U.S. Senate
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(D) J. Hickenlooper*
(R) Somebody
80%
20%
Governor
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(D) Joe Neguse
(D) Phil Weiser
(D) Jena Griswold
60%
60%
40%↓
Att. General
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(D) M. Dougherty
(D) Alexis King
(D) Brian Mason
40%
40%
30%
Sec. of State
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(D) George Stern
(D) A. Gonzalez
(R) Sheri Davis
40%
40%
30%
State Treasurer
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(D) Brianna Titone
(R) Kevin Grantham
(D) Jerry DiTullio
60%
30%
20%
CO-01 (Denver)
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(D) Diana DeGette*
(R) Somebody
90%
2%
CO-02 (Boulder-ish)
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(D) Joe Neguse*
(R) Somebody
90%
2%
CO-03 (West & Southern CO)
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(R) Jeff Hurd*
(D) Somebody
80%
40%
CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado)
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(R) Lauren Boebert*
(D) Somebody
90%
10%
CO-05 (Colorado Springs)
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(R) Jeff Crank*
(D) Somebody
80%
20%
CO-06 (Aurora)
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(D) Jason Crow*
(R) Somebody
90%
10%
CO-07 (Jefferson County)
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(D) B. Pettersen*
(R) Somebody
90%
10%
CO-08 (Northern Colo.)
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(R) Gabe Evans*
(D) Yadira Caraveo
(D) Joe Salazar
50%
40%
40%
State Senate Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
80%
20%
State House Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
95%
5%
April 22, 2008 10:40 PM UTC
79 Comments
in April or May, he couldn’t hold 1,200 one-on-one meetings. it’s just simple physics.
of this in the Line Change thread.
“The quality required for the important process of electing a Congressman to represent us in Washington, D.C. has been lacking, primarily in El Paso County, this most populated county, in the Fifth Congressional District.”
presumably not the quality of the writing…
I can see his campaign slogan now – “vote for me, I’m better than you deserve.”
he wrote it himself.
Or if he did, he really does need that vacation between now and Memorial Day.
Lamborn is a vicious idiot. Here’s hoping Crank takes him down.
This is the smart move. Crank now wins an uncontested vote at the 5th CD assembly. Crank gets 100% of the vote. (Hey, that’s higher than Fidel Castro or Saddam Hussein.)
Jeff Cranks super supporters have now outsmarted themselves, gained a hollow victory their boy might have won fair and square, and lost the trust and respect of a large portion of the EPC GOP.
Think I am wrong? Talk to Rayburn and Lamborn supporters about the County Assembly, or the lack of correct and timely information going to the campaigns.
I am sure they have excuses, but regardless of the truth about each individual item, the cumulative effect is a lack of confidence in the EPC GOP to be fair and impartial.
This is one more vote of NO CONFIDENCE for the current party leadership IMHO.
This is an opinion piece and therefore stands on that basis. IMHO = In my humble opinion. And here it is unvarnished.
That you disagree is a real surprise.
Don’t talk to me about this, talk to the campaigns. That’s my source. I think the Rayburn supporters have made no secret of their feelings on this subject. A check of past CD-5 subject posts will bring you several examples, if you really don’t already know.
is not an idiot. You should be ashamed that you have to call names to support Crank.
One thing I try to teach my kids is to be constructive and not resort to calling names to make their points. My four and five year olds are more articulate then that!
This should not be a surprise to anyone.
it seems like smart politics to me.
It guarantees all three will be on the ballot.
It may not be the intention but could easily be the result. I think a three-way is Lamborn’s best chance of being re-elected and anythiong that keeps Bentley on the ballot thus helps Doug. I have absolutely no dog in this fight, but think you may have read this right.
Plus (as I mentioned earlier this afternoon in the Line thread), he gets to paint himself as a man of the people unbeholden to party bigwigs, appear as a scrappy underdog while wielding all the powers of incumbency, takes the focus off the assembly, stems whatever erosion of support he might get if he came in second among delegates, reaps ongoing publicity and photo ops during his petition drive — all in all, it’s a masterful stroke.
http://www.coloradopols.com/sh…
Now, all Lamborn can hope and pray is that Bentley Rayburn keeps self-funding his campaign long enough to split the votes in the primary. Should Rayburn be on the primary ballot–there is still time for him to save his political future and drop out–it will be the only chance Lamborn has to win. Let’s hope Rayburn reads between the lines on this and helps us remove Doug Lamborn from Congress. Let’s hope he drops out and supports Jeff Crank.
