Go to the mobile version of this Web site.

Login | Contact Us | Site Map | Paid archives | Alerts | Electronic edition | Advertise | Subscribe to the paper | Today's Extras
Subscribe

Breaking News:

Republicans take a look in the mirror

With polls favoring Dems, GOP split on what's behind their party's woes

Lynn Bartels, Rocky Mountain News

Published October 30, 2006 at midnight

Text size  

More Airlines & Aerospace

More stories »

On this, many Republicans agree: Democrats in Colorado are poised to clean their clock on Election Day.

But they disagree on what brought their party to this point.

Some Colorado Republicans blame the conservative Christian wing of their party for nominating candidates whose strong social agendas turn off moderates in the general election.

Others point to an unpopular president and an unpopular war and say the pendulum will swing back in Republicans' favor at some point.

And still others say lame-duck Gov. Bill Owens shares some responsibility.

Mike Beasley, a former lobbyist for the governor, counts himself as among those fed up with the most conservative wing of the party.

"There are a large number of Republicans who are looking for a deep colon cleanse after the election," he said. "They're saying, 'Look, if we're going to lose, let's just clean it out and rebuild the party.'

"They want to rid the party of the people they believe led us here."

But state Sen. Greg Brophy, R-Wray, a hard-core conservative, said Coloradans are kidding themselves if they think life will be better under Democrats.

"We probably need to have our asses kicked so we realize the other guys are worse than the other half of our party," he said.

Of course, the polls and predictions could be wrong - or at least a little off - and Republicans might just surprise some folks Nov. 7.

The biggest unknown is the state House. Democrats currently hold the majority, but poll results in some swing races are so close that it's a tossup in those places.

Still, the 2006 election already has provoked some soul-searching among factions of the Republican Party.

A political shift and the hand-wringing that accompanies it happens from time to time, said GOP political consultant Katy Atkinson.

Consider the Democrats' fortunes in the 1990s.

At the start of the decade, Democrats controlled the governor's office and both U.S. Senate seats. By 1999, Republicans held all three.

But Democrats regrouped and rebounded in 2004. In a stunner, they won control of the legislature, a U.S. Senate seat and picked up a congressional seat.

The question now is whether Democrats can win even bigger in this election.

Democrat Bill Ritter is leading Republican Bob Beauprez in the governor's race, the polls show.

Republican congressional candidates Marilyn Musgrave, of Fort Morgan, and Doug Lamborn, of Colorado Springs, are running in districts that lean heavily Republican. Yet, their party has had to spend millions to make sure Democrats don't pull off an upset.

Pat Waak, chairwoman of the Colorado Democratic Party, and others say the Democrats wouldn't even have a chance in those districts if Republicans hadn't nominated candidates perceived to be extreme.

But Brophy said Musgrave is not any more conservative than her predecessors in the 4th District: Wayne Allard, who now is a U.S. senator, and Bob Schaffer, who now sits on the Colorado Board of Education.

"The fundamental difference is Marilyn made an activist homosexual angry and he happens to have $600 million," Brophy said.

At issue is Musgrave's sponsorship of a federal constitutional amendment to ban same- sex marriage.

And the person Brophy was referring to is Tim Gill, a software developer who, along with three other wealthy Democrats, helped their party pull off the 2004 upsets. Gill is again pumping part of his fortune into the races.

Brophy believes two problems are plaguing the party.

"We have sore losers who don't unite after the primary is over," he said. "And we have Republicans who don't know how to present Christian conservative philosophies without offending people."

Brophy declined to name names, but Rep. Jim Welker, R-Loveland, made headlines for two straight years for saying, among other things, gay marriage could lead to people marrying and having sex with their pets.

Owens and other Republicans, including House Minority Leader Mike May, R-Parker, worked behind the scenes earlier this year to convince Welker not to run for re-election.

Elsewhere, in a state House race in Grand Junction in 2004, Republican Shari Bjorklund said her conservative interests were more important than Western Slope issues. Democrat Bernie Buescher beat her despite the overwhelming GOP registration.

Brophy believes Owens shares the blame for that loss. The lawmaker said that once it became apparent Bjorklund was in trouble, the governor should have campaigned more with her.

"How can you have a governor with a 60 percent approval rating not leveraging that like George Bush did in 2002?" Brophy said.

Owens declined to be interviewed for this article, but Atkinson and Beasley jumped to his defense.

"Time after time, Bill Owens tried to lead his party from the issues that could hurt them back to issues right of center," Beasley said. "Those are the same issues that got him elected as the first Republican governor in Colorado in 24 years.

"And, time after time, those Republicans have thumbed their noses at him."

Beasley said when he first began work at the Capitol in 1987, the Senate had 24 Republicans and 11 Democrats. Now Democrats hold an 18-17 majority and most politicos believe they will pick up more seats in this election.

"Just look at the metro area and all the Republican seats that have been lost, particularly in Jefferson County," Beasley said. "These social issues have divided the party and turned off female voters."

Atkinson believes the post-mortem on the election won't be pretty:

"I think everybody in our party is going to be taking a good hard look at what happened. Every Republican needs to do some soul-searching."

The fall of their disconnect

Republicans are poised for, maybe even preparing for, a big loss come Nov. 7. So who's going to shoulder the blame come Nov. 8? Let the soul-searching begin.

• Gov. Bill Owens: Some say the lame-duck GOP governor shares in the blame, but his defenders say Owens has met resistance when trying to keep the party from going too far right.

• Christian conservatives: Republican state Sen. Greg Brophy, R-Wray, said his party has issues with presenting Christian conservative philosophies without offending voters.

• U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave vs. Tim Gill: She's viewed as extreme for sponsoring a federal amendment to the Constitution that would have banned gay marriages. He's a gay rights activist with plenty of cash on hand to pump into causes and candidates he believes in.

• An unpopular war: Led by increasingly unpopular President George W. Bush.

Power shifts

Colorado has 35 senators and 65 representatives. Here's a look at who has held the power at the state Capitol the past 15 years:

Year Senate House

2005-2006 18-17 (D) 35-30 (D)

2003-2004 18-17 (R) 37-28 (R)

2001-2002 18-17 (D) 38-27 (R)

1999-2000 20-15 (R) 40-25 (R)

1997-1998 20-15 (R) 41-24 (R)

1995-1996 19-16 (R) 41-24 (R)

1993-1994 19-16 (R) 34-31 (R)

1991-1992 23-12 (R) 38-27 (R)

or 303-954-5327

Post your comment

Registration is required. Click here to create your free user account, or login below.

Comments are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.




(Forgotten your password?)




News Tip

Know about something we should be reporting? Tell us about it.

Sponsored links



Reprints