Colorado’s governor race has finally staggered out of the GOP clown-car loading zone and into the real knife fight, except Republicans appear to have handed their nominee a butter knife, a Facebook page and a bucket of holy water.
Victor Marx beat Barbara Kirkmeyer by 2,516 votes after more than a week of uncertainty. That is not a mandate. That is a political fender-bender with balloons taped to it. The Republican Party spent eight damn days proving it could count its own primary votes, then emerged yelling “unity” like the smoke pouring out of the engine was part of the plan. fileciteturn0file0
Now Marx faces Democrat Phil Weiser, the gleaming establishment continuity machine in sensible shoes.
Weiser will be sold as the competent adult, the compassionate lawyer and the inevitable next manager of Colorado’s long, expensive decline. The Denver-Boulder ruling class will tell voters he is serious, stable and experienced, because apparently “experienced” now means standing near the wreckage while insisting nobody knows who drove the bulldozer through the living room.
Colorado got more expensive. More regulated. More crowded. More smug. Housing costs are brutal, taxes and fees breed in the dark, roads are clogged, schools are flailing and small businesses need a fucking decoder ring to survive the bureaucracy.
And the people who have run the state will campaign as though all of that blew in on a random gust from Kansas.
That is Phil “None-the” Weiser’s lane: Polis-style continuity with the legal polish turned up and the environmental throttle jammed against the floor. He will smile, say “rights,” “freedoms” and “working families,” then glide forward on the same Democratic machine that treats every failure as proof it needs more power.
But Republicans have no excuse for pretending Marx is some conquering hero.
He won about 40 percent of the primary vote. Traditional Republicans quoted by CPR were already warning that his baggage could torch competitive candidates down the ballot. One former state GOP chairman said Marx could undermine or destroy Republicans in close races. That is not party unity. That is an evacuation order.
Marx is a ministry leader, social-media showman and self-described “high risk humanitarian” whose public biography has already produced questions his campaign cannot wave away with chest-thumping and devotional wallpaper.
He did not win a coronation. He survived a primary.
Now he has to prove he is not another Republican novelty act wandering into a statewide slaughter while Democrats refill the champagne.
That is what should piss off every normal Coloradan.
This state desperately needs a real opposition party with the discipline and credibility to beat the entrenched Democratic order over the head with its own record. Instead, the GOP may have nominated a human campaign ad for Phil Weiser.
Colorado voters deserve a referendum on one-party rule.
What they may get is Polis on enviro-charged steroids versus a Republican who could kill his own party before Election Day.
What the fuck did they do to our state?
Source: Colorado Public Radio
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