October 07, 2024 02:56 PM UTC

Boebert Damns Her Would-Be Successor With Faint Praise

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• by: Colorado Pols

As Reuben Schafir reports for the Durango Herald, on Friday afternoon Colorado’s carpetbagging sensation Rep. Lauren Boebert did something that at first glance readers might not have expected: hosting a town hall in the southwest Colorado town of Ignacio, hundreds of miles deep in Boebert’s soon-to-be-former Third Congressional District, actually making good on a promise to not completely neglect the district she is departing for the greener–or more accurately redder–pastures of Colorado’s Eastern Plains.

Speaking to constituents at the Sky Ute Casino Resort, Boebert made one last attempt to convince the crowd that voting against something in Congress doesn’t necessarily mean she gets no credit once it becomes law without her help:

Over the course of the 2½-hour event, she repeatedly made mention of Congressionally directed spending – sometimes called “earmarks” – that she secured for communities in her district, despite voting against the omnibus spending bills that contained the allocations…

“Voting ‘yes’ on a bill is not the only way to get something,” she said, adding “I worked very hard with … local stakeholders, county commissioners, so on and so forth, to get these appropriations requests.”

Boebert has had several years to come up with a better answer to the longstanding criticism over taking credit for federal spending she voted against, and the answer hasn’t gotten any more convincing–probably because there’s just no way to spin a “no” vote into a “yes” vote. Boebert was repeatedly castigated for this disingenuous ploy in the press as well as by Democrats including Colorado’s Democratic U.S. Senators who did far more to get these funds passed, most importantly by actually voting for them.

Although Boebert hasn’t gotten any better explaining away her dishonesty and bad votes, the real news from this town hall had more to do with the presence of the man whose job it once was to end Lauren Boebert’s political career, Grand Junction attorney and CO-03 GOP nominee Jeff “You’ve STILL Never” Hurd:

Although he appeared only under the title “Attorney,” Boebert’s one-time primary challenger Jeff Hurd was a conspicuous presence at the event.

Boebert faced a crowded field of primary challengers in District 3 and stumbled over personal strife after her victory in the tightest congressional race in the country in 2022, in a district where Republicans should have an advantage. She announced in December 2023 that she would run in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District, where Republicans have an even stronger hold.

In her absence on the CD-3 ballot this November, Boebert did offer a tepid endorsement of Hurd.

“I don’t know, I don’t not endorse him,” she said… [Pols emphasis]

Hurd’s entry into the CO-03 race came almost a month before the calamitous incident at a Denver performance of the Beetlejuice musical sent Boebert’s re-election prospects into a seemingly terminal dive, and it was Boebert’s persistent weakness after barely surviving her first re-election in 2022 that sent Republicans in this district looking for an alternative. Post-“Beetlebert,” Hurd’s base of GOP support surged, and the trickle of cautious endorsements became a flood that thoroughly humiliated Boebert directly resulting in her decision to take on a gaggle of less-prepared challengers in the much safer Fourth District. Being in the same room with Hurd must have been an uncomfortable reminder of what almost was.

…before noting “all of our Republican nominees have our full support and endorsement.”

Boebert fulfilled her minimum responsibility as a team player, but it clearly wasn’t easy. Like her former district itself, this was an encounter Boebert will be relieved to put in the rearview mirror. Hurd faces a Democratic opponent with a war chest raised to defeat Boebert, so that’s two ways Boebert is hanging like a shadow over her would-be successor.

Hurd doesn’t not endorse Boebert right back.