This weekend, the Denver Post made their endorsement in the unexpectedly swing CD-3 race, throwing their support behind Democratic candidate Diane Mitsch Bush over Republican upstart nominee Lauren Boebert:
We think Mitsch Bush will be an excellent representative for Congressional District 3. She is ready and willing to listen to her constituents — be they Democrats, Republicans or independents — and she is transparent and open about her decision-making process.
For most of the last decade, the Post repeatedly endorsed incumbent GOP Rep. Scott Tipton for re-election to this seat, based not so much on policy agreement with the editorial board as a presumption that Tipton’s politics were a good fit for the district. In 2018, the Post declined to endorse either Mitsch Bush or Tipton, complaining about Tipton’s standing “idly by while President Donald Trump has repeatedly lied to the American people and stoked hatred and fear.”
That’s no less true in the case of the avowedly MAGA Lauren Boebert, who blew right past MAGA to the unthinking Trump worship necessary to embrace QAnon–but as the Post’s endorsement of Mitsch Bush continues, Boebert did herself no favors in another crucial respect:
Mitsch Bush is facing first-time political candidate Lauren Boebert, a Republican who we know very little about. In part that is because Boebert declined to participate in a video-conference meeting with The Denver Post editorial board. Her campaign spokeswoman said Boebert decided to focus on media in her district, and Boebert did meet with the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel.
We would have liked to ask Boebert, who doesn’t have a single policy position on her website, how she’d vote on a complete repeal of the Affordable Care Act; how she’d weigh legitimate concerns over the growing national debt with the need for additional stimulus funds to keep the economy moving; and what bill she’d introduce her first year to help her district. And yes, we would have asked her if she actually believes there is a deep-state conspiracy to undermine President Donald Trump and how much that theory would guide her work in Congress.
Elected officials work for the people. Part of representatives’ jobs is to explain to voters how they voted and why. If Boebert won’t answer tough questions now, we are skeptical she’ll be accessible to the public as an elected official.
In another very poor decision by Boebert’s not-ready-for-primetime campaign management, Boebert refused to even talk to the Denver Post’s editorial board. Given the Post’s statewide footprint, this excuse about focusing on “local media outlets” is silly–and if the focus is on the locals, why did Boebert skip out on the golden opportunity she had to reach them unopposed at the Club 20 debates?
Once again, the only reasonable conclusion to be made is that Boebert is afraid to appear in any kind of unscripted setting, and it’s because she has inch-deep at best comprehension of the issues she’ll face questions about. It’s not like Scott Tipton wowed the Denver Post with his charm and policy smarts to win their endorsement–it was just a matter of showing up and not making a complete fool of yourself.
That appears to be more than can be expected from “Q*Bert.”
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News flash: The opinion of the Denver Ghost matters little in the 3rd CD.
The more relevant endorsements will be from the Post-Independent, Daily Sentinel, Durango Herald, and maybe the Steamboat Pilot.
The biggies are the Sentinel and Pueblo Chieftain. Then Durango, Glenwood and Montrose.
I live in the suburbs (hence the name) but I still see lots of DP delivery boxes out there….
No, but the National Enquirer does. She should have a lock on their endorsement.
These days — does any newspaper endorsement really do anything for a candidate?
I'd assume the GJ Sentinel will rough her up pretty well if she can't do policy, and hope the Post would follow up after being snubbed by sharing what the Sentinel found glaring.
Let's face it. Boebert's campaign would be a bad State House campaign. At issue here is not policy or campaigning. At issue is whether voters in CD3 give a shit about government or not.
Boebert is playing straight to the Libertarian weak government streak out west. Hopefully there are enough folks out west who still understand that much of what they take for granted as freedom is actually buttressed by government at all the levels DMB has served.
Calamity Janes' campaign is about owning lefties…and not much more. Her message is for Nancy Pelosi and AOC haters, gun nuts, Christian activists. She is not running to rebuild our government and our guiding democracy.
Boeberts' campaign aims to put its knee on the neck of "socialism". But, of course, she doesn't even know what that means.
Anyone want to hazard a guess which counties she'll carry? I'm thinking Mesa, Moffat and Rio Blanco on this side.
Add Delta, Montrose, Montezuma, possibly Garfield and Rio Grande. Tipton ran strong in Pueblo. Given DMB's invisibility in person, Calamity Jane might run close, too.
The stupid runs strong in these parts.
I know, I live in GJ. Glad you added a possibly to Garfield, They may know her too well there. I agree, DMB just isn't getting it done.