By Jim Spencer
SpencerSpeaks.com
Anyone who questions U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar’s role in
Maybe Salazar is not a Godfather in the traditional sense, but he makes offers you can’t refuse.
In the Fourth, that offer came in the form of a former Salazar staff person, Betsy Markey. With Salazar’s blessing, it took Markey barely a month to run Angie Paccione, the 2006 Democratic candidate in the Fourth, out of a self-destructive primary.
Or course, Paccione, a former state representative, won’t frame it that way. She says her new job with Pathways to Leadership required more time than she could devote while running for Congress.
Markey isn’t gloating. Neither is Salazar.
But those who deny the political muscle exhibited here simply lie to themselves.
The Dems poured millions of dollars into the Fourth CD in the 2006 election when Paccione lost by 2.5 percentage points to Republican incumbent Marilyn Musgrave. Though it was close, there were indications that Paccione could get no closer.
The 2006 election turned on two things. First, an old personal bankruptcy and the failure to pay back student loans left Paccione vulnerable to attack ads that neutralized her attacks against Musgrave, an extreme social conservative cast as more interested in banning gay marriage than serving constituents. Second, independent candidate Eric Eidsness drew enough votes from Paccione to take away her ability to win.
Enter Salazar. Or rather, Markey.
Eidsness, a former Republican, has since changed parties to run in the Democratic primary. But as a perceived spoiler last time around, Eidsness will not create the rancor and division among Democrats that a Markey-Paccione-Eidsness primary would have.
Connected in both the rural and urban communities of the Fourth because of her work running Salazar’s northern Colorado office and her life as a businesswoman in Larimer County, Markey has roots rather than name recognition.
What she lacks is baggage.
That’s one reason Salazar showed up to bless her candidacy on the east lawn of the Capitol Aug. 22. Typically, the senator never said it was his way or the highway. What he said was that Markey could run against Musgrave without the distractions of bad debts or bankruptcy.
What he didn’t say, but Markey did was that Paccione could never sufficiently recover from those problems to mount a successful campaign.
Early polling by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee showed that theory had credence. Paccione’s name recognition was 84 percent in the Fourth CD. But 43 percent of those who recognized her name viewed her unfavorably.
Markey, known by only one in 10 likely voters, can essentially invent herself. She can attack Musgrave for voting against expanding health insurance to children of the working poor without having the charge neutered by some old skeletons that makes people afraid to vote for a change.
Though she remains a long shot against a three-term incumbent, Markey has a chance that Paccione never had in a Republican district where election results have grown closer and closer.
No matter how subtly Salazar wields power, that’s the Godfather’s way.
If Betsy Markey is not Ken Salazar’s exact surrogate, she clearly projects her old boss’ successful political model. Moderate. Affable. Practical. Willing to compromise. Most importantly, able to win.
And for now, win Salazar did.
In August, Paccione’s people pooh-poohed the senator’s perceived political queen-making. But one month and four days later their candidate was done.
Copyright 2007 by Jim Spencer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
8 users commented in " Godfather Salazar Makes Offer 4th CD Can’t Refuse "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackThanks Ken “Sell-Us-Out” you also supported the pretend democtat Joe Liberman. Salazar is republican light.
If the Republican’s hadn’t run “Coors lite”
against Salazar the GOP would have another
seat in the Senate. The debate between
Coors and Salazar was an all time low,
two mental lightweights sparing. I don’t
think anyone with half a brain wants in
politics anymore which leaves us with the
(not to bright) people we get.
I have reservations about Sen. Salazar as well, but I am hopeful he is learning: learning to listen to the party before carving out his own path, becoming more careful with his endorsement of people like Alberto Gonzales, listening to his constituency (throughout the state, please) when he considers national security legislation that can curtail essential civil rights. One biggie: people don’t always need to compromise, and certainly not their principles. Anytime you regret voting for him, take a look at Allard.
Being a member of the ABM (Anybody But Musgrave) camp, I think Angie would have kicked Musgrave this time. People are (I think, I hope) sick of Republican smear campaigns. What does a bankruptcy have to do with anything? I was at first not happy that Senator Salazar - whom I admire - endorsed Ms. Markey.
However, I yield to greater wisdom. Bush will go to his grave with Musgrave’s lip imprints firmly implanted on his butt. That was not enough to defeat Marilyn in 2004 - I trust (and fervently pray, as it were) that the imprimatur of Senator Salazar will propel Ms. Markey to victory in 2008.
Maybe this election will be about the skeletons in MARILYN’s closet.
Salazar is perfect for Colorado and reflects our culture in much the same way as Ben “Night horse” Campbell. We, in Colorado, need balance. Not radical right or left. The national left desises Salazar, but myself (as a registered (but not in the bag) Republican respects him and would vote for him.
Durf786,
A bankruptcy doesn’t mean anything? I guess that Mike Gravel pretty much summed up the Democrat, and your position, when he said (during the last debate) that he was proud that he stuck $90,000 to the credit card companies. I was shocked that he said that….but it seems to be par for the course for Democratic supporters… Screw the lenders…borrower and then default is a way of life.
this seals the election for Musgrave.
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