues to the state house.

  2. Hurlbert was  guy that could have been a real asset as a bench warmer waiting for 2014 and on.  He’s a true moderate that enjoys a lot of support for Dems in his district.  Alas, the CO GOP only wants ideologues that can alienate the majority of the electorate or outright frauds working their way to indictments.  

    Maybe the CO GOP will learn a thing or two from some other states.  The MI GOP Gubernatorial candidate, Rich Snyder, is walking to a win on a platform discussing conservation, smart growth, health care, etc.  

    http://www.rickformichigan.com…  

    1. AS the easily elected and popular DA, he figured he’d toss his name into the mix and coast. DAs come with a certain arrogance, and by the time they’ve been in the job a while, they’re convinced they’re God’s gift.

      He was bushwacked at the assembly.

      1. were mad at him that he didn’t get a conviction of Kobe Bryant.  Apparently not getting the noose around a celebrity black athlete was a black mark that disgraced him in the eyes of the lily white Republicans.

        1. I was up in the mountains at the time. Hurlbert didn’t bag Kobe because the detectives didn’t do a particularly good job, and the girl and her parents wearied quickly of the circus and were amenable to a buy-out.

          The tea partiers didn’t give a crap about Kobe, who was old news by then. They wanted somebody who’d spin their platitudes back to them. They got him.

          Hurlbert took things for granted and didn’t turn out enough rational and semi-rational Republicans at the assembly. They, too, figured he had it made.

          1. but I didn’t think there were any rational or semi-rational Republicans left in the party.  It might have been Hurlbert’s biggest mistake to think that Republicans actually wanted to win these races with qualified and electable candidates.

  3. So let’s add freako here to Faux Hawk Mark Barrington, Fascist Recycling opponent Don Beezley, and Obama, Anti-Christ messenger Libby Szabo. And the crazy lady running against Joe Rice, Conti or whatever.

    http://coloradopols.com/showDi…

    http://coloradopols.com/showDi…

    http://coloradopols.com/showDi…

    http://coloradopols.com/showDi…

    This is candidate recruitment absolutely shitting the bed, isn’t it? Somebody wanna say it’s not?

  4. And he will be a solid vote for Freedom in the Colorado Senate. You are going to lose everywhere, even the ski resorts. All of America is enraged at Democrat thievery and gluttony.

    1. This is going to be taking candy from a baby.  All Republicans are engorged with orgasmic glee at how easy all of these candidates will win.  Probably a 100% skunk by Republicans.  Don’t worry about any of that boring GOTV stuff or the phone banks that are working tonight with Obama supporters trained in 2008, calling Dems who didn’t vote in the primary or independents in Democratic strongholds.  None of that will matter because Americans are tired of waiting for Democrats to clean up the mess that Republicans gave America so they want Republicans to come back and finish the job.  You are just too invincible for us GOP.  No need to actually do any voter identification or promotion.  Just sit back on your laurels big guy.  No Obama supporting phone bankers can beat you.  Nope we’re just hopelessly over matched by your new found humility and bi-partisan approach to problem solving or not.

    3. could talk about funding a state of the art Road and Bridge building that is using beetle killed bio-mass to heat their garage.  She can talk about the wildfire protection program for the county that it is in the initial stages of implementation.  She could also talk about about the bus system that she helped start for low income residents who got hit particularly hard by the gas price increases.  She also could talk about being recognized as a commissioner of the year by CCI.  I suppose actually having a record to run on is going to be a weakness for her.  It shows a pragmatic person who understands mountain issues and has been proactive in helping reduce the threat of wildfire in the Wildland Urban Interface areas of Gilpin.  The question is why mountain voters would want someone who understands mountain issues and has been a leader in developing new solutions for our changing landscape.

        1. and learning how to use beetle kill as a renewable fuel to replace fossil fuel propane is one great big government conspiracy.  Maybe you can suggest some private solution to fire management in WUI areas that is affordable like that big government conspiracy.  Of course you are probably such a fat ass that you can’t remember the last time you walked in a mountain meadow and enjoyed the sunlight on your pallid face but there are those of us who secretly tune into the UN channel who actually like the idea of a sustainable forest that yields renewable fuels.  

          Unfortunately for you there are a lot of other folks who live in the mountains in SD16 who also think it is worth protecting.  Mr. Leonard not so much.  He is more focused on “winning” and cutting government services so we can have a Katrina of the West when the big fires roll through.  Why should Colorado be spared from the neglect of Republican misrule?  He is gung-ho to cut government services because who really knows if preventive measures are cheaper than restoration and recovery.  Just ask the folks in the Gulf if protecting their environment and way of life would have been ultimately cheaper than trying to restore it.

          The candidates and their resumes and positions are couldn’t be in starker contrast.  I’ll go with Government Conspiracies to save our forests for $200 Alex.

        2. leadership is our Biomass Center.  This scary government conspiracy is run by the Road and Bridge department and consists of county residents dropping off slash and infected logs which are chipped up.  The county residents benefit from having someplace to haul away their slash and logs from cutting defensible space around their homes and the county facility has the equipment to deal with a large volume of fuel reduction material.

          For a total jerk like Libby this is a socialist conspiracy that is an outrage to anyone who wants to cut government services.  For local residents it is a huge benefit like having plowed roads in winter to be able to cut defensible space for fire mitigation and have someplace to take infected wood.  I don’t mind paying taxes to take care of my forest.  This collaboration between private and public interests is good government Libby and Commissioner Nicholson was key to it’s implementation.  Finding practical solutions to mountain problems is one of her abilities.  

  5. But then spending four and one half hours up and around the county fair showed me one thing.

    Like everywhere across this state, and across the USA, people are just fed up, regardless of parties or not and you had better pay attention and listen, else you will be waking up Nov. 3rd going….

    “What the heck just happened.”

    1. but being ‘fed up’ is another term for being scared about what we are going through and it is a time when emotions play a big role in peoples thinking.  Like being overweight, it took a long time for our country to slide into this period of hardship and it is going to take a long time to recover.  There are no magic solutions to unemployment and we are racing the clock to transition to a post hydro-carbon age.  It is a difficult period in the history of our country and people need to pull together and work to solve our most pressing issues.  You know with Republicans like Leonard you’ll get nothing because their solution to every issue is to do nothing and let the invisible hand steer matters.  This is why Republicans are so dangerous.  They like to blame Democrats for our current situation but propose doing more nothing as their only solution.  Voting Republican is basically a vote to keep digging the hole deeper.

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