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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.