Beauprez pondering run for U.S. Senate

KDVR News Channel 31 ^ | August 4, 2009 | Eli Stokols

[Clintonfatigued]

Former congressman and gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez is thinking seriously about joining a growing field of Republicans looking to challenge Democrat Michael Bennet for his seat in the U.S. Senate.

"I'm thinking and talking to friends, trying to assess the situation," Beauprez said. "I'm in the kicking the tires phase."

Beauprez, who lost the 2006 governor's race to Bill Ritter by a large margin, said he's troubled by the "direction things are headed in Washington" and the current GOP field of candidates.

Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck and Aurora Councilman Ryan Frazier have already announced, but weak fundraising efforts to date have party insiders looking for other candidates.

"That's what caused my phone to start ringing," Beauprez said. "Nothing against Ken and Ryan, who I think are great guys, they've supported me in the past, and I think they could be good senators. But I think we're looking for someone who's been there before. This isn't about them, this is about winning."

Beauprez would be the fourth Republican testing the waters for a possible run. Last week, former state senator Tom Wiens of Castle Rock confirmed he'd filed papers to form an exploratory committee.

Beauprez said he won't be doing that.

"I'm not an explorer," he said. "I would either get in, or not get in. And that's it."

[Clintonfatigued]

Beauprez’s 2006 showing is discouraging, but he still has some name I.D. Maybe he could pull it off.

[The Shrew]

"That's what caused my phone to start ringing," Beauprez said. "Nothing against Ken and Ryan, who I think are great guys, they've supported me in the past, and I think they could be good senators. But I think we're looking for someone who's been there before. This isn't about them, this is about winning."

Ol' Bob certainly proved he was a statewide winner vs Ritter in 2006 didn't he? Time for new blood. Next!

TS

[Falcon28]

No thanks Bob.

We’ve already got a conservative in the race:

http://www.frazierforcolorado.com

If only Freepers and other conservatives will pull out their pocketbook and donate!

[St. Louis Conservative]

What about John Elway?? Or Bill Owens? Maybe Bob Schaeffer can try again?? Mike Coffmann??

[Clintonfatigued]

All good suggestions, but none of them are interested. Too bad.

[yongin]

At least Tancredo is not running.

We have an opportunity to knock out Ritter and Bennett.

McInnis is a great candidate for Governor. I might be willing to go with Beauprez if he can prove to be a good fundraiser. Bobby B did represent the Denver suburbs. It is a region we need to win back if we are to win CO.

[La Lydia]

He sounds wonderful. And we do have a chance of getting that seat back. If the Colorado RINOs don’t do a number on him. By the way, what rock did Bill Owens crawl under?

[NorCoGOP]

Sorry Bob...you're damaged goods from your governor campaign...

go Ken Buck...he'll smash Bennett...

[NorCoGOP]

Sorry Bob...you're damaged goods from your governor campaign...

go Ken Buck...he'll smash Bennett...

[skaterboy]

Colorado is gone on a state level...Worry bout federal level...

[colorado tanker]

Yep, his 2006 campaign was pretty much a disaster. Personally, I'd like to see a fresh face, but I think Ken Buck is just too unknown. If my hunch is right 2010 could be a Republican year. I think people here are getting buyer's remorse over turning the state and federal governments over to the left wing loonies. Beauprez might pull it off with a different approach.

[BillyBoy]

If "it's about winning", as Beauprez says, then we need to stay as far away as possible from Bob Beauprez and Bob Schaffer. Both of them lost by wide margins (41% and 42%, respectively) to a RAT candidate, for an open seat, in the swing state of Colorado. If they had only lost by a few points, sure, I might consider giving them another shot at it, but they ran extremely poorly statewide. Schaffer in particular was supposedly so much better than Pete Coors and many freepers claimed "we woulda won" if he had been the nominee, but when Scaffer actually got the chance he ran much WORSE than Coors statewide (Coors got a respectable 47% when he was the GOP nominee for Colorado's other open senate seat) Whoever is calling Beauprez's phone looking for a "winner" must have been in a bunker during Beauprez's last campaign.

I agree we really need some new blood in the GOP instead of rehashing failed candidates. I'm fine with Ken Buck and Ryan Frazier in the race, but if there's really a concern that they're not raising enough money, John Elway would be an interesting candidate to recruit. Tancredo would make a great Senator but probably has very high negatives and would have a hard time winning. I agree McInnis looks like a solid choice for Governor.

[Impy]

Tancredo’s not? Poltics1.com lists his as a candidate for Governor.

I don’t think he can win a GE.

[Impy]

To be fair to Beauprez and Schaffer they did run in bad years as opposed to Coors.

Beauprez also had the misfortune of the shadow of legislature losing Coors supporter ex-Governor Bill Owens and his foolish assault on the taxpayer bill of rights.

I wouldn’t oppose giving either one another chance. Currently no top-tier Republicans are in the Senate race.

Their showings were poor though.

McCain’s sub 45% in CO was also poor.

[BillyBoy]

Running in a bad year for the GOP is no excuse for losing an open race by lopsided 17 point margin. Clearly he was so weak that he would have lost even if GOP turnout was at 2002 or 2004 levels. Other Republicans on the statewide ticket in 2006 didn't do that poorly. During the same election cycle, John Suthers won election to the Attorney General’s Office, defeating challenger Fern O’Brien by nine points, and the Republican Secretary of State candidate won by 1.5 percent. Most Colorado freepers will tell you Beauprez’s campaign was a disaster. Whatever he was telling voters, it wasn't selling. Probably most Colorado Republicans would now nominate Marc Holtzman for Governor if they could go back in time and do it over.

[BillyBoy]

>> Tancredo’s not? Poltics1.com lists his as a candidate for Governor. I don’t think he can win a GE. <<

I think running Tancredo would be fairly risky, though I don't rule out the possibility of him winning statewide. The Dems and RINOs repeatedly put up high profile challengers to him in his congressional district (including some Rahm Emanuel recruited, NCCC funded Iraq Vet to "take out" Tancredo in 2006), but they never came close. True, his district is drawn to give Republicans an 8-point margin over the Dems, but that hasn't stopped other RATs like Melissa Bean from winning in GOP districts.

My main concern is the mainstream media would do such a nasty hitjob on Tanc if he was the nominee that Colorado voters who are from outside his district would be convinced he's Lucifer incarnate by election day.