After a two-month hiatus, Republican gubernatorial candidate Marc Holtzman is back on the campaign trail, eager to take on the GOP establishment and critics who began penning his political obituary following passage of Referendum C.
“I haven’t gone anywhere. My campaign is heading into high gear,” Holtzman said of rumors of his early demise. “I’m totally focused and confident that I will win the primary.”
His game plan includes two strategies: Riddle his opponent, U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez, with political fire from now until the August primary; and characterize the state GOP as out of touch.
The result, many political observers agree, could be a grueling primary that may hurt the eventual Republican nominee in the general election.
“For the Republicans, this could be damaging to their ability to keep the governor’s office,” said Bob Loevy, a Colorado College political science professor. “Party primaries can be divisive and expensive. They bloody up the members of your party, and often the candidates appear in a negative light.”
Holtzman has kept a low profile since Referendum C passed in November. A vocal opponent of Referendums C and D, the latter of which failed, Holtzman became the public face for the anti-tax movement and ingratiated himself with the most conservative wing of the Republican Party.
As a result, many political observers forecasted a swift political death for the former University of Denver president if the measures passed. Holtzman, however, has maintained that despite being on the losing end of Referendum C, his stand solidified his position as the party’s conservative candidate.
Now Holtzman is ready to take his campaign to the next level. His blue- and-yellow campaign RV has rolled out of the garage and is winding its way through southeastern Colorado.
He’s talking to voters about a number of issues he thinks are important, such as illegal-immigration reform and his opposition to the U.S. Supreme Court’s eminent-domain decision that allows local governments to condemn land and transfer it to private developers if it’s for the public benefit.
He’s tapping into student volunteers and setting up town hall meetings with different counties during which Republican voters can talk to him on the phone.
“My sense is that Colorado wants a governor to have a vision and an agenda, and they want a governor to do something,” he said.
Sandwiched between his confident tone and policy ideas, Holtzman repeatedly refers to Beauprez’s perceived shortcomings: no economic experience, an inability to commit 100 percent to a cause, overly influenced by Washington, D.C., politicos and, most importantly, his failure to take a strong, public stand against Referendum C and D.
“He hid in the tall grass,” Holtzman said. “He didn’t demonstrate the leadership Colorado expects.”
In some ways, Holtzman says, that goes for a few of the state Republican Party leaders as well. They are at least partly to blame, he said, for the GOP’s 2004 loss of the state House and Senate to the Democrats for the first time in 42 years.
His campaign manager, Dick Leggitt, is more blunt.
“A handful of people have been running the party for years and have run it into the ground. They’ve been playing good old boy favoritism … and picking sides,” he said. “Marc is going to be a people-oriented governor, working for everyone.”
Beauprez, who officially launches his campaign next week, declined to comment.
Hans Gullickson, executive director of the state party, said the GOP doesn’t take sides in the primary. However, he did note that the party has already run hundreds of phone banks, trained more than 800 volunteers and signed up 1,200 new donors in the past nine months.
“We’re a dramatically different party than in 2004,” he said. “We have brand-new leadership and a commitment to grassroots efforts.”
Some political watchers say taking on the party and Beauprez is probably Holtzman’s best strategy. Political parties have lost much of their muscle in the past two years because campaign-finance rules now prohibit the parties from collecting soft- money contributions, said GOP consultant Katy Atkinson. As a result, it will be difficult to squeeze Holtzman out.
Additionally, Holtzman can capitalize on a division in the Republican Party between social conservatives and moderates that was recently exacerbated by infighting over Referendums C and D, and the resignation of two legislators who cited inner-party turmoil as a reason for their departures.
“It’s a good time for Holtzman to say he’s clearly the outsider and try and paint himself as the underdog running against the establishment that lost its core values,” said Denver pollster Floyd Ciruli.
But there is also a risk, Ciruli said, that Holtzman may only win over the more “ideological faction of the party and alienate the pragmatists who vote in larger numbers.”
Either way, Holtzman said, he’s driving his campaign bus for the long haul.
