Caught Between the Grass Roots and The Establishment

We're screwed. The Colorado GOP has managed to screw up the governor’s race again.

The Democrats are running John Hickenlooper (Colorado's own Barack Obama), an ultra-liberal flyweight who could have been beaten, according to polling. Not anymore. Republicans have shot themselves in both feet.

The Big Money Establishment people threw their cash behind Scott McInnis early, pretty much scaring off other well-known candidates who could have won.

Up from the grass roots grew unknowns Cleve Tidwell and Dan Maes fighting for the independent-minded tea party vote. Maes won it, and the Caucus process produced grassroots candidate Dan Maes vs. establishment man Scott McInnis.

A Colorado Catastrophe


Maes got fined for campaign finance violations, opening up a whole can of worms concerning his past, his business experience, and whether he accurately stated his qualifications to be governor. He is a real estate agent, but claims executive experience. He hoped releasing his tax records would clear everything up, but he only released them to one friendly newspaper, and only for their staff to look at them and write about them. No independent verification, which just makes it all look fishier.


Meanwhile, Scott McInnis is charged with plagiarism over a water rights article he wrote years ago for the Conservative Hasan Foundation.  McInnis perfidiously tried to blame his "research assistant," who was really Rolly Fisher, a well-respected engineer and Colorado Water conservation expert.

Turns out Fisher was not his research assistant, but probably just pushed some documents his way to him to help him out. The McInnis campaign drafted a letter of apology for Mr. Fisher to sign, and he rightly told them to stuff it, publicly, through the press. As if this is not unseemly enough, the press is also sniffing around the fact that the Hasan Foundation paid McInnis $300,000 as a research fellow... For what?

Result:  Another Liberal Governor
So here we are, caught between a grass roots cipher and a plagiarizing establishment schmuck, with Hickenlooper dodging the press (he has his own issues) while he skips gaily along to the Governor’s Mansion, unhindered by a liberal press.

Have We Learned Anything?
I’m done writing now, and I can’t find a moral to this story. I don’t know what they could have done to avoid this. How do you stop backdoor shenanigans by the establishment fat cats?

Anyway, McInnis was a viable candidate before this broke. He was well-known, warts and all, and probably would have beaten Howdy Doody Hickenlooper.

Grass Roots is not always Good
Dan Maes is not a bad guy, but he’s never been tested in political battle and he’s never had to defend his record. Unless we’re talking an Army general or a business-person of Carly Fiorina or Meg Whitman caliber, a party should not stake its gubernatorial fortunes to such an amateur grass-roots candidate.


Professional Politician is not always Bad
All politicians are not bums. Reagan was a two-term Governor of California, and Jim DeMint and Paul Ryan are two seasoned politicians who merit perpetual reelection. Even phenom Sara Palin worked her way up from school board to mayor to state energy board.


We would all do well to drop the hero worship and quick embrace of a candidate. Instead, we should heed the advice of John the Apostle and “Test the spirits.”