The bitter primary had ripped the Republican party in two, but when Bob Schaffer lost to Pete Coors in 2004, Schaffer gave a gracious speech supporting Coors.
The next day, they hopped aboard a “unity” bus for a whistle- stop tour of the Front Range. Their public faces were sunny and warm, but the air inside the bus was as icy as a cold Silver Bullet. They spoke only briefly and sat rows apart for most of the tour.
The idea was to heal the rift in the party and unify activists heading into the general election. Since both men are statesmen, they went along with it. Coors went on to get thumped by Ken Salazar anyway.
It’s one of the reasons some party activists now call primaries circular firing squads, and this year — one of the strangest, roughest primary seasons I’ve ever seen — it’s apparent why party leaders try to limit intra-party skirmishes.
Those primaries involving insurgent candidates can be especially hellish on the eventual winners.
Think we’re going to see a Dan Maes-Scott McInnis “unity” bus tour Wednesday? The chances are about as likely as a United Nations takeover of Denver.
Insurgent candidates act like carpet bombers, and don’t care whether the grenades they lob damage their opponent for the general election. Last week, Maes, an insurgent-turned-frontrunner, unloaded on McInnis in a debate on KOA:
“Your Platform for Prosperity was no better than a roll of toilet paper,” Maes said. “You don’t have positions. You don’t stand for anything. You have no integrity. You have no character.”
And then, to remove any doubt, he basically called him a liar.
Should McInnis emerge victorious Tuesday, will Maes endorse a man with no “integrity” or “character”? And could McInnis ever campaign for Maes after that?
In the Democrats’ race for the Senate, Andrew Romanoff had been poking at Sen. Michael Bennet for weeks, saying he was tainted by special-interest money and that Bennet was a senator for Wall Street, not Colorado.
If it had ended there, they could have hugged and made up after the primary. But then Romanoff went all in. He sold his house to pay for an ad to accuse Bennet of looting billions from a company he “pushed” into bankruptcy.
And then, to make things more uncomfortable, Bennet’s campaign spokesman called Romanoff a “dishonest, career politician.”
Suddenly, Ken Buck’s off-the- cuff remark that voters should choose him over Jane Norton because he doesn’t wear high heels looks tame. Surprisingly, the scrappy Buck-Norton tilt has ended up the mildest of the three high-profile primary races.
Both have pledged to support the nominee, and Norton, while casting doubts on Buck’s temperament and ethics, has never said Buck is unethical. She simply says that “ethics matter.”
Should Norton lose, you’ll likely see her, in her high heels, on the stump for Buck. And if she prevails, Buck will wear his Weld County bull****-covered boots to walk precincts for Norton.
That’s how it’s worked in the past. Tom Norton lost his primary bid to Bill Owens but ended up in Owens’ Cabinet. And Gale Norton campaigned for Wayne Allard after their tough primary in 1996.
Even though this primary season finally will bury the old notion that politics in Colorado are genteel, I still think primaries are good for voters. Nobody wants a coronation; we want elections. Primaries can thicken the candidates’ skins while giving voters a peek at how the would-be leaders might govern by watching how they respond to adversity.
Voters are better informed and the winners are battle-tested.
In 2002, Bob Beauprez won his GOP congressional primary despite attacks from three primary opponents. At the unity rally the next day, Bruce Benson, then chairman of the Colorado Republican Party, said he wished he’d had a tough primary in 1994, because it would have made him a better candidate against Gov. Roy Romer.
Tough primaries, he said back then, make tough candidates.
Beauprez went on to beat Democrat Mike Feeley by 121 votes.
Dan Haley can be reached at dhaley@denverpost.com. Follow him on Twitter at @danhaleyDP.