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If you could cite examples of folks who quit when the going got tough,
and then voters all flocked to support them,
it would expand my knowledge of local politics greatly.
Because I just don’t think it works that way.
.
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I’ve always wondered.
.
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to my madness.
When I was your age, or younger,
people communicated largely with the written word.
And it was written on paper. or papyrus. or sheepskin. etc.
As a practical matter,
from before the time of Gutenberg and earlier,
(which predates even me,)
writing style evolved to economize on how much paper (or granite) was needed to convey the message.
………………..
Today,
writing in the aether,
the medium is “limitless” and “free.”
no need to conserve.
So I use up a lot of white space to make my writing easier for me to proofread before sending out for your consideration.
It makes it easier for me to read my own writing.
And if I have trouble following what I write,
I thought you might, too.
so I leave the spaces in when I post.
The initial and final dots are to leave a break between headers, names, time stamps, or whatever the particular site posts just above or just below what I send.
I have poor eyesight. I have a poor memory.
As I type right now, I have two monitors side-by-side (an employee set it up for me, I don’t know how)
so that I can view 2 things at once.
The visually impaired have a lot of trouble that you might never anticipate on the popular websites.
At WaPo.com, for example,
comments on articles are often overwritten with ads because I blow up (enlarge) the font a lot for easier reading.
You noticed just one of my many quirks to help me cope.
If it interferes with your reading pleasure,
I apologize.
But please don’t stop reading and commenting,
I love the validation/ affirmation/ attention.
.
lack of punctuation and general rule breaking.
I also like lots of space between the sentences.
You go Barron.
NEWSMAN
It makes everything you post seem wise and oddly poetic.
Your welcome here on the right side of the issues.
Got to agree there.
That makes a hell of a lot of sense. I thought it was some kind of OCD thing.
I find the WaPo site’s blog sections a real pain in the ass — they never format right on my screen.
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My supervisor lacks an actual Medical or Psychiatric Degree,
but in 27 years of marriage she has made laywoman’s diagnoses of my many, many, um,
“personality characteristics” we call them euphemistically.
Anal retentive, but rendered in the vernacular.
Idiot savant, but without the savant.
many more.
But not OCD. Not yet, that is.
I’ve got so much to look forward to.
OCD and Alzheimers.
My future’s so bright, I have to wear Solar Shades.
.
in Republican politics for waiting your turn and stepping aside sooner rather than later. Mitt Romney is counting on it.
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Ken Kramer stepped aside when he lost the fire in the belly,
and when he was ready to step back in the arena,
Hefley had him assassinated (figuratively.)
Hefley only stepped aside because he’s dying of Cancer and feels real crummy.
He might be the only politician who is truthful when he says he quit to spend more time with his family.
If he felt better, even with a terminal disease, he would have pulled a Strom Thurmond imitation.
Look at Tommy Lantos.
Couldn’t hardly function the last few months, but would not yield his death grip on office.
4 Senators and I don’t know how many Congresspersons have terminal diseases that impair their work, but won’t step aside.
Is it about serving the community, or serving one’s own interests ?
Inquiring minds, etc.
anyway, Jeffy is about 30 years old.
I have a feeling he will do an even worse job of representing the District than Doug.
After all, his mentor didn’t give a rat’s behind about anyone in the district except for his top 250 or so donors.
In all the trips I made to his office to beg him to prevent the Iraq war,
which he could have done with 1 phone call,
he didn’t even have the decency to even spit in my face himself;
he had his aides do it.
So if Jeffy wins,
he’s already got the 250 donors lined up,
and CD-05 will go another 20 or 40 or maybe even 60 years without representation in Washington,
by mechanically reelecting the guy.
Don’t get me wrong, he seems like a nice guy.
He just doesn’t care about doing good or fighting evil.
The Bentster would be stupid to drop out.
