The Gazette’s Tom Cronin and Bob Loevy frame U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet as the front-runner in Colorado’s Democratic primary for governor, with Attorney General Phil Weiser as his main obstacle. Ballots are going out, Democrats and unaffiliated voters can participate, and the establishment assumption machine is already humming like the office printer before a staff meeting nobody wants to attend.
Of course Bennet wants to be governor. It is what comes next in the credentialed, East Coast, Yale-Law, Washington-to-Colorado political escalator. Born abroad, educated at St. Albans in Washington, D.C., then Wesleyan, then Yale Law, then Clinton Justice Department circles, then Colorado, then Hickenlooper world, then the Senate. Now the Governor’s Mansion. Nothing says “Colorado common sense” like a résumé that looks like it was laminated by a Georgetown consultant.
Cronin and Loevy are fair to Bennet, but the useful line is buried in plain sight: despite years in the U.S. Senate, Bennet has “not especially won attention as a leader” and is “not identified as a major voice in major policy reforms.” Exactly. He has been one of Colorado’s senators since 2009. Name the major, unmistakable, Colorado-changing thing. Not a talking point. Not a co-sponsored paragraph. Not “he was in the room.” The thing.
The Bullet Point Brief
- Bennet is presented as the likely Democratic front-runner, but voters should treat “front-runner” as a warning label, not a coronation. Colorado voters are not background extras in a party insider production.
- The column walks through Bennet’s polished biography: elite schooling, Yale Law, Clinton administration connections, Anschutz Investment Co., Hickenlooper’s chief of staff, Denver Public Schools superintendent, then Senate appointment by Gov. Bill Ritter. Nice résumé. Still not the same thing as governing results.
- Bennet has won three statewide Senate races, but Cronin and Loevy note he has not become a defining leader in the Senate. That matters when the ask is, “Please promote me to run the whole state.”
- Bennet says affordability is a top priority and calls Colorado a “blue state drowning in red tape.” Good. Now tell us who made it blue, who wrote the red tape, and why the next Democrat in line should be trusted to cut it.
- Both Bennet and Weiser promise more on housing, wildfires, crime, mental health, Peña Boulevard and water, while the column notes there is little or no mention of cutting programs or raising taxes. Translation: everybody wants to hand out dessert, nobody wants to show the bill.
My Bottom Line
This is the opening bell of Colorado’s Democratic coronation season. Bennet is framed as the front-runner. Weiser is the main obstacle. Ballots are hitting mailboxes. The donors, consultants, party loyalists and media voices are already trying to turn “likely nominee” into “please stop asking questions.”
No. Ask every question.
Why should Colorado hand the Governor’s Office to another Democrat from the same political ecosystem that has made this state more expensive, more regulated, harder to build in, harder to do business in, and less livable for working families? Why should voters believe the party that drove the truck into the ditch has suddenly found the tow strap?
Bennet says Colorado is drowning in red tape. That is rich, because Colorado Democrats have spent years treating red tape like an economic development strategy. If he wants credit for noticing the water is rising, fine. Now tell us which regulations go, which spending gets restrained, which programs get cut, and how he plans to make Colorado competitive again without another glossy government plan named something like “Forward Together Affordability FutureWorks.”
This is not about whether Bennet can sound reasonable. He can. That is the brand. The question is whether Colorado needs another credentialed Democrat managing decline with a nice speaking voice. Voters are choosing a governor, not ratifying the next name already penciled onto the office door.
Source: The Gazette
Share your thoughts...