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Bruce Benson's admission last week that he twice faced charges of driving under the influence 15 years ago doesn't have much bearing on his suitability for governor.
After all, he seems to have learned his lesson. Nobody observed him guzzling tall boys while he piloted the campaign bus through the hinterlands last summer -- in fact, nobody even observed him driving.
As to why he didn't bring this up during the primary, well, it's embarrassing. A wealthy Republican should have been able to reach a quiet arrangement with authorities -- after all, the incidents were in Jefferson County, solid GOP turf.
Since Benson apparently just took his medicine, some Republicans would have wondered about his ideological purity. Might he at one time have harbored the subversive belief that the law should apply to all alike, rather than providing a more comfortable standard to millionaires?
Even the whisper of a rumor that one does not believe in special treatment for the wealthy could cost votes in a Republican primary, so it makes sense that Benson waited until last week to confess. As a former state party chairman, he certainly understands the mentality of the electorate in a primary.
Besides, if he's elected, he'll have a car and driver, so why would his prior driving record matter? We're looking for a governor, not a chauffeur.
Yet this could become an issue, which would be a disappointment. Rather than sticking to the important issue of which candidate could offer the highest subsidies to the biggest corporations, it might deteriorate into personal attacks. And then we'd never see an article like this:
In a debate taped at a television studio last night,
Bruce Benson charged that incumbent Democratic Gov. Roy
Romer is a bigger waffle than Bill Clinton when it comes
to immigration policy.
A mystified Romer scratched his head as Benson amplified his charges.
Colorado is being flooded with thousands of refugees
fleeing from California -- a torrent of so-called 'Beemer
People' washing up on our shores -- and what has Roy Romer
done about it, except to sit on his hands?
Defending his record, Romer said he has acted
expeditiously although his actions attracted little
attention. On several occasions, I have dispatched the
state militia to conduct sweeps across the deserts of
Arizona and Utah. When the soldiers find migrants, they are
taken to special resettlement camps I've established by
negotiating with other governors: Sedona, Ariz., and
Jackson Hole, Wyo., for those we find in time, and, for
those caught close to our border, Moab, Utah.
But the Californians are still getting through,
thousands of them every month,
Benson continued.
This just shows how Roy Romer has neglected military
matters in his preoccupation with Denver International
Airport.
Romer attempted to pin a waffling charge on Benson for his on-again, off-again stand on the airport, but the challenger kept to the subject.
Roy, those immigrants are straining our facilities,
our ability to cope, our entire infrastructure. Do you
care, or do you even know, that there's a severe shortage
of $4 million 12,000-square-foot houses in Aspen? That
Eagle County, the home of Vail, is so short of $600,000
lots that they've had to allow construction on a mud ridge
above Wolcott? Mud, we're talking mud. And look at
Telluride, where people have had to stand in line for hours
just for a simple necessities like mocha latte and bottled
mineral water. I tell you, we can't allow this migration to
continue.
Romer launched a counter-offensive. What am I
supposed to do, round them up and send them back after they
get inside our borders? Do you know how much it would cost
to check out every Mercedes driver? To ask for a green card
every time someone flashes a gold card? To build new
amenity-laden enclaves at Snowmass and Crested Butte to
hold them until we can ship them back? Where do you propose
to get the money for that, Bruce?
Benson began to mumble about another increase in the
cigarette tax, but Romer cut him off. Bruce, I've tried
to negotiate with Pete Wilson in California, but he's not a
reasonable man. He's got troops at all the border crossings
-- same guys who used to check for contraband oranges --
and they're not letting anybody, even former Californians,
into the state. Are you advocating military action?
If it comes to that, yes,
Benson thundered.
Unlike you Democrat wafflers, I believe in a strong
defense. But there are other strategies I'd explore first
if I were governor. How about a trade embargo? After all,
they launched the first salvo when they started talking
boycott over Amendment Two.
I suppose you'll want sanctions next,
Romer said.
I could revoke the Colorado citizenship of anyone who
visits California.
That's just a start of steps short of armed
conflict,
Benson proposed. For instance, California
wants our water. I say give it to them -- all of it, the
feedlot run-off and the pesticide-laden return flow and the
Paradox Valley brine and the toxic mine seepage and the
giardia creeks.
That's chemical and biological warfare,
Romer
said as the debate closed. It's one thing to expose our
own citizens to that, but we'd be war criminals if we let
that stuff out.
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