He makes a brighter future for himself by fighting for and losing the nomination this time,
than by crying that CD-5 Line is a meanie and quitting.
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Romney,
on the other hand …..
McCain will be dead in a year or two,
and Romney is hoping to move from VP to the top spot when he does.
.
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I meant to applaud Congressman Hefley for stepping down when he got real sick,
and lost track in the rant above.
Contrast that with those who choose to die in office,
regardless of the consequences for their constituents.
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Cheney made it all the way through, you don’t think lightning will strike twice?
Cheney’s got 2 or 3 more trips lined up before his term is up. I think one is a charity fundraiser where he takes members of the press hunting.
I will donate big if he takes Keith Olbermann and Bill Marr.
Seriously, that was hilarious, but I had to put something Dem fast. I don’t want people to get the wrong idea.
pass during his 37th heart attack, back in 2005? It’s been Animatronic Cheney, by Diebold, ever since. Notice how he just smiles, waves and emits a faint odor of ozone, while his heart “ticks” along just fine.
Do you really think that Bentley Rayburn, should he stay in this race, split the votes, and hand Lamborn the primary victory, will have any political currency, any political future, in the 5th CD? I don’t. And, if you do, you’ve been drinking some bad koolaid.
It’s not a question of fighting on when the going gets rough. Rayburn has even less political sense and timing than did Air Force General Curtis Lemay, who was twice the general, twice the leader, than Rayburn could have ever aspired to be. And General Lemay, for all his political shortcomings, also had twice the political acumen in a civilian race that Rayburn has.
It’s the same – OLD SONG.
That changes the entire issue right there. First, it’d pay off in the simple terms of, “I beat the incumbent and the other challenger.” Second, how much ‘political acumen’ is he going to get from such a victory here in CD-5? That’s pretty significant.
And I have to disagree with you anyway. Rayburn’s got more support this time around than he did last time he ran. You think that’s really going to change? Abe Lincoln had a really tough time getting into elected positions (he lost quite a few), but by the time he made it big, he had a solid base behind him.
Rayburn, in fact some of my friends are his supporters. I support Doug in this election, but I would have no problem with Rayburn in office.
I don’t believe this will happen because the Crank supporters will take a chunk of that vote. I think doug has done a good job, and I personally do not see a reason to replace him.
how you assume that Rayburn is in this just to unseat Lamborn. You Crank folks are so arrogant that you fail to realize that Rayburn is running just as hard to assure that you are not in office.
Furthermore, Rayburn does not quit when the going gets tough. He only fights all the harder. Unlike Crank, he did not dissappear and sulk after the last election he stayed around and raised money for the Party. Rayburn is in it to win it, and in doing so, will be the active engaging candidate who will unite the party, which is something that neither Jeff or Doug are capable of doing.
is not going anywhere. He is working to win regardless of the opposition.
Two More Years I am confused on one point however…
In some of your other posts on this thread you say you support Lamborn, then what’s with this?
Just curious.
I meant to say that the Rayburn and Crank are incapable of uniting the Party because they are already dividing it by challenging the incumbent who has done nothing to deserve the oposition.
I’m sorry for the mistake. I am new at this and got distracted by my two kids. I think Doug is the best choice in the race, and likely to win.
Rayburn is the best bet to reunite the Party. Lamborn can clearly not get that job done, or he would not be in the position he is now.
As for Crank, he has proven to be a man who neglects the Party’s needs when things do not go his way… Example: When he dropped from the face of the earth after losing the last election.
This contrasts to Rayburn who worked to raise funds and organize events and campaign for the Party after the election. He is the best choice to bring the party together and work to ensure Schaffer and McCain victories in Colorado.
has an excellent point. We’ve heard it before: there’s not a whole lot of difference between the three Republican candidate’s ideologies. So, there are other factors that come into play. Experience, obviously, is one, and Lamborn, Crank, and Rayburn each appear to have ample amounts of that in different areas (for the moment, let’s set aside which area we view as being the most appropriate).
But the really important thing here is, like gopstudent said, the ability to draw everyone back together. It doesn’t matter if one of these fine gentlemen is elected if all the voters defect to other sides (God forbid they go blue) as a result of their dissatisfaction with the way the party is going. Gluing everything together to ensure victory on OTHER fields of battle is just as important as winning the CD-5 seat. Probably even more in the long run.
