The Denver Post reports that U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette is facing two Democratic primary challengers as she runs for a 16th term representing Colorado’s 1st Congressional District. DeGette’s argument is straightforward: if Denver sends her back to Congress and Democrats retake the House, her seniority could put her in line to chair a powerful health subcommittee, giving her influence over issues like Medicare for All and abortion access.
Her challengers, attorney Melat Kiros and CU Regent Wanda James, say that is not good enough. They argue DeGette has been in Washington too long, has not been effective enough, and that Denver needs new leadership. DeGette, for her part, says her opponents do not understand how Congress works and that experience matters when the goal is actually moving policy instead of just performing disruption in front of a ring light.
I have never been a big fan of term limits. I always thought “we the people” had term limits in the form of a trip to the ballot box. But when you consider that DeGette has been in D.C. for the better part of three decades, you start to understand why voters occasionally reach for the institutional crowbar.
The Bullet Point Brief
- DeGette is 68 and was first elected in 1996. That is not a political career anymore. That is a congressional archaeological layer.
- Her pitch is seniority, committee power, and knowing how to move legislation. Fair point. Experience matters. But so does the uncomfortable question of whether the experience is still producing enough results to justify another term.
- Kiros, 29, beat DeGette soundly at the Denver County assembly and topped the 1st Congressional District assembly, while DeGette barely cleared the threshold there. Assemblies are not the whole electorate, but when a 15-term incumbent has to sweat the math, somebody’s consultant starts breathing into a paper bag.
- DeGette has been the primary sponsor of 205 bills, with seven becoming law or being incorporated into bills that later became law, according to the article’s GovTrack data. Her campaign says that number misses behind-the-scenes work, which is true. It also sounds exactly like what you say when the scoreboard is not doing all your talking.
- Kiros and James are not running as moderates. Both support Medicare for All, and Kiros identifies with the Democratic socialist lane. So Denver Democrats are not choosing between left and right. They are choosing between old and left, or young and radically left.
My Bottom Line
This race is a clean little window into where Colorado Democrats are headed. In both the U.S. Senate race and the 1st Congressional District, the choice is some version of old and left versus young and radically left. That is not exactly a menu designed for regular Coloradans who are trying to pay the mortgage, keep groceries in the fridge, and avoid being lectured by someone with three pronouns and a graduate seminar.
DeGette’s seniority argument is not nonsense. In Congress, seniority can matter. Committee assignments matter. Relationships matter. Knowing where the levers are matters. But at some point, voters are allowed to ask whether those levers are still moving anything meaningful, or whether they have become part of the furniture.
That is where the term limits itch starts. I still believe voters should decide. But entrenched incumbency has a way of becoming self-justifying. “Keep me because I have power” only works if voters can see that power producing results. Otherwise, it starts sounding like, “Keep me because I have been here long enough to know which hallway has the good coffee.”
In the Senate race, I think it will be hard for young and radically left to overcome incumbent money and machinery. But in the 1st Congressional District, I would not be surprised if young and radically left pulls it off. Denver’s activist base is restless, DeGette looks vulnerable in a way she has not before, and after nearly 30 years, even loyal voters can start wondering whether the seat belongs to them or to the person who has occupied it since the Clinton administration.
Source: The Denver Post
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