Bill Owens for Senate?

A Bill Owens for Senate campaign is a possibility I mentioned months ago and which Mike Littwin considered in yesterday's Rocky:

[I]f Udall wins, you could see two Democratic senators in Colorado for maybe the next 20 years. So, you make the call. And you know where it has to go - to [Colorado GOP head Dick] Wadhams' old boss, Bill Owens.

Good advice, if the Colorado GOP decides it would rather not self destruct.

UPDATE: ColoradoPols has more from The New York Sun:

In sum, Mr. McInnis was the Colorado Republican Party's best shot at holding the line in 2008. However, he seems to have been forced out of the race by social conservatives who, in a state that is home to Evangelical leader James Dobson and his Focus on the Family, want a "traditional" Republican (i.e., one of them) to be their nominee.

Assorted snark, mostly Republican edition with a sidebar about an actual policy post

• Tancredo to voters: "You support me!"
• Wadhams to media: "You support me!"
• Club for Growth to Schaffer: "We support you."
• WeatherDem to Udall: "Support the Safe Climate Act."

Republicans bad, Democrats good

I know there are some good folks over on the other side of the aisle. But, oh man, they're really pushing it today:

• Lamborn is a partisan hack.
• The White House is impeding justice.
• A GOP blogger is smearing Ed Perlmutter's kid.

It's that last story that has me really upset. Whoever posted the lies about Abby Perlmutter should be ashamed. And the Perlmutter family should be very proud. Ed's record is so clean, a GOP blogger turned on Abby. And she's so clean, the GOP blogger apparently made up a story about her.

Colorado GOP Internet guru Dick Wadhams has a history of using the blogs to beat "the media into submission." I'd love to get his take on this story.

But I digress. Let's check in with Colorado's Democrats to see what nasty, partisan tactics they're employing today:

• Ritter is reaching out to business.
• Udall is reaching out to hunters.

So we have the scorched-earth, nonstop campaigning of the GOP vs. the bipartisan solutions offered by Democratic leaders.

I know it's not always this simple. But today it really, really is.

Memo to the Rocky: What?

The Saturday Rocky Mountain News contains this head-scratcher:

[Democratic Congressman Mark Udall is] a longtime war critic whose vote [against escalation] won't raise eyebrows in his liberal-leaning district. But he's also pondering a U.S. Senate race in 2008, when he would need votes statewide. Several observers said Udall has to tread carefully and make sure he doesn't get dragged too far to the left in coming months...

The most recent poll I could find shows that 63% of Americans are against the escalation and 56% believe that the war is "hopeless." In the words of Molly Ivins, "That is the center, you fools." Not many find anti-Iraq War votes leftist anymore.

Assorted snark, policy edition

• Iraq: DeGette, Udall, John Salazar, Perlmutter
• Energy: Ritter, Ken Salazar
• Amendment 41: Ward, CoCo

Diana DeGette to speak out against escalation on House floor

Tune to C-SPAN tomorrow morning between 7:30 and 8:30.

(More: Mark Udall's remarks)

UPDATE: DeGette's full remarks as prepared here and in the comments. Enjoy.

The 2007 federal budget: Colorado edition

Everybody (and everybody and everybody and everybody) has already pointed out that President Bush's new $2.9 trillion budget proposal funds a massive increase in military spending by cutting or underfunding domestic programs. What impact might we see locally? A couple highlights:

The White House's website trumpets funding for the State Children's Health Insurance Program, but in a press release, Diana DeGette stated that the budget may underfund the program by $10 billion, "putting the nearly 176,000 uninsured children in Colorado at risk."

The budget would sell off federal lands to fund an increase in national park spending. And it would cut expected funding for Golden's National Renewable Energy Laboratory. As Mark Udall said, "Energy independence is so critical to our national security, our energy security and our economy that we cannot afford to shortchange programs that will move us forward."

Cross-posted at SquareState.

Media showed McInnis even more favoritism than I originally thought

An update on "Denver media [heart] Republicans," which noted how the mainstream media had misleadingly equated Scott McInnis' questionable ethics with Mark Udall's wife's job as a Sierra Club lobbyist. It now turns out Mark Udall's wife isn't a lobbyist at all. Colorado Media Matters explains.

Denver media [heart] Republicans

The mainstream media continues to give the GOP a hall pass. From the Rocky:

Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo., agreed to co-sponsor a bill that seems to be pointed at a past controversy involving campaign payments to the wife of former GOP congressman Scott McInnis, a potential rival.

That prompted a McInnis spokeswoman to jab back, mentioning that Udall's wife is a Capitol Hill lobbyist for environmentalists...

McInnis drew media scrutiny and complaints from Democrats when his campaign continued to pay his wife thousands of dollars per month to work as campaign manager even after he announced his intention to leave Congress.

Let's see here. McInnis may have obeyed the letter of the law, but he certainly violated its spirit. Meanwhile, Udall is married to someone who lobbies for environmental causes. It is dishonest and misleading to equate these two things, to write them off as tit-for-tat political bickering.

It reminds me of the Medina ad scandal, during which the media consistently balanced reports on the Beauprez campaign's alleged lawbreaking with reports on Ritter's decision to plea bargain immigrants.

It's on-the-one-handism gone into overdrive. Hopefully the voters can see through it.

Cross-posted at SquareState.

Udall vs. McInnis, round one

The winner, Mark Udall.

What's the most vulnerable Senate seat in the country?

The open seat in Colorado. That's nothing Coloradolib readers didn't already know. But for posterity, from The Washington Post:

Allard's announcement jumps this race up to the top of Democrats' opportunity list. Despite the chatter about a candidacy by Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, Rep. Mark Udall should have the Democratic field to himself. For Republicans, former Rep. Scott McInnis is in the race, and his former House colleague, Bob Schaffer, is actively considering it. If those two men comprise the top tier of GOP primary candidates, expect a nasty fight between fiscal conservatives (McInnis) and social conservatives (Schaffer) within the Colorado Republican Party.

Allard, Salazar, DeGette, Udall, other Salazar, Musgrave, Lamborn, Perlmutter seek blizzard relief for farmers

Meanwhile, Tom Tancredo is busy proving he's a maverick. The Rocky explains.

As if you didn't know already...

...Udall's so totally running. And Elway's not.

Who's gonna lose to Mark Udall?

Take my poll at SquareState.