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5th District candidate's tactic leaves opponents wondering

By Lynn Bartels, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published February 11, 2008 at 12:30 a.m.

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Bentley Rayburn urged supporters to run as delegates.

Bentley Rayburn urged supporters to run as delegates.

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Congressional candidate Bentley Rayburn told supporters he planned to skip the assembly process and get on the ballot by collecting voter signatures.

But at his Republican precinct caucus, Rayburn won election as a delegate to the congressional assembly he had said he wasn't going through.

At Rayburn's urging, dozens of his supporters in the Fifth Congressional District also successfully ran on Super Tuesday as delegates.

Rayburn's campaign manager, Mike Hess, said the candidate is simply keeping his options open, but his primary opponents, Jeff Crank and U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado Springs, aren't so sure.

"I find this odd," said Lamborn's campaign spokeswoman, Kristen Hainen.

Crank supporters, such as Peggy Littleton, a member of the state Board of Education from Colorado Springs, worry that Rayburn is up to something.

"Why would Bentley Rayburn and his supporters want to go as delegates unless his motive is to vote for Doug Lamborn to try to make it so Jeff Crank doesn't make the ballot?" she said.

"I don't think it's very honest or upright," Littleton said. "He said at the beginning of the race anyone but Lamborn, but he's playing the role of the spoiler."

Candidates who try to get on the ballot through the assembly must receive 30 percent of the delegate vote. If they get between 10 percent and 30 percent, they may try to petition on. If they fall below 10 percent, they are out of the race.

Candidates also can skip the assembly process altogether and try to directly petition onto the ballot by collecting about 1,000 voter signatures.

"I plan to petition onto the ballot for the August primary," Rayburn wrote in a Feb. 1 letter. "While I have great respect for the caucus process, I feel I need to run a different campaign."

Hess said that while Rayburn does plan to petition on at this point, "a lot can happen" between now and the congressional assembly in mid-May. He pointed out that Lamborn's campaign has indicated the candidate will likely go through the caucus process, but hasn't said for sure.

Rayburn urged supporters to attend their caucuses in part because he is trying to reach out to Republicans who aren't party insiders, Hess said.

"We're going to focus on our message on how we win the war on terror, on the economy, on health care," Hess said. "We'll let other folks worry about this insider strategy."

Crank, who earlier announced he was going through the assembly process, was critical of Rayburn.

"I've been honest with people in telling them what I'm going to do," he said.

bartels@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5327