State Republicans nominated Bob Schaffer for Colorado’s open Senate seat Saturday, boisterously handing the three-term former congressman the challenge of keeping the party’s major toehold of statewide political power.
In a presentation at the state assembly that began with Tom Petty’s “Won’t Back Down” and prominently featured his wife and five children, Schaffer cast himself as a patriot in uncertain times but also someone willing to take his party to task when it goes off track.
In his 20-minute speech, Schaffer quoted from the Declaration of Independence twice. His only mention of President Bush was when he noted his “respectful” disagreement with the president over the No Child Left Behind education law.
Democrats “believe in more bureaucracy, more rules and less justice, instead of common sense personal responsibility and free markets, which is what we stand for.
“What they want is not change; it’s just putting lipstick on a pig,” Schaffer told an estimated crowd of 6,000 people at the Broomfield Event Center.
The real estate was symbolic. Broomfield is one of a cluster of Denver-metro area counties that, once reliably Republican, have trended Democratic in recent cycles — and the theme of a party under siege echoed in several of the convention floor speeches.
Nominated by the man he hopes to replace, retiring Sen. Wayne Allard, Schaffer immediately becomes the state party’s standard-bearer. And GOP officials see winning this race as key to buoying its sagging fortunes.
“It’s going to be tough, but I think he can do it,” said Shannon Stowe, a mortgage broker from Garfield County, who handed Schaffer a card as he worked the convention floor, offering to hold a fundraiser.
Still not well-known among many voters, Schaffer has deep support with the party base that made up much of the convention. He lost to Pete Coors in the 2004 Senate primary, often accusing the beer magnate of being too liberal on social issues.
But Saturday, Schaffer projected a softer image. He talked in his speech about the values taught him by his grandmother, who built bombers during World War II, and his mother, an immigrant from the Ukraine.
After the convention adjourned, he declined to take a position on the proposed Amendment 48, which, if passed by voters, would alter the state constitution to define personhood as beginning at conception.
“This is such a big undertaking, that we’re going to be worried about winning the U.S. Senate race,” Schaffer said.
Three of his children are training to be military officers (his daughter attends the Air Force Academy), and Schaffer said it’s their efforts that convinced him to run again.
“These children are heroes in my mind,” he said.
But it was the economy that was weighing on the mind of Kelly Brady, whose 8-month old daughter Reagan was named after the former Republican president. After chatting briefly with Schaffer after his speech, Brady said she had confidence that Schaffer’s promise to work to cut spending would help him win.
“Spending has been out of control, and we need someone to fix it,” Brady said.