Wait, you’ll see.
At the time, I (who actually attended the event mentioned and heard first hand what the congressman said) posted this response to your nonsense.
I think he say the writing on the wall and moved to the petition and is using the party as the scapegoat. If Lamborn was the great congressman his supporters purport he is, it shouldn’t matter when the party got lists to him. He should have won the assembly in a walk.
Anything short of that is a huge blow to a sitting congressman’s lack of organization.
I think that Lamborn would have won the assembly in a walk. In fact, I think that Lamborn was worried he’d keep Crank off the ballot, so he decided to petition on.
I also think it’s a big “F you” to the EPCRC for it’s continued support of Crank, bad organization, and the fact that they can’t even keep alternate lists together without losing them.
I mean, how do you lose an entire list of alternates? And the candidates are supposed to trust these people?
I have seen this accusation before but still haven’t seen proof.
I also do not believe any lists were lost. The alternates were re-ranked but the people all stayed the same and it would make no difference what the ranking was because I assume someone running through Assembly would go after Alternates regardless of what ranking position they are.
made, what is in my opinion a smart decision.
Lamborn saw what his supporters have seen for a while. That the Party is not handling this process properly. By doing this, Doug has in a way handed Crank a defeat. That is, Crank will now win an irrelevant victory at the asembly.
He gets on the ballot and blames the party for it. Now anyone who’s ever been pissed off by anyone at party headquarters is going to say “yeah, he’s right!” Lamborn found the perfect scapegoat.
You can’t blame him for that.
But the truth is Lamborn wasn’t going to win the assembly. This is nothing more then Lamborn avoiding a defeat and laying the blame at the feet of the party.
An unbiased observer would have to note that as Joel Henley’s appointed successor, he has had the party insiders in his camp since the 2006 campaign. He out organized, and out politicked the incumbent while he was working in Washington. Jeff Crank did well.
BUT
His over zealous supporters have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory and left Jeff with less than he may deserve here. Thier antics made Lamborns announcment reasonable. The Congressman truly did favor the Assembly process, and would have made the ballot without question. (I have seen the numbers.) But instead of a victory to brag about Jeff has Lamborns petition to whine about, and that dog won’t hunt with the average voter.
Jeff CRANK now will get more votes at CD-5 than many dictators in Communist one party countries get, but SO WHAT.
Forget your personal preferences for a second.
If you were looking at the CD-2 race, and the incumbent just handed his over zealous opponent this hollow victory, while assuring the best possible primary ballot for himself (Pundit and 5Line have been saying for months that Lamborn wins in a 3 way race) If they’re right for a change, Lamborn just won the primary and you want to fault him for not playing Jeff Cranks game by the rules that favors Crank. DUH !
Where I said that this WAS a smart move for Lamborn.
BUT
Lamborn is lying. He’s been toying with going through the petition process for some time, hence the rumors that have been discussed for some time. So for him to say that the local party’s handling of the caucus is his reason (which occured AFTER he began thinking about this) is a flat out LIE.
So if that’s a lie, what’s the alternative? The alternative is Lamborn knew he couldn’t win, ditched the effort and is blaming it on the party.
Which leads me to my next question…what exactly did the local party do again? How did Crank’s campaign mess up the assembly again? Was it by getting more delegates elected? Because yeah, I can see how that might be a problem….for the INCUMBENT who should have been organized to have won this in a walk.
But he couldn’t so now he’s petitioning on to the ballot. Maybe if his campaign was better organized, he wouldn’t have to be going this route
Crank was well organized. He did a good job.
Are you saying Lamborn needs a campaign manager like Jon Hoteling, organized and…
But where is the lie? There is no lie. Sure every candidate considers his options, but ….. Oh whats the use. The answer is in my post above. Here.
Lamborn made the right choice. I supported and advocated for this option along with many others. The candidate made a choice Haners, and every indication says he made it recently. If you insist he made it last September, who am I do dissuade you from your fantasy. You obviously channel Doug Lamborn better than I do.
