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September 13, 2016 11:40 AM UTC

Darryl Glenn: Worst Statewide Candidate in Colorado History

  • 31 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols
As metaphors go, this is about as accurate as it gets for Darryl Glenn (squint and you'll see him on the screen in back).
Darryl Glenn’s Senate campaign in one image.

El Paso County Commissioner Darryl Glenn is a terrible candidate for the U.S. Senate. This should come as no surprise to anybody who has watched Glenn sputter along despite his relatively-easy victory in the June Primary, but Glenn is approaching an entirely new level of political ineptitude.

Move over, Bob Beauprez (2006) and Scott McInnis (2010). Darryl Glenn is about to claim the title of “Worst Statewide Candidate in Colorado History.”

In an interview with Rocky Mountain Public Radio on Saturday following the Club 20 debates, Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reporter Charles Ashby tried to explain why Glenn is on his way to a potentially record-setting defeat in November:

This year’s been a little weird in terms of Darryl Glenn. We’ve hardly seen him at all. In fact, this is only the second time I’ve known him to be out here, and the first time during the actual race with him against Bennet as the nominee. [Pols emphasis]

I’ve still yet to get on the mailing list for the press people for Darryl Glenn. They don’t seem to have a campaign. If they do, it’s one or two people. I know he hasn’t raised a lot of money. And I think that explains a lot why he’s down in the polls…. People like to see the candidates. They want to see them face-to-face.

Glenn has struggled mightily as the GOP nominee for Senate, and while establishment Republicans haven’t given him much help, it’s also true that Glenn has done virtually nothing to earn that support. Glenn struggles to raise money, is completely inept at discussing important issues, and has been unable to capitalize on major opportunities (such as his speaking role at the Republican National Convention).

It’s important to note here that Glenn has had plenty of chances to grow his campaign. While establishment Republicans may have written him off early, Glenn still managed to pick up major right-wing endorsements as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars in third-party advertising support. Glenn never received any real support from the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), but he still had more help from outside groups than any other Colorado Republican in 2016 not named Mike Coffman.

Glenn is among the least media-savvy candidates we’ve ever seen in such a high-profile race, and that’s really saying something when you consider the likes of Beauprez and McInnis. Glenn’s bumbling responses turn minor stories into significant controversies. He is dour and unlikable in interviews. And he is arrogant enough that he is now refusing to even speak to most media outlets — even though his underfunded campaign desperately needs earned media attention.

We wrote in this space that Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet secured his own re-election when Glenn somehow emerged from a crowded and incompetent field of Republican Senate candidates in June, but we had no idea how accurate that would prove. We weren’t alone in surmising that Glenn wasn’t going to come close to beating Bennet in 2016. It would have been impossible to predict the depth of Glenn’s awfulness as a candidate, however. He doesn’t raise money. He doesn’t talk to reporters. He doesn’t even really spend time on the campaign trail.

Barring some sort of political miracle in the next 8 weeks, Darryl Glenn will go down as the worst statewide candidate in modern Colorado history. You’re welcome, Bob Beauprez.

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31 thoughts on “Darryl Glenn: Worst Statewide Candidate in Colorado History”

          1. I didn't get past the list before I started planning this comment.  When getting greater than 10% is the goal,of,the campaign you have got to be mentioned in any list of horrible statewide candidates.  Maes should have topped that list.

        2. B.S. nailed it.  Dan Maes has a major party nomination and finished Third!   A poor third at that.  Glenn will be a distant second, but will still get 40 pct of the vote or so.  Maes finished third in what should have been a two-way race and that is an outstanding epic fail.

          1. Maes was so colossally bad that the GOP almost fell below the 10% threshold for major party status. That tells you something.

            I'm betting Glenn will get in the high 30s … low 40s if Bennet has a bad campaign. 

      2. Nope… I think Glenn is in the same unique WTF category for a Senate candidate that Trump is in for major party presidential candidate but with none of the advantages (reality TV celebrity, con man extraordinaire, the fact that people imagine Trump to be a wildly successful multi-billionaire businessman rather than a wildly successful plate spinning huckster) that keep Trump close. He beats Maes as an even more terrible politician and even more clueless as an individual. Glenn is my vote for number one and the only question is how far into double digit will Bennet's win be.

        1. Another advantage Trump has over Glenn is the degree to which voters perceive their respective opponents as likable and trustworthy. Nobody will mistake Michael Bennet for a silver-tongued orator, but he's widely perceived as a good, sensible, thoughtful and bipartisan sort.

    1. Craig, I agree with you. Mr. Beauprez's 2006 campaign was the worst statewide campaign ever in Colorado and his 2014 campaign might have matched that debacle if Gov. Hickenlooper would have gone negative on Mr. Beauprez because of all the things he said and published between 2007 and 2014 on his blog "Line of Site."

