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April 28, 2009 06:17 PM UTC

Ken Buck Does His Best "Shifty Schaffer"

  • 29 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

If reading today’s Greeley Tribune seems a little like deja vu, flashing back a couple of years to another Senate candidate who had trouble figuring out if he was actually running (even though he plainly was running), that’s probably because it, well, should:

Weld District Attorney Ken Buck denied reports circulating on the Internet on Monday that he was officially throwing his hat in the ring for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Michael Bennett, D-Colo.

The Republican previously said he was leaning toward running for the Senate and recently spoke with district attorneys across the state to gauge his chances. He said an announcement on whether he will run would likely come in April, but he did not give an exact date…

Check out his website today, though–unlike this weekend, it’s no longer “coming soon.” It’s beet-red and confident and, oh, look here, a donate page.

What exactly are donors donating to, Mr. Buck?

Seriously, folks, what is the point of pussy-footing around like this? It’s been out of the bag for weeks that Buck was a budding Senate candidate. What possible sense can it make to deny you’re running at this point? The only thing we can imagine is that despite all the backroom discussion and flashy Tea Party appearances (and a really nice website), Buck still hasn’t bothered with the paperwork to be a U.S. Senate candidate. Even though the website says he filed said papers “today” (no date given).

As we alluded to at the beginning, we asked all these questions of 2008 GOP Senate candidate Bob Schaffer as he waffled back and forth between “running” and “not running” public statements. Chief among those questions was, “how does this possibly help you?”

We know the answer now, don’t we?

UPDATE: Well well well, as the Denver Post reports (below the fold):

Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck today announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat now held by freshman Democrat Sen. Michael Bennet.

Buck’s office has played high profile roles in both the conviction of transgendered woman Angie Zapata’s killer and a controversial scheme to snag illegal immigrants with false identification.

In his announcement today, Buck cast himself as a pro-market, small government advocate.

“Big government policies have chilled the vitality of our work force and denied fundamental rights to Americans,” said Buck, a Republican. “During times of financial hardship, we need to rely more on the marketplace and less on big government, not the other way around.”

Buck has traveled to all 64 Colorado counties building a network of activists in the last few months, his campaign said.

He joins fellow Republican and Aurora city councilman Ryan Frazier, who announced earlier this month that he’s raising money for a U.S. Senate bid, though he hasn’t yet officially announced his candidacy.

Apparently, the Post’s Jessica Fender was so caught up in the spectacle of Buck’s big announcement that she forgot to ask him why he, um, denied he was running yesterday. Just enough time to regurgitate the celebratory release, eh? We’ll give her the benefit of the doubt, and assume she’s saving the actual journalism for the print edition.

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29 thoughts on “Ken Buck Does His Best “Shifty Schaffer””

  1. his campaign for the Senate, things bode well for the Dems.

    He “denied reports” that he’s running but on his own website home page, the first thing you see is this:

    Buck Announces Campaign for U.S. Senate

    Candidate Vows to Take Colorado Values to Nation’s Capital

    Greeley, CO – Today, Ken Buck filed campaign papers making his candidacy for the U.S. Senate official. “I am excited about the opportunity to continue my public service for Colorado,” said Buck.

    I’m sure one of his fans will be along any second now to explain the discrepancy.  

  2. They will now have to figure out how to write a polite and excited Wednesday follow up after Tuesday’s headline, “Buck denies he’s entered Senate race.”

    How awkward.  

        1. Weld District Attorney Ken Buck denied reports circulating on the Internet on Monday that he was officially throwing his hat in the ring for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Michael Bennett, D-Colo.

          The Republican previously said he was leaning toward running for the Senate and recently spoke with district attorneys across the state to gauge his chances. He said an announcement on whether he will run would likely come in April, but he did not give an exact date.

          So he moved up his announcement date.

          1. Cited copy begins:

            Weld District Attorney Ken Buck denied reports circulating on the Internet on Monday that he was officially throwing his hat in the ring for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Michael Bennett, D-Colo.

