This column was first published at Complete Colorado.
I suggest we get used to saying the words, “Governor Weiser.”
The election for Colorado’s next governor does not take place in November. It’s in fewer than five months, on June 30. That’s the state’s primary election. Whoever wins the Democratic primary is the next governor (with all apologies to the seeming 328 Republicans running for the seat). So, out of a state of 6 million people, we must choose between an affable socialist and a tired Washington, DC liberal. Aren’t we the lucky ones.
Yes, yes, Michael Bennet has all the name recognition and an independent expenditure cash tsunami (it’s good to be the senator). That’s not enough.
There are a bunch of small factors tilting toward Attorney General Phil Weiser, but one big hairy monster that will sink Bennet’s ship if he doesn’t change course: he refuses to say who he’ll appoint to replace him in the U.S. Senate.
This is a do-not-pass-go, do-not-collect-$200 kind of obstruction. And the obstacle is only going to grow like Joe Biden’s prostate the closer we get to the primary.
Bennet has pledged not to resign his Senate seat until after he’s sworn in as governor — months after winning the primary, months after winning the general. In Colorado, the sitting governor appoints the replacement. So should he win, in this brave moment of “democracy is in danger,” He’s going to handpick his own successor, Castro-style. But who? He won’t tell us.
In fact, Bennet’s wife informed his campaign team he won’t talk about it while he’s campaigning. So don’t bring it up. And if someone asks, she ordered this response, “There will be some really great, young Democrat who is there to vote exactly the same way that Michael votes.”
If Bennet is going to replace himself with his clone, only younger, to vote EXACTLY the same way he does, you’d think he’d have just the tiniest idea who this doppelgänger might be. Or at least a short list. Or a dartboard.
As the primary gets closer, Michael is going to be thrashed at every town hall, debate, and media interview with this obvious question. It’s gonna stick to him like lint on a black sweater. As it should.
Nobody, and I mean NOBODY believes he doesn’t know who his replacement will be. Voters will smell the oldest political cliché: the “another lying politician” truism.
Give the man an Academy Award, he’s gonna look into the cameras and say, “I haven’t thought about it yet, so I can’t even give you a list of names I’d consider.” That doesn’t pass the pants-on-fire test.
I’ll answer for him. It’s Jared Polis, Jason Crow, Joe Neguse, or maybe Brittany Petterson. See, not that hard.
And if he did announce his choice before the primary? That wouldn’t save him either. Every campaign stop would suddenly include a second race: not just “why should you be governor,” but “why should this person be senator?” No matter who he chose, it would anger some factions of his own coalition, and they’d meander over to Weiser.
We little people kind of like knowing who we’re voting for. But one guy who knows but won’t tell us gives off a distinctly Trumpy vibe — which is ironic, given the number of Democrats who can smell Trumpism from three counties away.
And let’s remember the backdrop to this sham — “democracy is under assault!”
Colorado voters who see anti-democratic evil lurking everywhere are not going to vote for a guy who is pulling a Trump-styled power play.
Coloradans like voting. It’s one of the reasons an attack on our Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (the ultimate in democratic institutions) at the ballot box will face headwinds. We like knowing what we’re voting on. Mystery packages don’t pass.
These same headwinds, even if voters don’t articulate them out loud, will blow in the primary. It will blow voters toward Weiser
For voters who like Bennet as senator, the problem is even worse. Why throw away 17 years of hard-to-get seniority — real power in Washington — for a mystery senator? That’s not bold leadership. We’re being asked to marry a blind date.
Bennet will lose unless he resigns his Senate seat before the primary — or at least promises to resign immediately after the general election so Gov. Polis can choose his replacement.
Jon Caldara is president of Independence Institute, a free market think tank in Denver.
I’ll happily pay the news paywall when you stop paying Jon Caldera to write this slop.
Paying a man who should be in prison for election fraud for election coverage shows the Sentinel doesn’t care about news coverage, just sucking up to the dying Colorado Republican party.
Anonymouso – Its interesting that you chose to attack Caldera’s past actions rather than address the reasoned points he makes in his column.
I say this as one of the 51% who distrust both major parties but love both sides of their extended families — and I can say this without hiding behind an alias. Are you afraid to say such things and then have your favorite aunt see it?
I also commend the Sentinel for not being the echo chamber you seek. “Democracy dies in darkness,” does it not?
LOL, yes, it’s not a surprise that an article inferring that your team members really are nothing more than a bunch of NPCs all executing the same code in their script would get you to demand media censorship. “Liberating tolerance” is, after all, “intoleration of movements from the right and toleration of movements from the left,” isn’t that right, comrade commissar?
This is why your side’s appeals to the First Amendment are always hilarious in their complete lack of sincerity.
Would you like a little cheese with that whine, FWO?
I’d like a retort that didn’t pass its sell-by date during the Clinton administration, Jeffy-poo. It’s the 21st century, try something from 2005 like “FAUX NEWS!”
I do appreciate you admitting that you have no actual principles, but that wasn’t really necessary since your team’s been demonstrating that since Lenin stepped off the train.
Your playground taunts can’t hide your obvious emotional age of 3.
And yours can’t hide your intellectual sclerosis.
You should learn the difference between “infer” and “imply”.
They do not mean the same thing.
You should learn the difference between the Day of the Pillow and the Day of the Rake.
They do not mean the same thing.