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Thursday afternoon, I received an email from the McCain campaign to let everyone know that Senator McCain was holding a rally in Denver on Friday. I got up very early and was able to get a good spot. I took quite a few photos, however the backlighting goofed up the focus on a lot of them. Here are some of the best. Former Republican Gov. Bill Owens was there. He asked people to knock on doors, call their neighbors and put up yard signs. Former Denver Broncos quarterback John Elway, and former Broncos safety John Lynch were there along with...

-SNIP-Running for seats now held by Republicans, both Democrats have commanding leads as their party tries to approach a filibuster-proof 60-40 majority in the U.S. Senate. In New Mexico, Tom has a double-digit lead over Republican Rep. Steve Pearce. And Mark is well ahead of former Rep. Bob Schaffer in Colorado with less than two weeks until the election.No one disputes that the climate favors Democrats enough to boost their congressional majorities by wide margins. Their confidence is reflected in what Tom Udall says is a request he's already made to Senate leaders for a seat on the coveted Appropriations...

Term caps and education highlight the Senate hopeful's limited record in the House. Bob Schaffer spent six years in Congress and says his top political accomplishment was leaving office. In addition to keeping a promise to voters that he'd serve only three U.S. House terms, the former congressman quickly added that he's also proud of his record on agriculture, education and the economy. Schaffer...in a race expected to be one of the country's most competitive. During the Fort Collins Republican's three terms, he focused on a few key interests, with education reform topping the list. He voted the Republican line...

Former Delta County commissioner to try to unseat Salazar for House seat instead. Delta County Commissioner Wayne Wolf has dropped his longshot bid to become a U.S. senator and now is seeking the Republican nomination in the 3rd Congressional District. Wolf said his decision to try to defeat U.S. Rep. John Salazar, D-Manassa, has received "plenty of support" on the Western Slope and in southern Colorado. That's a much different response than he received this fall when he said he intended to challenge Bob Schaffer for the Republican nomination to the U.S. Senate. Dick Wadhams, chairman of the Colorado Republican...

Former Grand Junction Congressman Scott McInnis said Delta County Commissioner Wayne Wolf’s decision to vie for the Republican nomination for outgoing Sen. Wayne Allard’s seat could be bad for the party. McInnis, who was briefly the only Republican candidate in the 2008 Senate race, said Wolf’s candidacy could prove more of a “distraction” than an asset for the Colorado GOP next year. “I think he’s a fine guy,” McInnis said. “I’m just worried at this point that a primary is going to serve as a distraction to the primary target, which is Mark Udall, and that the Republicans, in order...

Colorado Republican Bob Schaffer, who announced his campaign for Senate in mid-May, has raised more than $717,000, his campaign announced Thursday. The former congressman from Fort Collins will report $682,711 in the bank for the race, which is expected to be among the most competitive in the country. Schaffer faces Democratic Rep. Mark Udall, who announced earlier this week that he has almost $2.5 million on hand. Both candidates released their fundraising totals in advance of a Sunday Federal Election Commission deadline to report campaign finance information for the last quarter. Walt Klein, a Schaffer campaign consultant, called the fundraising...

Former Rep. Bob Schaffer (R-Colo.) said Saturday at a Lincoln Day Dinner that he would run for U.S. Senate in 2008... Speaking at a small dinner in Teller County, Schaffer told a crowd of about 100 ... “He announced that we were the first to know that he is a candidate,” said County Commissioner and former county Republican Party Chairman Bob Campbell. Campbell added that Schaffer said a formal announcement and release would be coming at a later date. Current Teller County Republican Party Chairman Mark Sievers also confirmed Schaffer’s announcement: “He did say that. He was unequivocal.”

Well, it's become quite apparent that U.S. Senator Ken Salazar (D-CO) is quickly making a name for himself among the ranks of the slandering, sensationalizing far left. Since I live in Colorado, covered the primaries and election that put Salazar into office, and know some of the principals personally, I thought my take might shed some light onto the underpinnings of this bizarre phenomenon. First, on April 25, 2005, Senator Ken Salazar (affectionately known as "Gollum" by Colorado conservatives) commented that Focus on the Family (FOTF), the organization founded by Dr. James Dobson, has relentlessly and unfairly attacked him. In...

The premiere election to watch today is the GOP US Senate primary in Colorado. The two major contestants are Pete Coors and former US Rep Bob Schaffer. By most accounts, it has been a hard-fought race and it appears as though it will go down to the wire. The winner will face state Atty Genl Ken Salazar. In CD-3, there is a multi-candidate GOP primary for the seat being vacated by Rep Scott McInnis. In Georgia, there are two run-off elections, one for the seat being vacated by Johnny Isakson and the other being vacated by Mac Collins. In the...

