Political consultant Eric Sondermann has bumped into Bill Ritter twice the past couple of weeks. Both times, said Sondermann, the Democratic candidate for governor was dining with “former Republican legislators.”
Sondermann wouldn’t name the ex-lawmakers. Still, the ability of the Democrat to reach out to Republican players at this point in an election year shows how Marc Holtzman’s scorched-earth campaign for governor has burned Republican Party nominee Bob Beauprez.
The scars will remain visible and ugly, even though the Colorado Supreme Court on Thursday ruled Holtzman out of an August Republican primary.
Holtzman’s ads and rhetoric may be gone. They will not be forgotten.
Thursday, Holtzman said he didn’t want to “irresponsibly weaken the party.” He said he “gracefully conceded” to Beauprez in a phone call. Holtzman said he wanted to be “constructive.”
Then he should’ve quit after Beauprez stomped him at the state convention.
By hanging on, Holtzman “goaded Beauprez into damaging himself,” said Colorado State University political scientist John Straayer. “Beauprez has taken very strident political stances.”
Colorado College professor Bob Loevy thinks Beauprez, the retiring 7th District congressman, can ultimately profit from recognition gained in his battle with Holtzman. “At the point where Beauprez would have had to expend a lot of money (on the primary),” said Loevy, “it’s all about to go away.”
Well, not all of it.
Thanks to Holtzman, Beauprez goes into the general election campaign recognized as “Both Ways Bob.”
Beauprez emphasizes his support for an initiative to deny state benefits to illegal immigrants, partly because Holtzman pushed the issue so hard. But Colorado provides virtually no benefits to illegal immigrants that are not required by the federal government of which Beauprez is a part. Meanwhile, Beauprez serves in the U.S. House of Representatives, which refuses to negotiate with the Senate to pass an immigration reform bill.
Holtzman said Thursday that he hopes he “enhanced the Republican Party.”
“I’d like to think I focused the party on its core roots,” he said.
Think again.
Holtzman claimed a campaign of “issues and ideas.” Unfortunately, those issues and ideas arrived encased in viscera.
Sondermann thinks Holtzman put the idea of “Both Ways Bob” “sufficiently in play” to affect the general election.
Nowhere will it show more than in Beauprez’s decision to be the first to sign a petition for an initiative to restrict money spent on Referendum C.
Ref. C let the state keep five years’ worth of revenue it would otherwise have had to refund under TABOR, the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. Ref. C passed in November over Both Ways Bob’s gentle whispers of protest.
But as Holtzman, a rabid Ref. C opponent, tried to light Beauprez up as profligate on taxes, the congressman took the bait. He loudly backed a new initiative that limits Ref. C spending to revenue projections when the referendum passed.
The budget director for Republican Gov. Bill Owens has written that if the Beauprez-backed initiative passes, the state must cut $400 million from its budget in the first six months of 2007.
“If Holtzman had been out of the race,” said Sondermann, “Beauprez would not have come within time zones of supporting that initiative.”
Now, added Straayer, Beauprez has become “a big question mark in the minds of a big slice of the traditional Republican base – the business community.”
Beauprez needs to put on “a bit more of a moderate fiscal face,” said Straayer.
How the candidate can do that without seeming wishy-washy poses a dilemma.
So does Beauprez need to keep Holtzman’s faithful on board after Beauprez’s surrogates spent months trying to sink Holtzman’s campaign?
The whole thing adds up to lunch dates with Republicans for Bill Ritter.
And a potentially ugly conclusion for the GOP.
Jim Spencer’s column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He can be reached at 303-820-1771 or jspencer@denverpost.com.
