Good news in the Rockies:
Less than two months before the election, Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter (D) has jumped even further ahead in Colorado’s gubernatorial race. He now leads Republican Representative Bob Beauprez 50 percent to 34 percent. Ten percent (10 percent) are undecided.
The race was most competitive early in the year, when Ritter tended to edge out his likely Republican opponent by a point or two. That lead increased to five points in the months just before the August 8 primaries. Right after them, Ritter enjoyed a nine-point lead.
In the new Rasmussen Reports poll, conducted a few days after the candidates’ first televised debate, Ritter actually adds only two more percentage points to his support to reach 50 percent. But Beauprez’s support slides by five.
The Republican’s fundraising efforts seem to have hit a shoal, with his Democratic opponent reportedly raising three times as much during the month of August. In addition to the GOP’s national malaise this election year, Beauprez has had to contend with stateside partisan infighting over a controversial tax measure, Referendum C, narrowly passed by voters last year. The measure, which Beauprez opposed, allows Colorado to keep funds that would have been returned to taxpayers under the state’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) law.
- Topic: News & Comment
Bob Beauprez’ contrived campaign image as a salt-of-the-earth dairy farmer needs a reality check. He sold the family farm out from under his elderly father, and planted over 1,300 high-end houses in the fields–reaping a harvest of cash that helped launch his political career. The new multi-millionaire then moved to a rental in a district in which he had never lived in order to buy a seat in Congress. Bob Beauprez is a charter member of the Teri Schaivo wing of the Republican party. In lockstep with right-wing extremist Marylin Musgrave, he delivered a performance on the floor of the House during the Schaivo episode that was shameful and inarticulate–promoting government intervention in the most painful and personal of private family matters. He has a horrible record on the environment and has voted with Bush 98% of the time. He should not be trusted for a single second to lead the State of Colorado.