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November 02, 2010 03:24 AM UTC

Unforced Errors: why did the GOP recruit Kathleen Conti?

  • 8 Comments
  • by: JeffcoBlue

( – promoted by Colorado Pols)

The Dead Governors have spent quality time this fall focusing on the massive vetting errors for the Republican legislative slate, perhaps explained by the moral elasticity of Rep. Frank McNulty.

But the other side of that coin is the utter lack of seriousness of the Republican Party in recruiting just plain credible candidates down ballot. The best example on this score is Kathleen Conti, who may be Colorado’s version of Christine O’Donnell, running to unseat incumbent Joe Rice in the south Denver suburbs.

House District 38 is the old stomping ground of Joe Stengel before his fall from grace. It’s a very Republican area that Rice won in 2006 because he’s probably one of the strongest Democrats you could run in that district: moderate, pro-business, with a stellar military record, including four tours in Iraq.

However, in an alleged “wave” year like 2010, if we believe half the hype, this district should’ve been an easy pick-up for the Republicans: provided, of course, they ran a semi-credible candidate.

But who did they get?

Conti famously posted on her website that she believes the “priority #1” of CBI should be to track down the invisible terrorist training camps lurking in Colorado’s mountains. She was a virtual nobody hanging out in the local Tea Party circuit, and judging from her spelling error-ridden website, wasn’t a very polished candidate.

And even weirder: Conti campaigns as a self-proclaimed small business owner, but she only registered her business with the state this October. So she was evidently lying about her “business,” as part of a bid to knock off the chair of the House Business Affairs Committee! Perhaps you’ve heard Conti tell her weird “small business” story about “chicken” she found on the side of the road and tried to sell to the Department of Corrections. I could have some details wrong, it was really hard to follow.

Were there really no legit small business owners living in Littleton? Any city council members? County party officers? Anybody? What the hell happened here?

Republicans will no doubt tell you that none of this matters, just like none of the criminal revelations about the rest of their slate matters in a wave year. GOPwarrior, a Republican commenter on this blog, likes to say that the GOP ‘could nominate Mickey Mouse and we would get Rep. Mouse.’

But if Republicans wake up Wednesday realizing they blew their races down the ticket as spectacularly as they did the top, they only have themselves to blame.

Comments

8 thoughts on “Unforced Errors: why did the GOP recruit Kathleen Conti?

  1. Seriously- it’s not like anyone has to pass a test or ace the interview. You file, you run, the end.

    The vetting comes in a primary.

    So, obviously, her problem is that she didn’t have a tough primary to bloody her up.  That would have helped her campaign.  Helped her campaign end sooner, but help is help.

    As for “who” – who would want the job?

    The pay is poor. You get to waste two years of your term limit being in the minority.  If you got school age kids, you gotta figure out if Littleton is going to close your school and if so whether you want to move.  If you’re older, you’re kind of over it.  

    No – I just don’t see the joy. Unless, you  got a day job where you got all kinds of time, or your in at the capital can pay off. Real estate developer or mortgage lender or something.  

  2. they couldn’t get anybody else to take it on after Joe’s decisive defeats of the old GOP hegemony here in HD38 two election cycles in a row.  But GOPers are pouring everything they can into it now. Never have I seen so much spent on a little old HD race, including keeping TV ads in rotation for so long. The amount of outside money that takes is mind boggling. But Joe’s machine is lean, mean, focused like a laser and  battle scarred.  And with redistricting coming up, his campaign hasn’t exactly been starved for funds either. Game on!  

    1. I, and many others, were really hoping that Dave Kerber would try again

      Dave is my uncle and family – a really wonderful man and leader – for better or worse, Dave is really dedicated to serving as the Arapahoe County Chair (and quite frankly, the State GOP should consider him for State Chairman – he would be excellent)

      Overall though – credit to Joe Rice because no one wanted to go up against him – Republicans respect that man

      I know Kathleen Conti and she’s a very well-meaning and nice person – I wish she had picked different campaign points – nonetheless, I truly don’t believe her campaign represents her true intentions, which is mainly to cut spending and cut taxes

      1. Agree that Dave is doing a great job. He’s still running his biz, so I don’t think he’ll go for state chair, which is a full time job. Being the GOP chair of any county has been a thankless task this year because of Dan Maes and Scott McInnis.

        As for Conti, she makes good presentations these days. I never got time to put up a video of her presentation, but she sounds pretty good to me. She owns a food distribution/brokering biz, as I understand it. She didn’t have the money to hire someone who could get her organized and help her run a great campaign. Outsiders have sent out several great post cards and funded several robo calls for her. I think I’ve gotten one Rice mailing and one or two robo calls for him.

        While I respect Rice’s smarts and service in the military, I don’t like his hard left, pro-tax policies and his arrogance toward voters who question his votes.

        Conti has a good chance of winning this seat today, especially if the GOP wave is as big as some think it is.

        1. Disagreeing with a small minority of voters is “arrogance toward voters.”  Rich.  Well, I guess I should have expected it since this is what Buck’s ad says not so directly.

        2. He’s had some problems in the county with rogue GOPers who wanted the party to endorse Tancredo, and he refused to do it, citing the bylaws. On top of that, he also had to deal with a rogue precinct person who put Tancredo flyers in with the county GOP voter guide – right next to the Maes flyers. There have been some calls for Kerber to resign, which IMO would be a shame.

        3. There went any credibility you might have claimed.  And we’ve gotten tons of Rice stuff addressed to my U husband. Rice targets and you apparently weren’t considered worth it.  Gee (Rice a hard lefty, wow), wonder why they didn’t see you as a likely prospect.  I guess all the chambers of commerce and business groups that support Rice, including state chamber and small business groups, must be infiltrated by commies.

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