Chinks Beginning to Show in Beauprez Armor?

[coloradodem2005]

Lots of movement on the Governor Line, with the big news concerning Bob Beauprez.

It appears as though we’ve seen the first chink in the armor of Congressman Bob Beauprez. We’ve had him as the Republican favorite, even money with Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, since we first reported that Bobby B was planning a run for governor. But the winds, they are a’ changing.

Now that the excitement has died down over the flurry of Republicans taking serious looks at the governor’s race, we’re hearing the first wisps of concern about actual potential matchups in 12 months. After watching Hickenlooper refuse to say no to the governor’s race over the past few weeks, some leading Republicans are growing worried that their party will be left holding the bag should Hick enter the race. Why?

Right now Beauprez is the prohibitive favorite on the Republican side. He can raise more money than Mike Coffman, he’s more well-known than Marc Holtzman, and as for Scott McInnis? We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: we don’t think McInnis will really be in the race come next summer. He isn’t talking like a guy who really wants to be governor, and he’s doing virtually nothing to campaign for the job. He’s told friends that he plans to wait until the beginning of the year to see if there is a good opportunity. Those aren’t the words of a fighter. We may be wrong, but let’s see what his first filing looks like before you McInnis supporters self-combust.

With all of that in mind, Beauprez seems to be the elephant holding all of the cards for the GOP. But here’s what one Republican central committee member had to say about how things are setting up (we’re paraphrasing here, since it’s not like we can whip out a notebook and start writing this stuff down): “Ask Beauprez if he will run against Hickenlooper. He’ll shuffle, dance, duck and feint, but he won't say unequivocally that he will run against Hick. That’s because he won't.”

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http://coloradopoliticalnews.blogs.com/colorado_political_news/2005/04/chinks_beginnin.html#more