Posted on 03/20/2004 5:13:10 AM PST by KQQL
DENVER - Colleagues remember Bob Schaffer as the state legislator who snatched up pamphlets on condoms during an AIDS (news - web sites) exhibit at the Capitol rotunda to keep them away from children.
Constituents remember him as the congressman who voted against a transportation bill because it included pork-barrel funding — for his own district.
Schaffer once again rejected conventional political wisdom when he jumped into the race for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring Republican Ben Nighthorse Campbell after several top party leaders, including Gov. Bill Owens, decided against running.
Schaffer faces an Aug. 10 primary challenge from a relative unknown, and could end up running against Democratic heavy-hitter Attorney General Ken Salazar in November, a race that political experts have called a toss-up despite Colorado's GOP-leaning electorate.
"The balance of the Senate is at stake. I think Colorado is going to be ground zero in the senatorial political races around the country," Schaffer said.
University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato said Democrats will use Schaffer's conservative record against him to appeal to Colorado voters, who tend to favor moderate candidates.
"Obviously, if there is going to be this matchup between Salazar and Schaffer, this will be the best chance Democrats have to capture a Senate seat in November," Sabato said Thursday.
Republicans have a 51-48 advantage in the U.S. Senate with one independent who leans Democratic.
A 43-year-old political gadfly with a congressional record as a strong conservative who opposed abortion and gun control, Schaffer has long been an enigma to Democrats and Republicans alike, known for his strong views and sometimes abrasive manner.
As a Colorado state senator, he opposed sex education in the schools and personally removed a display on the subject set up by the state Health Department in the Capitol rotunda.
Elected to the U.S. House in 1996 and re-elected in 1998 and 2000, he gained national attention as a member of the GOP Theme Team, the "one-minute conservative debate squad" that aired on the cable television network, C-Span.
In 1998, Schaffer was recognized by the National Taxpayers Union as the most frugal member of Congress after he returned more than $360,000 of his allotted office budget.
In 2001, Schaffer retired from the House, making good on a promise to limit himself to three terms. He later said it was a mistake, costing him House leadership positions and plum committee assignments.
Schaffer will face retired Air Force Academy law professor Dan O'Bryant in the primary. Salazar faces primary challenges from El Paso County educator Mike Miles and Boulder attorney Larry Johnson.
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It was a mistake for another reason: Everyone makes term limit pledges, but only the honorable ones keep to them. Who does that leave in Congress?
If I remember correctly, by his third term, he had become so popular in the 4th district that the rats didn't even bother to run a candidate against him.
The way this is phrased, it sounds like Schaffer said that keeping his word was a mistake. That is not my understanding of the situation. He said that making a three term limit pledge was a mistake, not the keeping of his pledge.
Completely different. Tancredo is my congressman. His district is so Republican that it would take a David Duke as the Republican nominee to lose it. Seriously.
Colorado is Republican; but not nearly so strongly as Tancredo's district. So a conservative has a much harder road to hoe here. That said, we elected Allard two years ago and he is a solid conservative.
Salazar is a strong, attractive candidate. He has no legislative record to run against (he's attorney general) so he will be able to fake moderation in the election. He's been putting criminals in jail for the last several years (he can't help it, he's attorney general) so he will seem more conservative than the typical democrat squishiness on crime. Of course, if Salazar got to the Senate, it would be the same ol' same ol--Tax increases, gutting the war on terror with a thousand drips, gay marriage by doing nothing, filibuster of any judge who will actually interpret the Constitution, etc etc etc. But you'd never know it from his campaign. Plus, his one most important vote--who controls the Senate.
This strategy (run someone without a record) almost worked against Allard in 2002. Had Strickland not looked so much like a riverboat gambler and had Colo republicans not turned out in such numbers for the 96 hour task force, the Rats would have stolen a Senate seat.
Another big factor is that shutting down Campbell's campaign has knocked the center out of the state republican effort. His campaign was going to coordinate all of the others this year, the way Owens campaign did in 2002. The Senate race is the only big race in the state in 2002 and we will be starting the organizational effort WAY behind the eight ball.
This one is going to be a donnybrook. Probably a lot of vote fraud out of Denver and huge GOTV campaigns by both sides. W's coattails will be bigtime important. Hope he has 'em come November.
Sabato is such a tool. Illinois is clearly the Democrats' best chance to gain a senate seat.
I do smirk at the "look at the freak" tone of this coverage. It's so sad that a candidate who stands by his conservative principles is immediately villified as some sort of alien creature.
I'm sure AP would have no problem with Osama bin Laden if he had a "D" next to his name and could win a statewide race.
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