Today was the day for district assemblies for the Colorado Republican Party. The race for my congressional district is uncontested–Doug Lamborn is rated the most conservative member of the House–so I didn’t expect much to be happening. I was wrong.
In District 3, political newcomer and grassroots candidate Bob McConnell pulled 45% of the vote to force a primary run-off against state legislator Scott Tipton. To date, Tipton has not been willing to debate McConnell: will he do so now? The winner will be up against John Salazar in the general election.
In District 7–held Thursday night–Lang Sais pulled 43% of the vote. He and Ryan Frazer will face off in the primary. Two strong candidates here: it should prove interesting. They hope to unset the unpopular Democrat Ed Perlmutter.
The Democrats have it wrong. A contested primary is a good thing, allowing all to take a shot, weeding out the weak and honing candidate skills. Competition is the American way.
But so is cooperation. This morning volunteers stuffed over 7000 bags with candidate info for tomorrow’s state delegates. Each campaign wanting to include materials was asked to have 8-10 volunteers ready for assembly line work at 8 am. Almost all were ready on time and general party volunteers helped out where needed. There was a great deal of cooperation among campaigns. There were 150 volunteers and the work was done in a little over an hour; an organizer told me it had taken something like six hours last time.
The McInnis campaign showed up in force but almost an hour late; they added their materials to the already-completed packages. The whole tone of that campaign is different from all the others.
The CD5 meeting turned out to be very interesting after all. Attorney General Suthers addressed the assembly to thundering applause as he spoke about states’ rights and the need to repeal Obamacare. He entered to a standing ovation, just as he had in the El Paso County Assembly.
The second most popular candidate–judging by applause–was Ken Buck. He said that were he in a position as senator where a foreign head of state insulted our country as the president of Mexico did, he would get up and walk out. The crowd was with him all the way.
When a Jane Norton, petitioning on the ballot instead of running through the assembly, was introduced to speak, the floor erupted with calls for “Point of Order” and “Objection.” The rules generally do not allow a candidate who is not running through the assembly to speak .
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