GOP shows big love for competition
10/02/2009
By Leslie Jorgensen
THE COLORADO STATESMAN
KEYSTONE — “We ought to embrace competition,” Colorado GOP Chairman Dick Wadhams told Republicans gathered at the state party Central Committee meeting in the Keystone Lodge last weekend.
Jane Norton, candidate for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, won 119 of 344 votes cast in the straw poll for Senate in Keystone. Ken Buck and Ryan Frazier each captured 94 votes.
Photo by Brad Jones
And that’s just what he got as the sea of hopefuls for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate swelled to 10.
“Hi, I’m candidate number 32 for the U.S. Senate,” joked Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck as he introduced himself to the party faithful.
Former Colorado Lt. Gov. Jane Norton was the candidate who won the most votes in Central Committee’s Friday night straw poll — capturing 119 of 344 votes.
“I’m humbled by your support,” Norton told the Republicans. “You are the backbone of this party.”
The poll results were gratifying for Norton, but they weren’t the big bear hug some of her supporters had anticipated.
A whopping 68 percent of the ballots were cast for other candidates. Of those, 55 percent went to Buck and Aurora City Councilman Ryan Frazier, who each snared 94 votes.
The straw poll was taken after a dinner and candidates’ forum on Friday, Sept. 25. Candidates who had registered with the Federal Election Committee had been invited to participate. All candidates — declared and undeclared — were invited to speak at the state GOP Central Committee meeting on the following day.
Although the poll isn’t scientific, it served as a measure of the popularity of candidates among statewide activists. These leaders don’t just vote — they turn out other Republican voters, so the results separated Norton, Buck and Frazier from the rest of the pack.
Third place in the poll — with 12 votes apiece — went to newcomer Luke Korkowski, of Crested Butte, and former 6th District Congressman Tom Tancredo, who hasn’t entered the race.
Korkowski, a relative unknown, delivered a decidedly edgy message that drew applause and raves.
“The reason I can go head-to-head with either (Bennet or Romanoff) is because I’m not in this race because I need a job,” declared Frazier in response to a question.
“We must insist that our president, our senators and our congressmen adhere to and be bound by the text of the United States Constitution,” declared the young attorney, who likens his views to those of Republican Texas Sen. Ron Paul.
Had federal lawmakers abided by the Constitution, Korkowski said, Americans would not be drowning in an $11.4 trillion national debt and facing a projected $1.58 trillion deficit for the full 2009 fiscal year.
“If government didn’t fund unconstitutional programs,” he said, “we could do away with the income tax.”
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