Colorado Senate Race: Definitive Proof Republicans Are Getting Their Act Together

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http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/02/colorado-senate-race-definitive-proof-republicans-are-getting-their-act-together/284121/

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A Republican congressman named Cory Gardner has decided to run for Senate in Colorado, the Denver Post reported Wednesday. This is a big deal for a couple of reasons. Gardner is a rising star in the GOP whose candidacy gives the party its best shot at unseating the Democratic incumbent, Senator Mark Udall. But perhaps more significant, it's proof Republicans are reasserting control over the chaotic primaries that have been the party's Achilles heel in recent years.

At the same time as Gardner entered the race, two others who had been running, Ken Buck and Amy Stephens, indicated they would drop out of it. Buck, a hard-core social conservative, was previously seen as the frontrunner, but now says he will run for Gardner's seat in Congress instead. Stephens announced Thursday she was dropping out and endorsing Gardner. Though a state senator named Owen Hill remains in the primary, Republicans appear to have made a backroom deal to virtually clear the field for Gardner.

That's the kind of backroom deal has repeatedly eluded the GOP since 2010, when the Tea Party revolted at party leaders' attempts to handpick the most electable candidate for the general election. Right-wing bloggers and grassroots activists were incensed by the National Republican Senatorial Committee's efforts to get moderates like Mike Castle, in Delaware, and Charlie Crist, in Florida, through GOP primaries. They rallied on behalf of candidates they considered more conservative, like Christine O'Donnell (of "I am not a witch" fame) and Marco Rubio. In cases like Rubio's, this worked out fine; in cases like O'Donnell's, not so much.

The grassroots' hunger for maximally "conservative" candidates, regardless of their credentials, allowed Democrats to manipulate the process: In Nevada in 2010, a group affiliated with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid helped Sharron Angle win her GOP primary over a candidate the establishment preferred; in Missouri in 2012, Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill's campaign aired $1 million worth of TV ads to let Republican voters know Todd Akin was the most conservative candidate. Angle and Akin both lost general elections that Republican leaders believed a more qualified, mainstream candidate could have won.