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A Clear Ideological Choice To Fill a Rare Open Seat
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| Parent(s) |
Race
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| Contributor | RP |
| Last Edited | RP Aug 17, 2007 03:40pm |
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| Category | Profile |
| News Date | Thursday, August 16, 2007 04:30:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | The West’s emergence as a political battleground seems guaranteed to be on national display in Colorado next year, thanks in part to the Senate seat being left open by the planned departure after two terms of Republican Wayne Allard — who in January became the first and so far only senatorial retiree of 2008.
In part because Allard made his plans known so early, and in part because the national partisan stakes are so high, each party has rallied behind one candidate, and so the field is set: The Democrat is Mark Udall, who has represented northwestern Denver suburbs and Boulder in the House since 1999. The Republican is Bob Schaffer, the vice chairman of the state Board of Education, who represented eastern Denver suburbs and the state’s northern and eastern plains in the House from 1997 through his self-imposed term-limited departure in 2002.
Democrats see the Colorado contest as perhaps their strongest opportunity to increase their party’s operational 51-49 majority. Republicans are hopeful that most Coloradoans will back the GOP presidential nominee — as the state has done in nine of the past 10 elections — and by extension create a favorable political environment for Schaffer.
Voters should have a clear contrast. Schaffer is unassailably conservative while Udall is generally liberal, although his record started moving toward the political center once he decided that he would run for the Senate in 2008 whether Allard sought re-election or not. Both will fight for centrist voters in a state where political independents are more numerous than either Republicans or Democrats. |
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