In what’s shaping up as a pivotal battle for Colorado’s 4th Congressional District, a third- party candidate has entered the race and could play spoiler.
Incumbent Marilyn Musgrave, a Republican from Fort Morgan, is being challenged by Democrat Angie Paccione, a state representative, and now Eric Eidsness of the Reform Party.
After she dispatched Stan Matsunaka in a close race in 2004, the question is whether Musgrave can hold on to a district that has been Republican since Democrat Wayne Aspinall bowed out in the early 1970s.
The prospects of a third- party candidate – once a Republican – capturing moderate conservative votes could work against Musgrave.
But first, Eidsness will have to establish an identity.
“If he’s just a name on the ballot and people treat it like a third-party enterprise,” Eids ness will make no difference, said John Straayer, a political science professor at Colorado State University.
“But if he gets his hands on a moderate Republican list, gets around the district, goes to all the debates and really works and has money … it could chip away at Musgrave’s advantage and add to Paccione’s,” Straayer said. “It could conceivably make a difference in the outcome.”
On the other hand, moderate Republicans who find Musgrave too conservative and who were mulling crossing party lines and voting for Paccione will have another option with Eidsness as a candidate.
Eidsness, who announced his candidacy in April, said he’s not worried about how he may affect either Musgrave or Paccione because he doesn’t see himself as a spoiler.
“I’m in it to win,” he said.
So are Paccione and Musgrave, who are already giving voters a taste of what’s to come. Last month, a feisty Paccione issued a challenge to Musgrave to a debate, “anytime, anywhere.”
A look at Paccione’s campaign website shows a string of news releases critical of Musgrave’s voting record and allegations that the congresswoman has been conducting a “baseless smear” campaign against the challenger.
“Marilyn has absolutely no ethical compass,” Paccione is quoted as saying in a news release on her website.
And as summer approaches, things will only heat up.
“As a former athlete, Paccione will be persistent; she has learned not to give up because she is behind in the game, so to speak,” said Steve Mazurana, a University of Northern Colorado political science professor.
Musgrave has raised more than $1.9 million for the November election. Paccione has raised about $400,000, and Eidsness has not yet disclosed campaign fund figures.
All three possess solid political backgrounds.
Musgrave, a conservative Christian, is finishing up a second term in Congress after a highly visible first term.
Raised in Greeley, Musgrave, a former state senator and state representative, authored a proposed U.S. constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union between a man and woman only.
“That is what defined her early in her congressional career,” Straayer said.
But after Musgrave’s constituents collectively questioned why she was spending so much time on a single issue, the congresswoman changed course, Straayer said.
“She has tuned down the rhetoric on that,” he said. “She has tried to mute her image a little bit” so voters don’t view her as a single-issue representative.
Paccione, like Musgrave, cut her political teeth in the Colorado legislature. Representing House District 53 for the past four years, Paccione has served as vice chairwoman of the Education Committee.
A native New Yorker, Paccione received a basketball scholarship to Stanford University, from which she graduated with a political science degree.
She played professional basketball, moved to Colorado in 1985 and worked in education. Paccione received a Ph.D. in education from CSU, where she also taught. She lives in Fort Collins.
“Paccione has a lot more energy than Musgrave,” Mazurana said. “In any debate, Marilyn is going to be contrasted with a tough competitor.”
Reform candidate Eidsness served as an officer in the Navy during the Vietnam War, including tours with a salvage team.
A graduate of Vanderbilt University, with a degree in civil engineering, Eidsness is a former vice president with CH2M Hill. A former Republican, Eidsness was nominated by President Reagan to a Cabinet-level position in the Environmental Protection Agency in 1981. He served with the EPA for six years.
The 4th Congressional District is made up of 15 counties and a portion of three others, including most of Weld County. It covers all the Eastern Plains counties bordering Kansas and heads west along the Wyoming border into Larimer County.
Higher gas and energy costs are putting the squeeze on farmers in Colorado and elsewhere, and farming constituents are placing more demands on elected representatives for economic relief.
Once a predominately rural district, the 4th has seen its constituency reshaped amid Colorado’s growth as farmland gives way to urban and suburban communities.
Musgrave has more name recognition and lots more money than her opponents, and she’s a member of the long-dominant party in the district.
Whether those advantages will add up to a victory remains to be seen, Straayer said.
“I don’t think it’s enough that you can simply buy her tickets to Washington just yet,” he said.
Staff writer Kieran Nicholson can be reached at 303-820-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com.
