Posted on 03/19/2014 4:25:04 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued
PPP's newest Colorado poll finds that the Senate race remains very competitive, although not that much closer with Cory Gardner in the race than it was with Ken Buck. Our last poll of the state, in early December, found Mark Udall leading Buck by 4 points. Udall starts out with a 2 point lead over Cory Gardner at 42/40. Gardner starts out the race with just under 50% name recognition, and voters with an opinion about him are pretty evenly divided. The close division mirrors how voters feel about Udall's job performance- 41% approve and 40% disapprove of him, almost identical to where we found him in December.
Udall would have wider leads if one of the other Republican candidates was to win the primary. He would lead Owen Hill 43/38 and Randy Baumgardner 44/37. Gardner's entry into the race has broken open the GOP primary field though. Gardner's now at 44% to 15% for Baumgardner, 6% for Hill, 4% for Tom Janich, and 3% for Mark Aspiri. 29% remain undecided but Gardner certainly now looks like the clear favorite for the Republican nomination.
There's little doubt that it's the unpopularity of Obamacare and Barack Obama himself that's making the Colorado Senate contest look so potentially competitive. Only 39% of voters in the state support Obamacare to 51% who are opposed to it, and 58% think its rollout has been unsuccessful to 37% who rate it a success. The President has a 43/53 approval spread in the state, which he won by 6 points in 2012.
(Excerpt) Read more at publicpolicypolling.com ...
Here’s an example why people had problems with Norton:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2567871/posts
Of course, it was posted by the now-banned (and insane) rabscuttle385, so make what you will of it. Also,as someone pointed out, Buck’s position on that issue was just as crappy.
Ah, me too, now I now why I'm confused, I've conflated them. Totally forget there were 2 Nortons.
Jane Norton (R-CO):
Gale Norton (?-CO):
"I'm a card carrying Libertarian! STOP REAGAN! No wait, I'm a 'peace through strength' Reaganite! No, scratch that... I'm a moderate pro-abortion Emily's List Republican! Nevermind, I'm a neo-confederate Dixiecrat! The south'll rise ag'in! Nope... I'm a George W. Bush neo-con! Massive federal government growth is GOOD!!"
I think my biggest objection to her at the time was that she had been Gov. Bill Owens’s Lieutenant. Owens was (for a brief time) considered a possible successor for Dubya as President until he turned into an enormous disappointment (and that weird battle he got involved in with his 1st Lt Governor, Joe Rogers, in trying to run him out of office).
Buck was too second-tier, before he revealed himself to be a flake.
I think of all the screw ups the CO GOP has made over the years. In 1980 when they nominated the most liberal of 3 candidates (a woman) to take on Gary Hart, who had “fluke Watergate Baby” written all over him (and she lost by all of 1%). The legislature felt so badly that they drew a seat (the then-new 6th) for the runner-up in Congress, the famous astronaut Jack Swigert. Swigert, sadly, would’ve died from cancer before he could’ve served 2 years (and then the equally flaky Gov. Dick Lamm would’ve appointed a Dem back to the seat). Curiously, the best choice would’ve been the victor of the 1966 Georgia Gubernatorial race, Bo Callaway* (although derided as more of a country-clubber, he still would’ve preferable to 12 years of Hart & Tim Wirth).
*As an aside, I just learned Callaway died on Sunday of this week.
Then the 1986 race absent Hart, who stepped down, and the GOP nominated a Jewish Congressman, Ken Kramer (a native of Skokie, IL), who couldn’t beat Boulder moonbat Rep. Tim Wirth (again, losing by just 1%).
Again, in 1992, this time the party put up a weak candidate in Terry Considine (who was Bo Callaway’s son-in-law).
Jump forward to 2004, another infamous race, when Rove & Company foisted the incompetent Pete Coors on the party over the capable Conservative Congressman Bob Schaffer. Anyone here on FR that year would’ve heard me railing against this disgraceful choice, who was about as far in over his head as you could get. Ken Salazar predictably ate him for breakfast, beating him by 5%.
And then, of course, when Schaffer finally got his shot, they ran him in the worst possible year of 2008 when he would’ve won in ‘04 (and again in ‘10).
And, of course, Buck in ‘10 (when we were saddled with second-rate candidates running for both Senate & Governor), and he also lost by 1%+ margin.
I still consider non-politician and dilettante Coors to be hands-down, the worst candidate ever run by the CO GOP. Clueless and completely inarticulate (and a year later was caught driving under the influence).
I swear, it’s almost like these state parties go out of the way to lose these races. The Democrats wouldn’t win most of the time if it wasn’t for the GOP.
Curiously, both were born in 1954, but are of no relation. Gale Norton (apparently her maiden name) is from Kansas (Wichita). Jane Ellen Bergman Norton was a native of Colorado (Grand Junction).
Colorado used to be conservative but because of the influx of people from California, has swung liberal. Kind of ironic that people fled CA left because of the high taxes and liberal politicians.... only to recreate the same thing here in Colorado.
So there is a pretty large population of CA liberals who love Hickenlooper.
It’s amazing that almost all of those screwups occurred for just one of CO’s Senate seats. The other seat was held by Republicans since Bill Armstrong defeated Floyd Haskell in 1978, up until Schaffer lost in 2008.
He also kicked the can down the road on Dunlap too. He's pathetic.
I was going to mention that too, but figured it would be complicated, but “kicked the can down the road” is a very succinct summary.
And both lost Republican U.S. Senate primaries in Colorado.
Gale Norton ran as the “socially moderate” alternative in the 1996 GOP primary, where she (thankfully) lost to conservative Wayne Allard.
Jane Norton ran as the credible alternative in the 2010 GOP primary, where she (unfortunately) lost to foot-in-mouth diseased Tea Partier Ken Buck.
Embarrassingly, if Gardner wins, this will be the first time since Peter Dominick in 1962 that a Republican has won that Senate seat at the start (excluding Ben Nighthorse Campbell, who first won as a Democrat).
It's 3 Rs at the moment against Hickenlooper who knows he can easily get beat.
From a week ago.
"In a poll released by Rasmussen today, Governor John Hickenlooper leads all GOP opponents, but Coloradans make it clear they’re looking for an alternative.
Of the three GOP candidates polled against Hickenlooper (Bob Beauprez’s announcement into the race happened too recently to be included), Secretary of State Scott Gesseler is closest 38% to 44%. While former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, and state Sen. Greg Brophy are both nine points back at 37% to 46% and 33% to 42%, respectively.
As the name recognition of the GOP candidate goes up, people willing to vote for Hickenlooper goes down. Colorado is shopping, and if they find a candidate they like, Hick is gone.
What should be most disconcerting for Hickenlooper is that even against a well-known, seen-to-be polarizing figure like Tancredo, Hick still can’t get higher than 46% of the vote. In other words, Hick is hitting his head against a 46% ceiling.
Yet, with low name ID candidates like Gessler and Brophy (72% and 61%, respectively), Hick’s reelect numbers drop as low as 42.
This places the ball squarely in the GOP’s court. The opening is there to put forth a dynamic candidate that can show Colorado he’s ready to lead. Much like Udall, Colorado shows it’s not in love with the job Hickenlooper has done; it is now time for Republicans to show them a better alternative."
coloradopeakpolitics.com/2014/03/12/breaking-rasmussen-poll-shows-gov-hickenlooper-has-low-ceiling/
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