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My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2006-02-16

Pretty Full Plate For The State GOP

Joel Hefley dropped a bit of a bomb on the state today when he announced that he will not seek re-election to the 5th Congressional District.

We thank him for his service for some 20 years, in particular acting as a voice of conscience in recent corruption scandals in Congress. But I gotta think this really hurts the state GOP's efforts. A short list of goals for the state GOP this Fall looks like this:

:defend the Governor's Mansion, including a testy primary between Bob Beauprez and Marc Holtzman, from moderate former Denver DA Bill Ritter (who picked up a high-profile endorsement today)

:defend the open 7th CD, in which Dems hold a small registration advantage

:defend the now-open 5th CD, a GOP stronghold

:attempt to take back the 3rd CD from John Salazar

:attempt to retake the State Senate from a one-vote Dem majority

:attempt to retake the State House from a larger Dem majority

:help Marilyn Musgrave defend what should be a safe 4CD

:hope Tom Tancredo doesn't say something that might put the very safe 6CD into play

:and that's all before we see anything that has to be shot down in the initiative process, like last year's Prop 99 (or whatever that thing about the Electoral College was)

That's an awful lot for one party to do in one year, all the while contending with the "Gang of Four" big Democratic donors, who seem to have deeper pockets than the GOP is able to counter with.

I guess it's time to roll up the sleeves.

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