It started four years ago when voters approved strict campaign-finance rules.
Soon after, Colorado’s budgetary woes turned into a full-blown crisis and the Republican-controlled legislature couldn’t agree on what to do. U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis declined to seek re-election, followed soon after by his GOP colleague U.S. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell.
Then came Referendums C and D.
When Colorado’s Republican Party finally reached bottom Tuesday night, with the historic loss of the Governor’s Mansion, state legislature and a majority of the state’s congressional delegation, it was the culmination of years of bad luck and bad decisions.
Now, party leaders find themselves heading into 2007 divided, with a shallow bench and no clear leader.
Looking back last week, several party leaders and insiders said they should have seen it coming.
“There were a lot of forks in the road and we’ve been taking the wrong road since 2002,” said Sean Tonner, a GOP political consultant who has worked on numerous federal and state campaigns.
But with hindsight, they say, comes an opportunity to move forward, repairing fractures in the party and pooling resources for the future.
“There is nothing like minority status to concentrate the mind,” said Gov. Bill Owens, who is leaving in January due to term limits. “We won’t fight over the little things.”
When McInnis and Campbell decided not to seek re-election, each had served in their respective House and Senate seats for 12 years.
McInnis’ departure set up a GOP free-for-all in the 3rd Congressional District, with five Republicans fighting each other in the primary.
The Democrats gathered around one candidate, now-Congressman John Salazar.
Campbell’s decision to leave came only nine months before the 2004 election. At that point, Tonner said, the Bush re-election campaign had planned on riding on Campbell’s coattails and pulling along those lower on the ticket.
“The whole organization was predicated on that race. There was no Bush infrastructure in place, resources or staff,” Tonner said. “There was a huge vacuum.”
But before it could be filled, Republicans Pete Coors and Bob Schaffer decided to go head-to-head for the seat.
Owens, who said he would support Schaffer, changed his mind and backed Coors, sparking criticism that he had betrayed the party’s conservative and grassroots base.
GOP godfather and conservative Bill Armstrong got behind Schaffer.
The lines between moderates and conservatives were drawn.
High-profile Democrats, on the other hand, united behind now U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, John Salazar’s brother.
“The Democrats proved that they were willing to set egos aside to win,” GOP consultant Katy Atkinson said.
Primary fight a drain
Meanwhile, the Republican-controlled legislature faced steep budget shortfalls and the party struggled internally to solve the crisis.
The 2004 legislative session ended without a solution, and the campaign season started with Schaffer trouncing Coors at the Republican state convention. Months of brawling between the two followed before Coors won the primary.
Meanwhile, new state campaign-finance rules, approved by voters in 2002, took effect, cutting by 80 percent the amount people could give to state races and parties. They also slashed the amount of money state parties could give candidates and prohibited donations from unions and corporations.
New federal rules prohibited national parties from using money for state races or parties.
Lacking financial muscle, both the Democratic and Republican parties – once centers of power – became perfunctory, responsible for nominating candidates and holding a convention.
“The parties are just tokens now,” McInnis said. “The rules have resulted in narrowing the decisions and perspectives and debate.”
While Republicans searched for ways to overturn the rules, Democrats found loopholes.
They shored up financial support from unions through small-donor committees, which can collect $50 or less from people and contribute 10 times more to candidates than the new caps on individual contributions.
They also quickly learned how to exploit a federal tax loophole to funnel millions of dollars into so-called 527 groups that could raise and spend money. Four millionaires – Pat Stryker, Tim Gill, Jared Polis and Rutt Bridges – were the biggest donors. Their groups polled, found an appealing message and hit voters with phone calls and direct mail.
By the end of the year, both Salazars were elected and Democrats controlled the state legislature for the first time in 44 years.
Ref. C pact leaves scars
In the 2005 legislature, Democrats, Owens and other moderate Republicans reached a long-sought compromise to ease the state’s budget woes.
But many conservatives were not happy.
“There was a tremendous budget shortfall, but the solution was not viewed by many Republicans as a right-of-center-solution because it didn’t deal with spending mandates and fiscal discipline,” said state Treasurer Mike Coffman. “It divided the party.”
Owens led the move for what became Referendums C and D, ballot measures that called for letting the state keep more tax revenue and increase spending.
House Minority Leader Joe Stengel, R-Littleton, was a leading opponent.
By the time Referendum C passed and D failed on Nov. 1, Republicans were deeply divided.
Three weeks later, the GOP called a Peace Summit in Keystone. But there was little peace as GOP gubernatorial candidates used the event to publicly bash each other.
Meanwhile, simmering tensions between social conservatives and moderates continued to bubble up, especially in the state legislature.
State Sen. Norma Anderson, a former majority leader from Jefferson County, announced she was resigning after 19 years, partly because of the expanding rift in her party and the increasing influence of “ideological Christian conservatives.”
By the time the party held its state convention in May, Bob Beauprez’s and Marc Holtzman’s battle for support of the far right had already pushed some business interests and moderates into the Democratic camp.
“The people who attend those (conventions) are more ideologically driven to dominate the platform and agenda. They are true believers,” Campbell said. “But in Colorado, neither party can get elected by only appealing to the base.”
Just before the convention, Beauprez was the first person to sign on to a proposed initiative to roll back Referendum C.
That was the last straw for some of Colorado’s business leaders, who traditionally back the GOP.
“It stirred up the business community and reaffirmed their commitment to C,” said Bill Ray, communications director for the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce.
As Beauprez headed into the general election against Democrat Bill Ritter, the GOP stole a page from the Democrats’ 527 playbook.
But the Democrats had already mastered the use of 527s, and the national political winds were blowing strongly behind them.
Where should GOP go?
Many Republican political players in Colorado say that the losses they’ve sustained are a much-needed wake-up call.
“It’s really the comeuppance the party needs. They’ve lost their vision … by moving towards bigger government and spending money,” said Jon Caldara, president of the Independence Institute.
Different people have varying definitions of what that vision should be, however. In order to deal with that, state Rep. Rob Witwer said, Republicans need to offer more than opposition. They need a clear platform that appeals to a broad spectrum.
“We can no longer afford to indulge in narcissism of minor differences,” he said. “We’ve defined ourselves more narrowly, and now we need to find common ground.”
And they need a deep bench.
“We need to start building from the ground up with local races … and have people move up the ladder. That’s what the Democrats did,” former state Sen. Anderson said.
But who leads the effort in building these bridges once Owens leaves office in January?
Wayne Allard would be the obvious choice, but the senior senator has never shown an interest in that role, political watchers said. U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo is always a possibility, as is Coffman, if he is officially announced the winner of last week’s election for secretary of state.
Or perhaps it will be someone whom few people know now, but who will emerge as a leader over the next year.
“It’s not clear who the head of our party will be, but I see a lot of jockeying for that position,” Witwer said.
Staff writer Karen Crummy can be reached at 303-954-1594 or kcrummy@denverpost.com.
