Nighthorse Campbell waited too darn long to bail out of his campaign. That left Coors with little time to organize and the best political mind in the state, Dick Wadhams, working for Thune in South Dakota.
None of the state heavyweights like Owens or McInnis would take on the race.
There was a hard fought Republican primary which left many conservatives lukewarm on Coors.
Coors is a newbie and didn't quite have the knack for making a punchy stump speech or scoring in debate.
Salazar had big name recognition from winning two terms as AG.
But Salazar was a stealth candidate, having taken few controversial positions in his runs for AG. He avoided Kerry and it was hard to define him to the voters as a liberal.
Salazar is from rural Colorado where Coors is all metro Denver. We didn't do as well in many rural areas as we usually do.
Coors ran a solid campaign and the race was close, with little ticket splitting, but there was just too much to overcome.
Please tell me you made that name up....