Tag: Bob Beauprez

Politico:

Former GOP congressman Bob Beauprez announced tonight that he will not be running against Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo).

“Having been presented with the potential to serve in the United States Senate, Claudia and I considered it very carefully. However after significant reflection, I will not be a candidate for the Senate in 2010,” Beauprez said in a statement.

A recent PPP poll had Beauprez beating Bennet by three points, but his favorability numbers were way underwater (30-40) — evidence of a lingering hangover that voters are having with the Beauprez brand after an embarrassing gubernatorial campaign in 2006. But it’s also evidence that Bennet will have to campaign hard (a new concept for him) even if the GOP selects a ham sandwich as its nominee.

ColoradoPols takes the news as a good sign that former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton (who served for a term under Bill Owens) is in. Norton’s husband said last week that she’ll make a decision on the race “in 30 days“.

RaceTracker Wiki: CO-Sen

Public Policy Polling (PDF) (registered voters, 8/14-16, 4/17-19 in parens):

Michael Bennet (D-inc): 39 (42)

Bob Beauprez (R): 42 (43)

Undecided: 19 (16)

Michael Bennet (D-inc): 38 (39)

Ryan Frazier (R): 33 (35)

Undecided: 30 (26)

Michael Bennet (D-inc): 39 (40)

Ken Buck (R): 35 (34)

Undecided: 26 (26)

(MoE: ±3.2%)

Tom Jensen:

Michael Bennet’s approval rating is just as bad as it was when we polled Colorado in April but voters in the state don’t like any of his possible Republican opponents either, leaving this Senate contest pretty wide open.

38% of voters in the state disapprove of Bennet’s job performance so far with 31% approving. Those numbers are roughly equal to our previous survey which found the numbers at 41% disapproval to 34% approval. There are two primary reasons for Bennet’s net negative ratings. The first is that Republicans disapprove (62%) of him more than Democrats approve of him (57%). The second is that he’s getting unfavorable reviews from independents, 36% of whom disapprove of him compared to 29% approving. …

Potential Republican opponents Bob Beauprez, Ryan Frazier, and Ken Buck all get overall negative reviews from voters in the state as well. 40% have an unfavorable opinion of Beauprez to 30% with a positive one. For Frazier it’s 19% negative and 11% favorable and for Buck the numbers are 18% unfavorable and 17% favorable.

Though he calls the race “wide open,” Jensen also thinks Bennet would only lose to Beauprez in a 1994-style meltdown. Still, it’s depressing to even be thinking in those terms, and it’s dispiriting to see Bennet locked in at about 40% regardless of his opponent. (In case you were wondering, Frazier is an Aurora City Councilman and Buck is the Weld County District Attorney. Both jurisdictions are in the quarter-million range in terms of population.)

PPP will have more Colorado numbers over the course of the week, including GOP primary numbers for both the Senate and gubernatorial races, as well as Obama approvals.

SSP currently rates this race as Lean Dem.

RaceTracker Wiki: CO-Sen

Politico:

Former Republican congressman Bob Beauprez told POLITICO that he is “leaning towards running” against Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) because he doesn’t think any of the party’s current crop of candidates can win.

“There’s a general sense that our field isn’t really set on our side, and Bennet is quite vulnerable,” said Beauprez. “We’re looking at it — with an increased sense of urgency.”

Beauprez said the administration’s policies on health care and energy have been driving him to jump in the race. But he remains concerned whether he will be able to raise enough money in a tough environment for fundraising.

He said he will have to make his decision soon, but didn’t set a timetable.

I don’t doubt that Bennet is vulnerable to a challenge, but is Bob Beauprez the man to beat him? Beauprez, as you may remember, was last seen losing the 2006 gubernatorial race in Colorado to Democrat Bill Ritter in a humiliating fashion (17 points worth of humiliation, to be precise). Beauprez won’t be facing that kind of headwind again next year if he chooses to run, but he may have to work hard to earn back some credibility with the GOP base — and everyone else.

UPDATE: ColoradoPols hears through the grapevine that Beauprez is telling his friends that he’s gonna run.

RaceTracker Wiki: CO-Sen

• MO-Sen: After last week announcing that she was “in no hurry” to begin her campaign for the GOP nomination in the Missouri senate race, former treasurer Sarah Steeleman has done an about-face and is setting up her exploratory committee right away. Apparently she’s striking while the iron is hot (i.e. while everyone is suddenly second-guessing Roy Blunt). She’s enlisting Ben Ginsberg, GOP beltway power-broker and fixer extraordinaire, to help. (H/t ccharles000.)

