CBS News reports that Colorado’s Democratic primaries have become the latest front in the party’s internal fight between establishment-backed candidates and insurgent challengers. The piece names three contests: Michael Bennet against Phil Weiser in the governor’s race, Diana DeGette against Melat Kiros in Colorado’s 1st Congressional District, and John Hickenlooper against Julie Gonzales for U.S. Senate.
CBS frames this as part of a national trend after insurgent Democratic victories in New York. Fine. But here in Colorado, this is not some noble seminar on “the future of the party.” Democrats are not the scrappy opposition around here. They are the governing class. So when they fight over direction, the rest of us should pay attention, because their family feud usually ends with another fee, mandate, regulation, spending scheme, or lecture landing on everybody else’s porch.
Colorado Democrats spent years feeding the activist machine. They rewarded the language, funded the ecosystem, applauded the purity spirals, and treated every nonprofit pressure campaign like Moses coming down the mountain with a grant application. Now the monster has teeth, and it is looking at the establishment’s hand like lunch.
The Bullet Point Brief
- CBS says Colorado’s primaries are now testing party-backed Democrats after insurgent wins in New York. Translation: the machine is nervous, and the people it trained to demand more revolution have arrived to pick up the keys.
- In the governor’s race, Michael Bennet was expected to cruise after announcing his campaign, but Attorney General Phil Weiser has cut into his lead by casting himself as a fighter against the Trump administration. Nothing says fresh Colorado leadership like two well-known Democratic insiders arguing over who gets to call the other guy the insider.
- In Denver’s 1st Congressional District, 29-year-old lawyer Melat Kiros is challenging 15-term incumbent Diana DeGette. Kiros has criticized DeGette over corporate donors, while DeGette says now is not the time to send someone with no experience to Washington. That is the sound of the establishment discovering its own slogans have a return address.
- In the Senate race, John Hickenlooper faces state Sen. Julie Gonzales, who CBS notes was once a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and is running as a new-generation, anti-establishment fighter. The “future of the party” apparently comes with the same old promise: more government, but this time with better branding.
- CBS notes Democratic primary winners in these races are expected to have a major general-election edge, given Colorado’s recent political history. That is why this matters. This is not a pillow fight in a faculty lounge. It is a power struggle inside the party already holding the state’s thermostat, wallet, zoning code, and moral loudspeaker.
My Bottom Line
The funniest part of this whole drama is the shock. The Democratic establishment spent a decade teaching its base that every problem is a crisis, every compromise is betrayal, every institution needs remaking, and every opponent is a moral emergency. Now the insurgents believe the brochure a little too hard, and the consultants are suddenly clutching their lanyards.
Normal Coloradans are watching the same ruling party that already controls damn near everything argue over whether the answer is more left-wing management or even more left-wing management with sharper slogans. Housing is a mess. Energy costs are squeezed by ideology. Crime policy got treated like a sociology project. Taxes and fees keep breeding in the basement. Schools and local control get dragged into every fashionable crusade. And voters are supposed to look at this primary drama and call it a democratic awakening.
No thanks. It looks more like a custody fight over the machine that has been running Colorado like a grant-funded social experiment with tax hikes.
This is not “Democrats bad, Republicans good.” That is too lazy, and frankly too generous to the political class. The real point is that Colorado’s dominant political ecosystem has become so warped that even its internal fights happen inside the same smug bubble. Activists demand more revolution. Insiders demand more control. Media types call it a healthy debate. Taxpayers stand outside wondering why the bill keeps getting bigger.
The establishment built this. The insurgents learned the script. Now both factions want the keys.
Colorado should be less impressed by the drama and more concerned about who pays for the sequel.
Source: CBS Colorado
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