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View Full Version : GOP noticing Colorado outsider's Senate bid: The CFL-Backed Ken Buck




bobbyw24
06-06-2010, 06:42 PM
By: Chris Stirewalt
Political Editor
June 6, 2010

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, COLO. - It seemed certain who would carry the Republican campaign for a Senate seat from Colorado when a well-connected former lieutenant governor, Jane Norton, joined the race. She has fundraising prowess, statewide experience and enough mettle to take the fight to Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet.

So how did a little-known Republican prosecutor from northeast Colorado get conservatives so revved?

Ken Buck had all the makings of an also-ran candidate. He's never been on ballots outside Weld County. Aside from an attempt to crack down on illegal immigrants by seizing their tax records, Buck wasn't publicly known for much before starting his campaign. He doesn't even have a personal Wikipedia entry.

Norton has raised more than $1.9 million and rubs elbows with GOP power brokers. Her brother-in-law, Charlie Black, helped run Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign in 2008. Bennet, appointed to the seat last year, has cleared more than $6 million for his re-election campaign and drew a personal fundraising visit from President Obama.

But Buck, a Princeton-educated prosecutor from Greeley, has spent the past year campaigning almost nonstop. Buck works Tea Party gatherings and shows up at county Republican meetings to shake hands and promote himself as the most conservative candidate in the race. He pairs his hard-right conservatism with an earnest smile and a folksiness that blunts the sharpness of his message.

It's a pitch that has a growing number of Republicans thinking Buck can really win this thing.

On a recent campaign day, a typical dawn-to-midnight slog in which he put more than 300 miles on a rented Ford sedan, Buck talked to about a dozen Republicans during a stop at a breakfast restaurant. He arrived alone; Buck typically campaigns without aides, without a driver, without an advance team to paper his stops with campaign posters.

He launched into a sales pitch honed through thousands of deliveries. National Democrats are bankrupting this country, he said, and the only way the nation can survive is by electing a raft of conservatives this fall.

Buck wants to change the Constitution to require Congress to balance the national budget. He rails against the Department of Energy for what he calls meddling in local energy development, and wants a smaller Department of Education, which he says is "encroaching on local parents and educators."

Buck blasts fellow Republicans, too. He blames Bush-era Republicans for juicing a bloated federal government.

"If John McCain had gotten elected, we'd be goin' in the same direction we're goin' now, just a little slower," Buck said. Every head in the small crowd nodded.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/GOP-noticing-Colorado-outsider_s-Senate-bid-95691424.html#ixzz0q7iP0gFR

dr. hfn
06-06-2010, 06:46 PM
really positive article

ninepointfive
06-06-2010, 06:47 PM
With all the support he received at the Colorado state convention, you'd think he's an insider. He has a wide base of support, while Norton bailed out and is petitioning on. You can tell Norton is old hat from her speeches.

RonPaulFanInGA
06-06-2010, 06:49 PM
But wasn't Buck the guy some here about needed a fainting couch upon hearing of the CFL's support?

dr. hfn
06-06-2010, 06:51 PM
But wasn't Buck the guy some here about needed a fainting couch upon hearing of the CFL's support?

yes, but fuck them

speciallyblend
06-06-2010, 11:20 PM
Liberty Colorado 2010, Ron Paul 2012!!!! many more Liberty Candidates running in Colorado to:) from county to town to sheriffs to house and senate!! the gop and cogop and other states as well better listen in 2010 or they will be doomed in 2012!!