September 19, 2013 08:31 AM UTC

Scott Gessler's Got Quite The Mouth On Him

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• by: Colorado Pols

The Fort Collins Coloradoan's veteran political reporter Patrick Malone has a great story up about GOP gubernatorial candidate Scott Gessler's first full day on the campaign trail. One of the reasons that Gessler has so richly earned his nickname "Honey Badger" is the ruthless indifference with which he has pursued a partisan political agenda since taking office as Colorado's Secretary of State in 2011. "Honey Badger doesn't care" sums up the audacious manner in which Gessler has repeatedly tried to refashion election rules to his ideological liking, endorsed talk-radio conspiracy theories about elections while being totally unable to substantiate them, and unrepentantly stumbled into an ethics scandal.

And folks, "Honey Badger" is exactly what you can expect from Gessler on the campaign trail:

[Gessler] said the state is slouching toward lawlessness and economic ruin akin to Chicago and Detroit. He called Colorado’s voting laws with mandatory vote centers and universal mail ballots the worst in the country.

Gessler, a Republican, scapegoated incumbent Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper for those circumstances and more to a crowd of eight, ranging in age from about 60 and older, assembled at The Elks lodge in Fort Collins…

“I’ve found that I’m not able to accomplish the things I want as secretary of state,” [Pols emphasis] requiring photo identification for voting among them, Gessler said. “Right now it’s a dream. We can’t get it through the Democratic Legislature and the governor would never approve of it.”

Gessler touted his experience as an executive office holder and his willingness to stand up to criticisms — and there have been many — of his handling of the secretary of state job. He said that separates him from the rest of the Republican field.

“You’ve seen what I’ve done as secretary of state,” Gessler said. “I’ve taken a sleepy administrative backwater, and I’ve changed it in a way that it’s never been changed before in the history of the state of Colorado.” [Pols emphasis]

It's important to recognize the particular dog whistle Gessler is blowing here. This is a message aimed at the more politically Machiavellian conservative Republican types who are, among other things, reliable primary voters. When Gessler says proudly that he has "changed" the "sleepy administrative backwater" of the secretary of state's office, he's taking credit for three years of more or less continuous attempts, most turned back in court, at manipulating the elections process in Colorado for partisan gain. He's taking credit for years of partisan allegations of "illegal voters" that have consistently evaporated once examined by anyone outside his office. He's taking credit for slashing the fines against Republican organizations out of legal compliance, then hosting a fundraiser to help them repay the remainder. Pretty much everything that has outraged Democrats since Gessler took office–these are his selling points with a significant segment of the GOP primary electorate.

The ones who agree with Heritage Foundation co-founder Paul Weyrich, who was quite candid about the fact that "our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down."

Make sure to read Malone's whole story, where Gessler goes on to accuse Gov. John Hickenlooper of just about everything short of personally beating up kids for their lunch money. "Slouching toward economic ruin akin to Chicago and Detroit," whatever that means. There will be lots of time on the trail to talk about Hickenlooper's negatives, real and imagined. What's fascinating about Gessler's campaign to us right now is his audacious attempt to turn his own potent negatives into positives, at least for the purposes of winning the nomination.