The West is expected to play a key role in next year’s presidential election, but so far there’s not much of a buzz here.
“We’re not a hot state right now,” said Jim Gibson, head of the Colorado Democratic Leadership Council. “We don’t have a primary. [The candidates] are so focused now on Nevada, New Hampshire and Iowa.”
Colorado’s caucuses will be held in March of next year. By then, the nominees might already be decided. Still, presidential candidates have begun staffing up here, eyeing our state’s nine electoral votes.
Word is new Denver County GOP chairwoman Mary Smith has signed on to raise cash for Rudy Giuliani, and Jennie Virgilio, fresh off her work with Rick O’Donnell‘s campaign, will work for Mitt Romney.
Romney also has two other key backers in Colorado: Oilman Bruce Benson and former Gov. Bill Owens. Owens has agreed to serve as a senior adviser to the campaign.
Jim Lyons, a longtime Friend of Bill, is raising money nationally for Sen. Hillary Clinton and could play a role in her campaign here. Lyons was senior adviser to the 1992 Clinton-Gore campaign in Colorado.
Andy Boian, a member of the Democratic National Committee in 2004, is again working with former Sen. John Edwards.
So far, it appears Gov. Bill Richardson, our neighbor to the south, has staffed up the most. As noted in last week’s Post, Richardson has landed a few high-profile locals to run his campaign here. Tom Strickland, Polly Baca, Lawrence Martinez and Erich Bussian will be co-chairs, while J.W. Postal will direct the campaign and serve as spokesman.
Sportsmen for Udall?
Yes, that was Rep. Mark Udall, D-Eldorado Springs, who sponsored legislation last week allowing qualified sportsmen – those are hunters – to help reduce the elk population in Rocky Mountain National Park. Sportsmen, as they’re called by politicians, are a coveted demographic. Remember John Kerry hunting in a camouflage jacket with a 12-gauge shotgun 12 days before the 2004 election? Udall’s move would save taxpayer dollars, but some suggest it also could help counter his image as a Boulder liberal, or, as few bloggers call him, “Latte Mark,” when he runs for Senate next year.
Calling Sen. Salazar
Have a bone to pick with Sen. Ken Salazar? You’re apparently not alone. His office in 2006 logged 212,462 letters or e-mails from constituents, some 42,000 more than 2005, according to his annual report. Their top three concerns: immigration, gay marriage and warrantless wiretapping.
GOP Senate news
A new website has popped up that, judging by its domain name, purports to cover all of the Colorado Senate. But www.coloradosenatenews.com is actually operated by the minority-party Senate Republicans and contains Senate news as viewed through their prism. Rather than send out press release after press release, the Republicans are utilizing the website as a one-stop shop for reporters and constituents.
But staffers also do their own reporting, as they did last week when they picked up this quote from Democratic Senate Majority Leader Ken Gordon at an Iraq war news conference: “It’s very difficult to bring democracy to a country while you are killing, even inadvertently, many of the civilians that live there.” The subsequent website story allowed Republicans to express their outrage at his quote, which otherwise received no coverage.
It’s another example of politicos using the Web, and other non- mainstream portals, to their advantage. Of course, it goes both ways. Colorado Media Matters, a website funded largely by rich Democrats, quickly pointed out that the GOP site, and Senate Republicans, are using a poll by a Republican firm to allege public support for the war.
Musgrave’s bipartisanship
It was noted here two weeks ago that Rep. Marilyn Musgrave had launched a weekly “Bi-Partisanship Works” e-mail campaign to alert constituents to her work across party lines. It also was noted here, wryly, that her first dispatch didn’t include any examples. However, her office did send out examples, but under separate cover. Mea culpa.
Dan Haley (dhaley@denverpost.com) is a member of The Post’s editorial board.