Why having whatever lists from the El Paso GOP was so important if Lamborn had the assembly votes he needed?
But, we can agree to disagree.
I say Lamborn did not Lie to anyone and I have very good reason to believe he made this decision recently.
Every candidate considers their options, but for the third time, the Congressman went forward through the process with eyes open and with the assembly option in full consideration.
He made his choice for his reasons.
I’ll give GOPstudent the last word.
AMEN.
NEWSMAN
You know how much I love to have the last word.
Quick, respond here and then you can have the last word!!
I agree, that is nice. But tell me-what makes you think that Lamborn or Rayburn are the only ones not getting timely information from HQ. I can list half a dozen other campaigns who are experiencing the same problems.
But they make do on their own and move on. Lamborn is the only one who made this kind of choice over un-named offenses committed by the party.
So from my perspective, even if we say that the party not providing timely information is a huge problem, you are sorely mistaken if you think that the county party is only failing the Lamborn and Rayburn folks.
My problem isn’t that he’s accessing the ballot through the petition. So be it. Fine. At this point, I don’t care. What bothers me is his excuse for doing so isn’t honest, a sitting congressman is trying to play the victim to the big bad county party, and that even if he were some how targeted by the county party, he (being the incumbent) should have enough resources and manpower to continue on without the party.
he’s trying to play “victim”. He said clearly that he doesn’t want to cast aspersions on anyone.
I think it’s simply a matter of how he feels his time is best spent. Is it better spent trying to track down 1200 voters off of inaccurate lists to meet with, or is it better to be in Washington voting on the issues of the day.
Frankly, every day we have our congressman fighting for us in DC is a good one, and every decision that allows him to stay there helps us as well.
What a classic !!!
Haners, you made me laugh until I cried on that one.
You just validated everything Doug Lamborn said.
I think you got the last word after all, and its a doozy.
Here’s to the day after the primary, when we can talk about the campaign that was.
Good night my friend.
NEWSMAN
But I hope you weren’t laughing so hard that you missed the point-no one else is whinning about it!
I saw this coming. Lamborn finally realized what I and several others have been saying for some time… That the EPCGOP is not relaible, and therefore not trustworthy. I am not interested in discussing this, we have beat that point to death.
Furthermore, by petitioning onto the ballot Lamborn has successfully pulled the attention away from Crank who will now be the only guest of honor at the assembly.
This is smart, because as jericho pointed out, now all three will be on the ballot. I thought that would happen regardless of the choice to petition or not.
Lastly, it is not important how a candidate choses to legally get on the ballot. When it’s primary time, nobody will look at their ballot and wonder how a candidate got on. The only people who care are Crank’s most vehement supporters.
THANK YOU .
I have been trying to get this very point across to my CRANKy friends for months.
For the people who have viewed Lamborn as indecisive because he couldn’t make up his mind. Don’t be fooled, he’s been thinking about this route long before the caucuses even took place.
To say that he’s doing this because the party couldn’t get their crap together is an outright lie.
Don’t be fooled by it
Actually Haners, His supporters have been in favor of this for a while.
The congressman favored the assembly, and it was close as to who would win top line, with the edge to Jeff.
But something made him see the wisdom in this strategy. I am sure my 2 cents was not the deciding factor, but it is the wise move politically. In politics, winning is a good thing.
But it is certainly odd for a sitting congressman to bypass the assembly process. Can anyone think of a recent example where this has happened before?
But this reminds me of the email I recieved last night from Jeff Crank. He is holding some contest for the answer to this question.
What upset me about this email was that Jeff criticizes Doug for his informative mailings, and all the while he is wasting money sending meaningless publicity stunts in mass emails like this one.
I understand that this was paid for by his campaign and not taxpayer dollars, but I wonder how much fluff like this I will get in the mail at my expense if Jeff was elected?
.
are we now saying that sending franked mail at taxpayer expense
is the same as
sending out spam email ?
This is moving too fast for the old farts like me to follow.
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Have you all finally woke up? When either Susie Que or I said anything negative about the shenanagins at headquarters we both got bashed. Now you are in agreement? Did the earth start spinning in the opposite direction or did some of you finally grow a set?