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.

Washington Post: McInnis is out

I saw the rumors. Heard the concerns. Examined the denials. And I concluded it was all random guessing. But apparently not. The Washington Post is reporting that Scott McInnis will end his Senate campaign as early as today.

For what its worth, today's Denver Post merely says the Republican frontrunner is "still 'assessing' a run as the road toward a possible nomination has become bumpier."

UPDATE: So that happened.

Within nanoseconds, Progress Now Action announced the upcoming launch of backwardsbob.org, which will highlight the extreme positions of potential Republican Senate nominee Bob Schaffer. (Progress Now Action won Golden Dot awards for its efforts during the 2006 election, and had been targeting McInnis through McLobbyist.org.)

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee issued a press release in which spokesman Matthew Miller stated, "Republicans in Colorado now have to start from scratch with a new candidate who will trail in both fundraising and political organization."

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.

Scott McInnis is a lobbyist

And what a lobbyist!

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 Bob Schaffer doing?

He's running! Wait, maybe not.

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.

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.

Allard out!

My question mark has been upgraded to a exclamation point.

Allard's out?

That's the rumor.

Tancredo's bid hinges on Allard's?

The Tancredo campaign announcement I wrote about last night has been downgraded from imminent to contingent. As in, Tancredo is running for President if he can't run for Senate. From the Post:

In addition to evaluating Iowa, Tancredo is also waiting to see whether Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., decides to run for re-election in 2008, [Tancredo spokesperson Carlos Espinosa said. Tancredo has said he's interested in that statewide office.

The problem is that no one seems to know what Allard's thinking. Different story, same paper:

Sen. Wayne Allard has made up his mind about whether he will seek a third term in 2008, but he's keeping his decision secret a bit longer. Only Allard and his wife know his plans, press secretary Steve Wymer said Friday, confirming a report posted Thursday on Congressional Quarterly's website, CQPolitics.com. Allard has not said when he will announce his choice.

Tancredo and Allard are both extremely beatable opponents for probable Democratic nominee Mark Udall. But they have different weaknesses. Allard is so boring he's known in DC as Senator Dullard. Tancredo has the opposite problem; he's so not-boring he'll probably shoot himself in the foot at some point.

Tancredo can count on one thing. The fawning support of the mainstream media, which in Colorado includes the major dailies. Today's Colorado Media Matters reports that the Post is already giving Tancredo the benefit of their bias:

In a January 12 online article about U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo's (R-CO) interest in a possible presidential run, The Denver Post uncritically reported Tancredo spokesman Carlos Espinosa's claim that U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) "is not a very popular guy in Iowa." In fact, according to a December poll commissioned by Des Moines, Iowa, CBS television affiliate KCCI, Iowa voters rank McCain the most popular potential Republican presidential candidate among 11 contenders.

Cross-posted at SquareState.

The first fake blog of 2007?

Run Wayne Run? It's a joke, right? Like the hilarious Students for Beauprez hoax? ColoradoPols thinks Scott McInnis is already campaigning for Allard's soon-to-be open seat:

Former Rep. Scott McInnis has apparently decided that he will be a candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2008 provided that Sen. Wayne Allard retires. McInnis is holding off on any announcement until official word comes from Allard, who is not expected to run for re-election.

The hat-tip for the link to the Allard site goes to ToTheRight, as much as I hate to admit it.