• CO-Sen: Ken Buck, the Weld County District Attorney and an immigration hard-liner, has, as expected, formally announced his candidacy for the Colorado senate seat held by appointee Michael Bennet. He’ll face Aurora city councilor Ryan Frazier, and possibly ex-Rep. Bob Beauprez, in the GOP primary.

• NV-Sen: As the GOP searches for a dark-horse opponent to Harry Reid, they could go two routes: go with an underfunded conservative activist who can mobilize the boots on the ground (see Sharron Angle), or go with some self-funding rich guy nobody’s heard of who can saturate the race with money. The latter option has materialized, in the form of Wall Street investment banker John Chachas, who’s been meeting with party leaders. There are two slight problems: one, the nation’s ire toward all things Wall Street, and two, that Chachas is a New York resident who hasn’t lived in Nevada since high school.

• MN-Sen: Even polite, stoic Minnesotans have only a finite amount of patience. A new Star-Tribune poll finds that 64% think Norm Coleman should concede right now, and only 28% consider his appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court “appropriate.” 73% think he should pack it in if he loses in front of the state supreme court.

• NY-Sen: Kirsten Gillibrand has her first official primary opponent. It’s not Steve Israel, it’s not Carolyn Maloney… it’s Scott Noren, an oral surgeon and “fiscally conservative” Dem from Ithaca who’s urging supporters to “donate modestly.” Uh huh. Good luck with that.

• Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Democratic chair T.J. Rooney has a simple goal: to “come together as a party” and have no primary fights in 2010. Uh huh. Good luck with that.

• TX-Gov, TX-AG: Former Travis County DA Ronnie Earle (otherwise known as the guy who secured the indictment of Tom DeLay) tells the Austin American-Statesman that he is considering a statewide run, for either governor or attorney general. (J)

• WA-03: A Republican candidate against Rep. Brian Baird has already announced: financial advisor David Castillo. He’s never held elective office, but was a deputy assistant secretary at the Bush administration VA, and ran state senator Don Benton’s 1998 campaign against Baird. This district’s PVI is ‘even,’ and Baird routinely wins with over 60%. (UPDATE: Uh huh. Good luck with that.)

• WA-08: One question that’s been on the lips of the blogosphere lately is: where in the world is Darcy Burner? It’s been tweeted about for a while but now it’s been made official: she’s going to DC to be executive director of the American Progressive Caucus Policy Foundation (the ideas arm of the Congressional Progressive Caucus). With fellow MSFT vet Suzan DelBene in the 2010 race already, this seems to indicate Burner won’t be making a third attempt at WA-08.

PPP (pdf) (4/17-19, registered voters):

Michael Bennet (D-inc): 42

Bob Beauprez (R): 43

Michael Bennet (D-inc): 39

Ryan Frazier (R): 35

Michael Bennet (D-inc): 40

Ken Buck (R): 36

Michael Bennet (D-inc): 41

Josh Penry (R): 34

(MoE: ±3%)

This is the second time PPP has examined the fortunes of Colorado’s appointed senator Michael Bennet. Bennet’s approvals are down in net negative territory, at 34/41 (with a large 25% not sure). PPP also polled Bennet in January, and Bennet isn’t making much headway at winning friends and influencing people: his favorable/unfavorable was 33/21 then, so most people who’ve formed an opinion since then have formed a negative opinion. It’ll be interesting to see whether the charisma-challenged Bennet can improve his standing, and what happens if he doesn’t. The real race to watch (and one I hope PPP polls next time) is a possible Democratic primary: former state house speaker Andrew Romanoff, who wanted the appointment and has weighed a challenge, has to be encouraged by these numbers to start testing the waters.

PPP also tried out some head-to-heads. There aren’t any trendlines from the previous poll, though, as none of the four guys PPP polled in January have taken any steps to run, and a new, lesser set of contenders has taken their place: Aurora city councilor Ryan Frazier is officially in, while Weld County DA Ken Buck is likely to enter and ex-Rep. Bob Beauprez has at least made some noises. (State senate minority leader Josh Penry is more associated with the governor’s race, but it’s possible he may jump over to senate if he wants to avoid an awkward primary clash with his former boss, ex-Rep. Scott McInnis.) Beauprez can’t really be seen as lesser, I suppose, considering he’s just as well-known as Bennet, if just as little-liked; his favorability is 33-43. At any rate, Bennet is in a dead heat with the somewhat-well-known Beauprez (who lost the 2006 governor’s race), while the others seem to operate as “generic R” and lose to Bennet by a not-so-comfortable margin. (Discussion underway in conspiracy‘s diary.)

