By Jim Spencer
SpencerSpeaks.com
December 8, 2007
A member of
Mark Benner said he intends to file paperwork with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Senate. Benner sent an announcement of his candidacy to the Udall campaign, but has yet to file required paperwork to make it official.
“I would do this not to run against Mark Udall so much as to run on issues,” Benner said in an interview Friday night at
Benner’s main issues are single-payer health insurance, which Udall has not endorsed, and impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, which Udall does not support.
Benner, a 54-year-old art teacher in rural
Still, said Benner, “I don’t want to go down as the Ralph Nader of Colorado Democrats,” referring to the consumer advocate whose third-party presidential campaign likely cost Democrats the White House in 2000.
But even Benner admits that isn’t likely. He has no illusions about winning. He helps lead the Colorado Democrats’ left wing and wants to provoke a discussion. He did much the same thing in a 2002 state senate race against Republican Mark Hillman. Benner played the role of the loyal opposition and got 27 percent of the votes.
A primary would be a distraction in what could become an expensive Senate campaign.
Udall is already under attack from harsh ads by the National Republican Senatorial Committee and a conservative advocacy group, Common Sense Issues.
Udall’s campaign manager, Mike Melanson, said he wouldn’t comment on Benner’s candidacy until the paperwork was filed.
“We are aware (of Benner),” Melanson said. “I would not be surprised if he ran. And I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t run.”
State Democratic spokesman Matt Sugar said he had heard that Benner was “thinking about throwing his hat in the ring,” but party officials had little else to say.
Benner said he would talk to state party chairwoman Pat Waak at Saturday’s meeting of the Democratic central and executive committees. But, he added, he intends to run.
Whether his progressive platform attracts the number of votes needed to get him on the primary ballot won’t be determined until a May Democratic meeting.
Should Benner get on the primary ballot, Melanson said it would affect neither Udall’s ability to collect contributions nor his positions on the issues.
“This won’t have any impact on our fundraising,” Melanson said.
As for the issues, “it’s very clear he (Benner) wants Mark (Udall) to bring impeachment charges,” Melanson said of Benner. “Mark is not going to do that. It’s not what the American people want.”
Copyright 2007 by Jim Spencer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
9 users commented in " Dem Exec Committee Member Plans to Challenge Udall "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackMy recommendation to Mr. Benner is if he’s any good at art, stick with it. He’ll save himself a great amount of embarassment. I also suggest that he drop out of all the “sick” groups he currently belongs to and drag his head out of the good eastern Colorado sand.
Mr. Benner has some problems he needs to tend to.
That Udall is not “left” enough tells us where the left-wing of the Democrat party is. This reminds me of the suicidal primary campaign back when Salazar won the Senate nomination and later defeated Pete Coors for the Senate seat he now occupies. Oh, well, the Republicans have their internecine warfare between the so-called social conservatives and the traditional conservatives. So why shouldn’t the Democrats have the same internal battles?
Congressional Democrats, including Mark Udall, need a reality check. For the most part, Congress has still been little more than a rubber stamp for Bush’s policies, despite the fact that Congress now has a Democratic majority. All of Colorado’s Democratic Congressional “representatives” recently supported the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007, a bill introduced by Democrat Jane Harman of California. This bill, ignored by the mainstream media, which obviously has a strong right wing bias, would create a congressional commission that will be empowered to hold hearings, conduct investigations, and designate various groups as “homegrown terrorists.” These hearings seem very similar to the hearings held by fear-monger Joe McCarthy in the early 1950’s.
Ever since the Reagan years, elements in the Democratic Party, such as ex-Democrat Joseph Lieberman, have been trying to appeal to the far right of American politics. Anyone who considers himself or herself to be liberal or progressive will very seldom be represented by Democrats at this time in history. Liberals and progressives are still expected to vote for Democrats, even though Democrats continue to ignore the wishes of their supporters. It is time for liberals to stop supporting the Democratic Party, which does not support liberals.
Having to choose between two very similar parties means that we are not living in a democracy. Most Americans now support ending the war in Iraq. If Hillary Clinton is elected President, voters will have elected a person who worked to pass the unconstitutional resolution to allow Bush to invade Iraq. Most supporters of Clinton seem to not realize that they are voting against themselves.
The Democratic Party has helped create a truly Orwellian society in the United States of America. If the Democrats lose in 2008, it won’t make much of a difference. Ralph Nader was right.
Who ever heard of Mark Brenner?? He sounds sick to me.
[…] post by Jim Spencer This was written by . Posted on Saturday, December 8, 2007, at 9:47 am. Filed under […]
Democrats who constantly repeat the nonsense that Ralph Nader cost Al Gore the election are no more honest than George W. Bush has been about Iraq. (Al Gore doesn’t believe either of the myths.) Democrats and Republicans spoiled Ralph Nader’s chances when they kept him out of the debates (they own) in 2000.
Too bad the Democrats don’t fight the war criminals in the White House and their horrid policies with the same energy they had keeping Nader off November ballots in 2004. Democrats — hardly democrats.
I was very encouraged to read about the issues on which Mark Benner plans to run: single-payer health insurance; impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney; Congress’ lack of action on the issues of torture, withdrawal from Iraq and the environment. These are my top issues! To say that the American people do not want the impeachment of Cheney and Bush is a copout and erroneous. Impeachment is a necessary response to the constitutional violations of the Vice President and President. Bruce Fine and John Nichols have laid out an extremely compelling rationale for the need of impeachment hearings to safeguard our constitution and the balance of power of our three branches of government.
The spineless Dem congress like Udall, need a reality wake up call from the true progressives, who don’t want Salazar-like politics. If it takes someone more liberal, more progressive to get someone like Udall to quit hugging the centrists then so be it.
I think the comments already posted for this column point up one of the biggest problems in the electoral process in this country. Only the extremes of each party really can gain nomination within the party, which means in many cases that we will elect either an unqualified person or a one-issue buffoon like Terrible Tommy Tancredo. Go ahead, appeal to the “base.” The Republicans will nominate right-wing ideologues and Democrats will nominate left-wing idologues. And when November rolls around, the rational middle will holds its collective nose and vote for the lesser of evils. Folks, America doesn’t need lessers these days. We need real leaders, and Colorado certainly hasn’t been sending any of those to Washington.
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