  3. OK, can we all agree then that Maes, Beauprez (a.k.a. Blinky Beau Beau), and Glenn can reside in a worst candidate hall of fame? Frankly, there would be a different Senate race if Jack Graham had secured the nomination. He may not have won, but Bennet probably would not have had a cakewalk either.

  4. Early on, Colorado Pols described Glenn as the most "endearing" of the Republican candidates, and someone else talked about his "integrity." I said then, several times, that those of us who experienced Glenn as our City Council member and County Commissioner knew differently. He has always been arrogant, petty, and nasty to those who disagreed with him. He can be a slick speaker, which some mistake as "eloquence." Pols now sees him as "dour and unlikable in interviews." I tried to tell you.

    Still, it is hard to call a nobody who confirmed he was a nobody the worst candidate in Colorado history. Doesn't it take someone like Beauprez or McInnes, who where once sort-of-somebodies or were thought of as somebodies but then blew it badly, to take the prize as "worst candidate of all time"?

  5. We can thank Repub electeds for their continued world class Stupidity and Ignorance, and Colorado's R voters for believing every lie told to them by their political and media leaders and for usually picking the worst of their potential candidates. 

    That doesn't make Bennet a great senator or even a mediocre legislator  

    Nor does CPols' constant focus on the trivial help us get more and better Dems elected  

     

     

     

  6. If I were a top Republican operative, I'd be planning a serious "what the hell happened and how did we wind up with such pathetic candidates"? meeting the Wednesday after the election. And what happened to the great "post-mortem" after 2014? It looks like they didn't learn a thing. Since I'm not a Republican-anything, it doesn't make me cry. I love it when they do our work for us. But how DID they wind up with such a lousy ticket? It's crummy from top to bottom. I guess this is what they get when they let the fringe elements run their party. Zap won't like this, but Dems should take this as a cautionary tale should we ever let the radical Progressives get control.

    1. Radical Progressives are a helluva lot saner and more in touch with the average voter than radical Tea Party Republicans.

      It’s a false equivalency:Bernie Sanders does not equal Donald Trump. And no, I don't like your comment either. But most people on here will, and I’m sure they’ll let you know.

  7. Why doesn't Michael Bennet get the endorsement of labor and progressive Dems? It's because of this shit, that's why. So transparently hoping for a lame-duck  late-night vote on the TPP, so that he can please his donors and support the corporate autocacy, while assuming that those wacky progressive Dems are so easily gulled and pacified by his equivocating.

    Meanwhile, local Dem offices are staffed by aging "moderate, mainstream" Dems, wondering where all of those thousands of Bernie supporters went that showed up for the primary.. Like a bunch of frail vampires, they moan for "new blood", say that they want a big tent ( but don't let any of those "radical Progressives" actually have any power in your Big Tent ). I'm sure that the progressive "new blood" will feel oh-so-welcome and be beating down the doors of the Democratic Party to volunteer and make calls for your corporate Dems like Bennet, with all of that youthful energy…..any time now……any. time.now.

      1. "don't let any of those radical progressives actually have any power…….."  And you still think that a radical progressive candidate is going to win a state-wide race? If such a race & win was a possibility, Diana DeGette would have ran a long time ago.

        Funny thing about Bennet’s lack of endorsements. Couple days ago, I got a fundraising appeal for Bennet in the mail signed by none other than Elizabeth Warren. She may be a so-called radical progressive, but she’s also smart enough to be a realist.

  8. At the Congressional level Andrew Romanoff and Udall should also get mentioned for running really shitty campaigns.  It isn't just Republicans who are spectacular flops.

      2. What makes Glenn extra awful is that he isn't drawing any Democratic money away from other competitive races.  He is so weak and hat he is d helping Democrats elsewhere.

          1. Triage is right.  My high hopes for Morgan Carroll's campaign are pretty much crushed. Outside of the occasional post showing up on my FB feed I'm hardly seeing anything at all from her campaign aimed at seriously raising her public profile. I've gotten more calls from the Kagan campaign for state senate than from hers and we all know no amount of nice little yard parties, canvassing and phone banking alone get it done on the congressional level anyway. 

            The CD6 Big Line assessment is becoming more ridiculously over-optimistic every day. 50/50 with Coffman trending down? Based on what? We think he's an idiot here at ColPols? So what? That's not going to get a challenger few ordinary voters have ever heard of elected.

            1. From my vantage point out here in Cong. Dist. 7, I've heard virtually nothing on TV or radio regarding the Carroll campaign. I have heard a Coffman ad on KOA.

              1. Same here from my vantage point in CD6, a section of the district that has been CD6 before and after redistricting. It's very puzzling and disheartening because I really thought she had a chance and would be a strong candidate with a smart campaign.

                BTW, we CD6 Dems are insanely jealous of CD7. Now that Ed's made it safe Dem maybe he could find a strong replacement candidate, move here and give CD6 a chance next time? Or maybe we should just keep him warm in CD7 until it's time challenge Gardner for the Senate?

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