Free Republic

Unaffiliated voters leaning toward GOP. Less than a year from the 2010 elections, there's a chance for Cortez Republican Scott Tipton to pull a major upset over John Salazar, the incumbent Western Slope congressman, a respected pollster told Denver-area Republicans on Wednesday. Floyd Ciruli... recent elections around the country show unaffiliated voters leaning toward Republicans, while Democratic voters tended to stay home. He pointed to Tipton and Ryan Frazier of Aurora as two Republicans who might benefit. "I think the Republican Party wisely saw that lightning could strike out there. This could be one of those exceptional years," Ciruli said....

U.S. Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., and an aide are the talk of the Colorado political blogosphere. A highly critical ad apparently ready for television was circulating on the Internet on Monday, but had yet to be broadcast. The ad questions the conduct of Salazar’s Washington, D.C., spokeswoman, Nayyera Haq, who also speaks for the Congressional Muslim American Staffers Association. In that capacity, Haq criticized Rep. Tom Tancredo, a Front Range Republican, for his letter supporting Pope Benedict XVI, who had quoted a 14th century emperor that condemned Islam. Salazar, a first-term congressman from Manassa, has declined to comment directly on...