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October 28, 2010 04:34 PM UTC

"Tea Party Fatigue"--New York Times on the Rise and Fall in Colorado

  • 22 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

An excellent set of opinions on the current state of the “Tea Party” in Colorado, published in the New York Times yesterday featuring local opinionmakers Fred Brown, Anne Hyde of Colorado College, Barry Poulson and Scott Adler of CU, Michael de Yoanna of 5280, and Robert Duffy and John Straayer of CSU. Worth reading in its entirety, here are short excerpts from each:

BROWN: One is an effort to further restrict the Colorado Legislature’s ability to address fiscal issues. Libertarian and anti-tax activists in 1992 succeeded in winning voter approval for an amendment, known by the acronym TABOR, that removes from the Legislature any authority to raise taxes. In many cases, revenue increases — without any change in actual tax rates — are considered tax increases and must be approved by the state’s voters. Higher education in particular has been defunded as the Legislature searches desperately for ways to balance the budget in difficult economic times.

The second example of anti-government overreaching is the governor’s race. Republicans in their primary nominated a Tea Party-backed candidate, Dan Maes, who is considered unqualified even by many of the party’s stalwarts. He also faces a challenge on the right from a former Republican, Tom Tancredo, who seems to be more popular than Mr. Maes. Mr. Maes has had difficulty raising money; Mr. Tancredo, a former congressman who crusaded against illegal immigration, is considered too conservative by many voters…

HYDE: Only enormous federal assistance — first in the form of the military clearing out native people, then in great national subsidies for railroads and finally giant water projects — made it possible for people to live in Colorado. Small government and small deficits a la the Tea Party would have made it impossible to immigrate to Colorado, to stake out homesteads or urban lots, or to survive here at all.

POULSON: The three tax measures on the ballot this year never had strong support. They call for a reduction in taxes and fees, but also restrict the ability of state and local governments to issue debt, and roll back property taxes. I think that most Colorado citizens do not see the need for these measures because we have the TABOR Amendment which has successfully constrained the growth of state and local government. I think most Colorado citizens will support fiscally conservative candidates, particularly at the federal level.

DE YOANNA: The decline in enthusiasm for the Tea Party movement and low voter support for the anti-tax ballot measures are somewhat surprising. We didn’t expect this sort of apathy from the Tea Party. What appears to be happening, if only for the moment, is a loss of political heart that can be traced to the state’s once-almighty Republican Party.

DUFFY: The bulk of Tea Party supporters in Colorado either identify themselves as Republicans or as Republican-leaning independents. During the primaries, Republican candidates for governor and U.S. Senate competed to win the support of the Tea Party crowd, because those folks were seen as critical to securing the G.O.P. nominations. Dan Maes and Ken Buck, Tea Party favorites, ultimately won those nominations, despite (or perhaps because of) outright opposition from party leaders.

But in the process, both staked out positions on critical issues that although popular with Republican primary voters, are much less appealing to voters in a general election. This is particularly true of unaffiliated voters who, in Colorado, have tended to be fiscally conservative and moderate to liberal on social issues. Furthermore, neither Mr. Maes nor Mr. Buck had been fully vetted.

ADLER: This experience of weak Tea Party candidates has been repeated in other races that held real prospects for Republican gains: Christine O’Donnell in Delaware, Sharron Angle in Nevada and Carl Paladino in New York, to name a few. The negative mood of voters has attracted a slightly higher than average share of “out-party” Republican challengers with prior political experience. But foibles by these weaker candidates are garnering the lion’s share of news media attention. This is likely contributing to some of the diminished support for the Tea Party movement nationally.

STRAAYER: Unknown Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes became the darling of the Tea-types, and thanks to their support and the scandal-plagued candidacy of former Representative Scott McInnis, Mr. Maes captured the G.O.P. nomination by a narrow margin.

Soon thereafter, the Maes candidacy imploded, and former Republican Representative Tom Tancredo, notorious for his stand on immigration, jumped in on the American Constitution Party ticket. The resulting G.O.P. division pushed Tea Party followers, and conservatives generally, in several directions — a shrinking number for Mr. Maes, many for Mr. Tancredo, some to the sidelines in disgust. Reaping the harvest is Democratic candidate and current Denver mayor, John Hickenlooper.

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22 thoughts on ““Tea Party Fatigue”–New York Times on the Rise and Fall in Colorado”

  1. I read this history book that said the United States was basically the world’s largest trust fund baby. England set us up, we then “inherited” the richest, most productive land on the planet. We pushed the Indians out, exploited the resources, and then congratulated ourselves for doing much better than all other societies.

    And we were left alone to do all this because the oceans were gigantic barriers for our first 100 years.

    1. but what about Mexico? Couldnt similar arguments be made about that country?

      The truth is that we are a dynamic people, but we were also set up for success in every way possible.  

      1. One of the biggies is Spain’s efforts at first were centered around removing gold & silver and taking it back to Europe. In America it was families setting up a new place to live. So that mindset at first made for a big difference.

        And then second, we gained freedom very early on. So we were focused on what was best for us. Latin & South America were governed in terms of what was best for Spain & Portugal.

      2. to slow the spread of parasitic diseases.

