Talk about cher newsmaking - Jay Fawcett continues to rewrite the short but boring history of Colorado's CD-5.
The Colorado Springs dominated district has cracked Hotline's Top 50 races. Ed Perlmutter is there at #2 (was #1), Angie Paccione is there at #39 (with an up arrow), and Jay has made this race competitive for the first time ever. (With a lot of help from Doug Lamborn, his feckless opponent.)
This race has gone from a local tsunami to having regional and now national implications - can you say "landslide"? I knew you could.
If the Rocky Mountain News and Fred Brown at the Post are writing about your race, you know it's serious....
Upset possible in 5th CD:
You know it's a troublesome year for the Republican Party when the Democrats think they might actually have a chance to win Colorado's 5th Congressional District seat.
It's not much of a chance, to be sure. Republicans have better than a 2-to-1 edge in voter registration. No Democrat has won more than 40 percent of the vote since the district was created in 1972.
Man, I wish they would get over the so-called advantage in voter reg.; Republicans are abandoning ship faster than you can say "Look out for that iceb.....!"
But it's an open seat, and the retiring incumbent, Republican Joel Hefley, has denounced his party's nominee for running a "sleazy, dishonest" primary campaign.
This is unusual, to say the least, but it also says a lot about Joel Hefley. He never made much of a splash in Congress until he approached the end of his 20-year run. Then he got serious about ethics. He wasn't shy about opposing the powerful in his own party, and he lost his appointment as chairman of the House ethics committee.
...for being too ethical....
He showed himself to be a man of courage and principle. So when he said he didn't approve of the tactics of the Republican nominee, state Sen. Doug Lamborn, people listened.
"Courage and principle"? I don't remember Joel saying anything about the lack of equipment for our troops. And he did vote down a congressional commendation for FDR. Well, Fred had to write something.
Whether this can translate into a win for the Democratic nominee, Jay Fawcett, is an open question at best. It would be one of the biggest upsets of the year, and no prudent person would bet more than a used campaign button on it.
Best line in the column: "Fawcett...shoots guns and goes to church (not at the same time)." That will disappoint some many of our locals. Hopefully they'll appreciate Jay's reasonableness on this issue - or just forget to vote this year.
As to the bet, I'll take it and raise you 10, Freddie. And see you in November.