Is there anyone in Colorado excited about a potential Bill Ritter vs. Bob Beauprez governor’s race?
Both men are certainly able and accomplished, but … well, I almost dozed off typing the question.
Still, it seems inevitable. Which only means we absolutely must relish Marc Holtzman’s firebrand candidacy while we still can.
Just last week, a new radio ad paid for by Coloradans for Freedom and Opportunity – finally, another group that supports both freedom and opportunity – features an actor claiming that Holtzman “sounds like Bill Clinton under oath.”
When Republicans begin throwing Bill Clinton’s name around, you know things are getting really nasty.
Coloradans for Freedom and Opportunity is a committee run by a Republican political operative named Katy Atkinson, a zealous Holtzman basher and endlessly quoted “consultant.”
Atkinson, you’ll remember, was the spokeswoman for the Vote Yes on C & D campaign. Holtzman starred in a television ad and claimed Referendum C was no more than a $5 billion “blank check.” Atkinson argued with his math and said as “a childless, 50-something, never-
before-married bachelor, we can understand why Marc Holtzman cares nothing about our schools and our kids.”
Charming.
It is interesting to note that now state economists expect Colorado to collect $4.25 billion over the next five years in refunds – not the $3.7 billion figure that was shoved down our throats. Surely, it’ll be $5 billion before you know it. You don’t have to be married to add.
But whether or not Holtzman was correct about Referendum C’s final price tag is irrelevant. There is political idealism, and then there is political reality.
The pragmatist must ask: Does Holtzman have any shot at winning the Republican primary, much less the general election against Ritter? In reality, he is simply damaging the Republicans’ chances this November by lashing out and weakening his challenger, Beauprez.
Last year, Holtzman opportunistically slid into a vacuum created when the Republican establishment abandoned fiscal conservatives. Once that battle was lost, so were Holtzman’s chances.
And it’s been downhill ever since.
There were the minor blunders: Holtzman Photoshopping his shortish frame to better fit next to President Reagan. Later, the Reagan library mailed a “cease and desist” letter, asking Holtzman to refrain from using any photos.
Recent events, however, were more damaging. Holtzman’s now-departed campaign manager, Dick Leggitt, admitted that he fabricated poll numbers.
“We didn’t have any polling results,” Leggitt admitted during an administrative court hearing. “It’s what we in the election business call spin.”
Not exactly. It’s called spin when you avoid getting caught. It’s called lying when you do.
But really, all of those slips could have been overlooked if Holtzman, a strong fiscal conservative, were running against a liberal Republican deemed intolerable by the rank-and-file. Holtzman has worked overtime to paint Beauprez as a mealy- mouthed, big-spending, open-border, bleeding-heart liberal.
This approach is a dead end, considering Beauprez carried a 100 percent rating from the American Conservative Union in 2005. Holtzman has no compelling argument to present Republicans.
Holtzman often evokes the ghost of
Reagan – he worked on the late president’s campaign in Pennsylvania – so he must know the Gipper lost primary fights in 1976 and 1968.
And though Ronald Reagan’s 11th Commandment was “Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican,” perhaps there is a more pertinent quote for Holtzman to become acquainted with if he plans on sticking around.
“Politics is supposed to be the second- oldest profession,” Reagan quipped. “I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.”
Something every politician must learn.
David Harsanyi’s column appears Monday and Thursday. He can be reached at 303-820-1255 or dharsanyi@denverpost.com.