• NY-20: Jim Tedisco has moved into a 12-vote lead as the counties continue to engage in recanvassing of the lever-pull machines, which will continue next week. (Paper ballots are impounded at least until the scheduled court hearing on the 6th.)

In other news, Tedisco stepped down from his role as minority leader in the Assembly today. (That shouldn’t necessarily be seen as a sign of confidence in winning the election; he was facing a no-confidence vote from his caucus.)

• SD-Sen: The 2010 South Dakota senate race isn’t looking very fruitful for Dems, even in the unlikely event we run a top-tier recruit. (If Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin goes for a promotion, at this point she seems more interested in governor.) R2K polls SD for Daily Kos and finds that John Thune runs ahead of both ex-Sen. Tom Daschle, 53-40, and Herseth Sandlin, 51-39. All three have pretty good favorables; South Dakotans just seem to prefer to keep Thune where he is.

• CT-Sen: In the wake of yesterday’s terrible poll, a primary challenger to Chris Dodd has already popped out of the woodwork. Roger Pearson, the former First Selectman of Greenwich, has formed an exploratory committee. He seems little-known outside (or even inside) of Greenwich, but we’ll have to see if he can catch an anti-Dodd wave.

• AL-Gov: Looks like the Democratic primary for Governor is about to get pretty crowded; state Sen. Roger Bedford is now openly mulling a run, and the inside chatter appears that the controversial but powerful northern Alabama legislator is pretty serious about a bid.

Meanwhile, ArturD2 is kvetching like a five year-old over the probable entry of Ag Comm’r Ron Sparks into the race. (J)

• NH-Sen: Despite entreaties from the NRSC, Judd Gregg says he won’t seek re-election. Apparently, he wants to devote all his time to supporting the president’s agenda in the Senate. (D)

• CO-Sen: Appointed senator Michael Bennet pulled in startling fundraising numbers for the 1st quarter, raising $1.37 million. Bennet is facing a paltry field of GOPers so far (with ex-Rep. Bob Beauprez their best bet), so this may actually serve more to cause former state house speaker Andrew Romanoff to think twice about a primary challenge.

• AK-Sen: With charges dropped against Ted Stevens, Alaska GOP chair Rudy Reudrich wants a do-over on last year’s election. Gov. Sarah Palin also endorsed the idea, despite her taking an anti-Stevens stand in the closing weeks of the election. However, Rep. Don Young doesn’t support the idea, saying Mark Begich “will be in the Senate and will do a good job.” (In fact, Young has a totally different idea: Stevens should run for governor in 2010 against Palin.) Stevens’ friends in the Senate also seemed resigned to the election being over.

• RI-Gov: Ex-Sen. Lincoln Chafee seemed to back off a bit from previous statements that he will be running for governor as an independent, saying that he will decide by May whether or not to run, once his current position (teaching at Brown) ends.

• Votes: Yesterday was the big vote in the House on the Obama budget. After a lot of public vacillation, even Joe Cao voted no, joining every other Republican. 20 Democrats voted no; it’s a who’s who of who’s vulnerable (with a few entrenched Blue Dogs joining them): Barrow, Boren, Bright, Childers, Donnelly, Foster, Griffith, Kosmas, Kratovil, Kucinich, Markey, Marshall, Matheson, McIntyre, Minnick, Mitchell, Nye, Perriello, Taylor, and Teague. The only ‘nay’ votes in districts won by Obama were John Barrow (who’s actually been fairly cooperative so far this session), Bill Foster (usually a good guy, but a deficit hawk), and Dennis Kucinich (who assumedly voted against the budget from the left for not containing enough magic ponies). In the Senate, a few hours later, Evan Bayh and Ben Nelson were the only defections.

• NASA: Here’s a guy we’re glad to see land on his feet: Nick Lampson, who used to represent NASA’s Houston-area facilities in TX-22, is now on the short list of potential NASA Administrators. Even Pete Olson, the guy who defeated Lampson, is advocating for Lampson.