September 23, 2015 02:47 PM UTC

Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith Considering GOP Senate Bid

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• by: Colorado Pols

The conservative D.C. publication The National Journal has news on Colorado’s U.S. Senate race, and it looks like Republicans might have yet another potential candidate:

Lar­imer County Sher­iff Justin Smith, a Col­or­ado Re­pub­lic­an, says he is ser­i­ously look­ing at run­ning against Demo­crat­ic Sen. Mi­chael Ben­net in 2016, the latest in a string of po­ten­tial GOP can­did­ates to put their names for­ward in the state.

Smith gained prom­in­ence among the state’s con­ser­vat­ive grass­roots in 2013 for fight­ing against the gun-con­trol le­gis­la­tion cham­pioned by Col­or­ado’s Demo­crat­ic gov­ernor, John Hick­en­loop­er. Smith said in an in­ter­view that he was mak­ing calls and speak­ing with sev­er­al statewide elec­ted of­fi­cials about his plans.

Smith tells the Journal that he would consider not running for Senate himself in favor of Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler. As Colorado Pols reported on Tuesday, Brauchler is poised to announce his own Senate campaign in early October.

The Journal also updates the Senate race with some information that you already knew from reading Colorado Pols last week:

But even if Brauchler gets in, at least one oth­er well-fun­ded can­did­ate will be com­pet­ing for the GOP nom­in­a­tion. Col­or­ado Springs busi­ness­man Robert Blaha, who self-fun­ded a con­gres­sion­al run in 2012, vowed to chal­lenge Ben­net be­cause of the Demo­crat’s vote in fa­vor of the Ir­an nuc­le­ar deal…

…Con­ser­vat­ive state le­gis­lat­or Tim Neville is on a “listen­ing tour” as he con­siders jump­ing from the state Sen­ate to the U.S. Sen­ate. And his col­league, state Sen­ate Ma­jor­ity Lead­er Mark Schef­fel, is also re­portedly con­sid­er­ing a run. [Pols emphasis]

After months of searching in vain for a candidate, Republicans are suddenly finding that it’s beginning to get a bit crowded in advance of 2016.