It's only a couple of days 'til the big show-down between Pete Coors and Bob Schaffer in Colorado. What are the polls showing? Who's gonna win? Why? Do you have any tidbits or gossip? Opinions anyone?

Bob Schaffer and Pete Coors both made the Republican primary ballot for U.S. Senator from Colorado by receiving more than the required 30% of the delegate count at the Republican State Assembly. Schaffer won top billing with 61.3% and Coors received 38.6%. The Assembly was held today in Denver with 3407 delegates eligible to vote. The delegates were selected at the party caucuses which were held in April. The primary election will be held on August 10th.

SPARTANBURG, SC (Talon News) -- A conservative political action committee leader said in a message to supporters on Tuesday that "keeping the Senate in GOP hands is now the number one priority of this election year," because President George W. Bush's reelection is "no longer a certainty." William J. Murray, Chairman of the socially conservative PAC Government Is Not God (GING), said Bush's poll numbers are strikingly similar to two other former presidents who failed in their reelection bids. "As of this month [Bush] has the same approval ratings as Presidents Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush did just before...

U.S. Senate hopeful Bob Schaffer charged opponent Pete Coors, the brewery titan who has contributed to hundreds of campaigns during the years, with supporting congressional candidates who opposed gun rights. Schaffer, a former congressman from Larimer County, and Coors are vying for the GOP nod to replace Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, who is stepping down after two terms for health reasons. The attack on Coors came Thursday at a candidates forum hosted by the Pikes Peak Firearms Coalition at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4051 on Pikes Peak Avenue. The forum mostly focused on gun issues, an area on...

<p>DENVER -- On the surface, Bob Schaffer would seem to have everything Republicans could hope for in a Senate candidate.</p> <p>A state senator at the age of 24, Mr. Schaffer had crafted a reputation as a staunch conservative and leader on education reform even before winning a U.S. House seat in 1996. Elected president of his House class, he left a safe seat after three terms to honor his term-limits pledge, cementing his reputation for integrity.</p>

Republican Gov. Bill Owens today withdrew his endorsement of conservative former U.S. Rep. Bob Schaffer in Colorado's wild U.S. Senate race and threw his support behind Peter Coors, the deep-pocketed political novice who runs the Coors beer empire. Coors is expected to formally announce his candidacy on Tuesday. Schaffer said Owens told him the bad news in a brief telephone call. "He said he was sorry and I told him that I forgive him," Schaffer said. He said Owens listed his complaints, but Schaffer refused to disclose what was said.

Brewery giant Pete Coors will enter Colorado's U.S. Senate race today, potentially giving Republicans a well-known and well-financed candidate to challenge Ken Salazar, the Democratic attorney general. Coors, CEO of Coors Brewing in Golden, will face former U.S. Rep. Bob Schaffer and Colorado Springs lawyer Dan O'Bryant in the Republican primary to replace retiring Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell.

For some conservatives dissatisfied with President Bush's lurches to the left on spending, immigration, Medicare and education, three Senate races could hold the answer to their prayers. The nomination of Rep. Pat Toomey (Pennsylvania), and former Reps. Tom Coburn (Oklahoma) and Bob Schaffer (Colorado) to the Senate could change the layout of the body so that it might push the President in a more rightward direction. In Pennsylvania, Bush has endorsed incumbent Sen. Arlen Specter, and even backed him for chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee when Sen. Orrin Hatch gives up the gavel next year. At first glance, this...

Bob Schaffer's supporters ripped Colorado Republican leaders Thursday for not uniting behind the former congressman in the race for U.S. Senate. The criticisms came a day after wealthy businessman Dave Liniger - flush with praise from Gov. Bill Owens and Ted Halaby, the state Republican Party chairman - said he might seek the seat being vacated by Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell. U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, who replaced Schaffer in Congress after he honored a term-limits pledge in 2002, criticized Halaby on Thursday and accused him of taking sides in the Republican primary. Musgrave said Halaby had crossed a line with...

CO: Ken Salazar 43% Bob Schaffer 32% --------------------- KY 4 Democrat Ken Salazar leads republican Bob Schaffer 43-32 in the colorado senate race in a poll mentioned later in the article) --------------------- Clooney received 46 percent to Davis’ 31 percent in a Cooper & Secrest Associates survey of 504 likely general election voters done for the Democrat’s campaign. The poll was in the field Feb. 17-19 and had a 4.4 percent margin of error. The campaign just released the results this week. In a Tarrance Group poll done for Davis, Clooney led 52 percent to 36 percent.

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...