Anyone who has ever played card games has heard the term “the dead pile.” It is where cards go that won’t be played again.
The Colorado Republican Party has a dead pile of politicians who might think of themselves as future candidates. They are wrong. Some of those politicians might still be trying to keep their corpse moving to create the impression of life, but few will be fooled.
Bob Schaffer: Putting Bob Schaffer’s name on this list is one of the saddest things I have done. He is a quality person. The fact remains that he is now a two time loser for US Senate.
Bob Beauprez: I’ve put a lot of personal sweat into getting the two Bobs elected. Both got different kinds of sweat, but at about equal levels. I don’t much like putting either in the Dead Pile.
Marc Holzman: Marc Holzman couldn’t organize his way out of a wet paper bag in the 2006 election. He couldn’t count delegates and he couldn’t figure out Colorado’s simple petition rules. Then he had the bad grace to spend $2.5 million trying muddy up Bob Beauprez for the general election. Face the State suggests that Mark Hillman lost that year because some voters confused the two at the ballot box.
Tom Tancredo: The magic numbers are 44 and 32. That is the difference in Hispanic vote for President between 2004 and 2008.
John Suthers: On the wrong side of too many issues that conservatives care about. He can win another term as Attorney General, but it is hard to see where he goes from there.
Jeff Crank / Bentley Rayburn: Tandem losers in a race neither should have run. Both could have been rising stars, but both are now two time losers.
Marilyn Musgrave: It should have been Focus on the Family’s highest priority to match Tim Gill dollar for dollar. She got outspent by $2 million. Focus put its money in California. So much for any pretense of loyalty.
Scott McInnes: Paid his wife $40,000 out of his campaign funds at a time when he didn’t plan to run a campaign. He might have put that behind him if he had stayed in Congress but he wanted to be a lawyer-lobbyist.
Bill Owens: On the dead pile by his own choice.
Politicians who find themselves "on the dead pile" shouldn't assume that I am suggesting that they don't have a behind the scenes future in the party. I'm only suggesting that they shouldn't expect to carry any significant banner in the future.
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