            No doubt you can backflip somersault your way out of this in your feeble mind, because you are, like Ken Buck, full of shit.

    2. He was doubly foolish for denying it to the Tribune yesterday. Again, what is the upside to doing that? What purpose does it serve to mislead reporters on something so far from a secret?

      And naturally, we’d love a source.

      1. If he was going to announce today, why wouldn’t he have given the Trib some kind of hint while “denying,” like “watch for something big in the next few days” or similar? It doesn’t make any sense, let alone have any positive press angle.

        What time did he file? How long after this goddamn blog post?! I want to know now, and that’s Ken Buck’s fault.

    3. Looks like the Beauprez 2.0 campaign to me (Beauprez’s possible entry into the race notwithstanding). Even his website looks like a carbon copy of the Beauprez for Governor site. He botched his own roll-out, he’s gearing up to run a campaign based on losing issues, and his biggest selling point seems to be how many endorsements he thinks he can rack up.

      Has he brought John Marshall on board yet?

  4. I’m wondering if those of you out in CoPols land who are better versed in Campaign Finance laws could tell me something?  I’m under the impression that it’s illegal to mix money from state and federal campaigns.  Is that right?

    So, would it be a CF violation if someone, say, spent $90 from a DA Campaign account to attend a Teller Co. event in March, after announcing a couple days before that he was running for Senate.  Or maybe someone spent $262 visiting El Paso, Larimer, and Logan Counties.

    All told, for the reporting period ending 3/31/2009, the Committee To Elect Ken Buck (CO-JD19) campaign spent more than $350 galavanting around the state, I’m sure for some other purpose, but it sure looks (from the photos on his new website) some of that money or time was used on his new Senate campaign?

    Anyone know if that’s within campaign finance rules?

    1. Federal candidates have to spend a minimum amount before they have to file (I think it’s $5000 or something like that). The limit is high enough that candidates are unlikely to hit it just traveling around.

  5. Ken Buck is to be commended for not letting these comments or others deter him. There are always detractors and things printed against a candidate no matter what race or what party.  Give him the benefit of the doubt and let’s see what he can do.  He, at least, has been working for Weld county residents.  Current senators don’t seem to know there is a Colorado.

  6. The will he or won’t he before the last couple of days you can ping him for. But the getting everything in place during the last 2 days is difficult (speaking from experience in the case of my mom).

    I had a complete website up so I could get feedback and make sure everything worked before the announcement because you want it all perfect when you make the official announcement. But by definition that means the site exists before then.

    There’s also all the news people pushing to get the story first while the candidate is trying to control the release. I think Ed Case (HI) did this best – he has done his last 2 announcements via email blast and then did a public press thing later.

    1. But this really shouldn’t be this hard. Schaffer screwed it up royally when he announced, unannounced, and announced again for the U.S. Senate. Two years later, Buck is doing the same thing. It doesn’t have to be this way – look at Ryan Frazier.  

      1. Frazier hinted at running, but never gave any indication he wouldn’t before he officially announced. Then, when he actually announced, he made a big deal about it and it was a big news story.

        Looks like Frazier already has a leg-up on Buck at this point.

        Where’s the money going to go though?

    2. And part of the roll-out is not doing stuff that takes away from your message by inviting mounds of nitpicking.

      Buck screwed that up. Shades of Schaffer indeed.

      But there will be many more important stories to come on the race before all is said and done.  

  7. And I don’t believe he can win that race. Primary, possibly. But not the general- unless Ritter does something or several things way more politically self-destructive than he has so far. Which is possible.

      1. He’s not that old, apparently in decent health and what else can he do?

        As to riding his version of immigration reform to anything- how about a headline grabbing primary season?

          1. the “baby zero” who was the first case of H1N1 in Veracruz lived right next to a pig farm owned by Smithfield Farms, yes Smithfield from the good ol’ US of A.  It’s most likely he contracted the virus from one of the pigs there.

            If Tancredo is going to say somehow that the swine flu is somehow all due to illegal immigration it may come back to bite him in the ass.

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