        There’s a lot to be said for geography. For some reason, our oil was accidentally located in the Middle East, but otherwise our location has been conducive to our success. That, and our totally superior gene pool, of course.

        If our cold winters go away, we might look to Mexico as an indication of our future.

  2. because they’re wimpy. They don’t go hard enough for their policies, they run away from their success, the constantly allow the ‘pubs to define the issues and draw the battle lines.

    Most real independents – those who are truly in the middle, those who decide the elections – are not so foolish as to just vote Republican for the sole reason that they’re not the Democrats. But that’s all the that ‘pubs and teabaggers are giving them to go on, hoping that disappointment with Obama does the rest. And it might work because Dem strategists don’t have the balls to remind people that the ‘pubs put us in this position, that they offer no new ideas, and that they have become the disloyal opposition whose only goal is obstruction when they’re out of power and resumption of their dream to bring back the 19th Century when they’re in.

    What these essays show is that people aren’t buying what teabaggers are selling. They refuse to offer a plan. People are dissatisfied with the Dems but wary of the GOP. They offer the same old ideas but no plan for fixing the economy, and talk way too much about their socially extreme views (O’Donnell’s anti-masturbation stance, Buck’s bakcward attitudes, Paul’s violent thugs, etc.) These voters don’t like what they see when they look at teabaggers.

    If the Dems had come to fight, there would be no idle talk of a GOP congressional takeover.

  3. A Hays Research Group poll released Thursday showed write-in candidates, presumably meaning Sen. Lisa Murkowski, in the lead with 34 percent, Democrat Scott McAdams with 29 percent and Miller with 23 percent. Murkowski is waging a write-in bid since losing the Republican primary to Miller.

    http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1010/44312.html

    Add to that the following

    In a major boost to Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s campaign, the Alaska Supreme Court temporarily overturned a lower court’s order late Wednesday, ruling to allow a list of write-in candidates at polling places.

    http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1010/44258.html

    And it looks like Miller could actually be going down and that, even in Alaska, maybe  voters do have limits to what they’ll tolerate from the wacko fringe?  

    Not that Murkowski is much better in terms of being less far right but she is the allegedly hated establishment candidate in Alaska, is neither demonstrably nuts nor burdened with a murky past and was written off entirely not so long ago. So this is a clear case, not of voters saying “too conservative”, more like voters waking up and saying “what were we thinking?  This Tea Party guy just isn’t even vaguely qualified.”

        1. Somebody with more information can correct me, but I can’t find any provisions in Alaska law for a runoff election when a canddiate for high office gets less than 50%. It appears that some low offices (school board, etc.) have runoffs, but those don’t exist for high office.

          Accordingly, there would not be a runoff election.  Somebody could be elected US Senator with 33.4 percent of the vote.

        1. Miller’s plunge in the new poll comes on the heels of several misfires in the local and national press. Most recently, Miller’s employment records from his job as a part-time attorney with local government were unsealed Tuesday, in which he admitted to using company computers for political purposes and then lying about it.

          Another lying teabagger who worked in government? Can’t any of these clowns get by in the private sector?

          1. so soon after the Miller volunteers handcuffing and detaining a reporter didn’t run together in people’s minds and make them think twice about voting for Brown Shirts who claim to be lovers of our freedoms and defenders of our constitution.  

            And no, Dems aren’t just the same.  A few Dems may make asses of themselves and get rude or even physical at rallies but you don’t see this level from Dem candidates’ own security volunteers who are playing an official role in the campaign.  At least you don’t see head stomping and handcuffs.

            And, also for you righties, don’t bring up Juan Williams. He didn’t have hands laid on him in violence and NPR isn’t a candidate’s campaign.  I’ll even spot you the idiocy of NPR firing him over this after letting him be on Fox all this time.  But I’m sure the righies will come up with some lame thing that they will insist is just as bad.  Maybe those pathetic Black Panthers who didn’t touch anyone or scare anyone off voting for the Black Dem President they objected to at a mainly Black Dem voting place?  Sad, really, like all the fat graying bikers who don’t scare anyone anymore. Yeah, that was just like a bunch of guys gang tackling and stomping a 115 pound unarmed woman.

    2. The state regulations could not be any clearer. The state Supreme Court didn’t even appear to give any reason for its action, at least according to your linked article.

      1. I have no knowledge of the Alaska constitution and election laws. My understanding is that they are allowing a list of write ins to be posted at polling places. Maybe the decision is politically motivated.  You know, like the Supreme Court decision to shut down the recount for a completely invalid reason that hasn’t been enforced anywhere else before or since and which they specified was not to be seen as setting a precedent (since that would have shut down our entire electoral system nationwide until billions could be spent to make all recounting methods uniform across every county in every state) to install Bush. In any case, I think it all might be a sign of Tea Party fatigue.  

  6. … during the agricultural booms of the 1910s, which were made possible by huge dams and irrigation projects; and in the 1970s gas and oil rush that took place on federal land with federal dollars. Ann Hyde, Colorado Springs

    Not only was Buck in favor of Ref A, the water grabbing 21’st century version of the water traditions of the early 20th century, He’s also a drill baby drill kind of guy. A allourproblemscouldbesolvedby just burn more coal kind of guy.  In other words, a 19th century man.  Just what we don’t need.

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