Posted on 06/19/2003 11:54:34 PM PDT by LdSentinal
As Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell edges closer toward making his inevitable re-election run official, two more Democrats are confessing an interest in going after him.
One is Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter, who is term limited in 2004 and has nowhere else to go.
The other is one of the party's newest converts, University of Colorado Regent Jim Martin of Boulder. He switched from the GOP in March.
In owning up to their possible candidacies, Ritter was as taciturn as Martin was verbose.
Either one would present an interesting contrast to the incumbent. Martin versus Campbell would be the battle of the party-switchers. Ritter versus Campbell would be the pro-life Democrat versus the pro-choice Republican.
Martin and Ritter are just toe-testing now. The only announced Democratic candidate is Mike Miles, a former Army Ranger and diplomat who just resigned his post as a middle school principal in Colorado Springs.
New boy Martin concedes he's "not deserving" of the nomination and would defer to better-known Democrats like Mayor Wellington Webb, Attorney General Ken Salazar and maybe even to Ritter, should any of them get into the race. But if they stay out, Martin believes he could run "a credible race on issues" against Campbell.
Ritter declined to comment on whether he'd defer to any other Democrat or whether he believed Campbell to be vulnerable. "That's one of the things I'm trying to assess," is all he'd say.
If Ritter is shy, it's because he's been down this road before. He considered a run for the Democratic nomination against Sen. Wayne Allard in 2002, but ultimately backed away. The fact that there was a strong pro-choice Democrat in the race - Tom Strickland - made it almost impossible for Ritter to win the nomination. If Webb jumped in this time, the DA would find himself in the same position.
There are those who've suggested that Ritter might run for the Senate in 2004 primarily to give himself better name recognition for another statewide race in 2006 where he might have a better shot: attorney general.
Prior to switching parties, Martin made headlines in May 2002 when he collapsed at the finish line of the Bolder Boulder 10K road race, which he had run 23 years in a row.
It was later diagnosed as a heart attack, but Martin maintains he suffered no permanent heart damage.
Still, concerns about his health caused him to withdraw three months later from the race for CU regent from the 2nd Congressional District. Although he still had two years left on his six-year at-large term, he thought he made a better fit in the 2nd District and had easily won the GOP primary earlier in August.
So why does the 52-year-old Martin think he's capable of handling a statewide Senate race next year? He said he gets his heart checked regularly, passed a stress test and is on an anti-inflammatory and a blood thinner.
The man who ran 38 marathons after quitting cigarettes in the 1970s has been on a restricted exercise program and didn't run the Bolder Boulder last month.
Martin was first elected to the board of regents in 1992, the only Republican to win a statewide race that year. Campbell first won his Senate seat that year, but he was a Democrat then.
When Martin announced he was switching parties, he claimed he hadn't changed, his party had. As for Campbell, he said: "I would have voted for the \[McCain-Feingold\] Campaign Finance Act; Ben didn't. I wouldn't have voted to confirm John Ashcroft as attorney general; Ben did. And I wouldn't have voted for the Patriot Act; Ben did."
Martin, who now describes himself as a "progressive populist," said he's going to Philadelphia next month to help the Democratic National Committee work on its platform for 2004.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee tweaked Campbell the other day, saying that "he's quickly running out of reasons to be a Republican." After all, when he changed parties in 1995, he said it was because of Democratic opposition to the balanced budget amendment. And now he's voting for tax cuts and a higher debt ceiling.
Campbell strategist Sean Tonner said the senator is against raising the debt limit "95 percent of the time," but the war on terrorism, the war in Iraq and economic concerns caused him to take "the drastic step" of voting for the debt ceiling increase.
He felt insulted and that he was being treated like a retarded child, or somone who was not of the same intellect or knowledge as everyone else. The democratic party has a tendency to feel pity for anyone not white or non white male. He's a native american, he's got pride and he does not like being treated with pity.
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