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About a month ago, Sue O'Brien, the editor of these pages, speculated about the U.S. Senate race next year. The incumbent, Republican Wayne Allard, appears somewhat vulnerable, which meant that there were many prominent Colorado Democrats whose names were circulating.
Among those names was Denver Mayor Wellington Webb, and O'Brien observed that bigotry might work against Webb. Not racial bias -- Coloradans have elected African-Americans to statewide office on several occasions -- but geographic bias.
Like any energetic mayor, Webb is strongly identified with his city. And O'Brien observed that in much of Colorado, the hatred of Denver is so strong as to doom any statewide candidate whose Zip code starts with 802.
In many ways, she's right, as evidenced by the fact that successful statewide candidates are from anywhere but Denver.
Observe that Allard is from Loveland. Our other senator, Ben Campbell, has an Ignacio address. Our governor lived in Aurora, and apparently liked the place so much that he delayed moving into the executive mansion, which happens to be in Denver. He replaced Roy Romer, who had been living in Denver for many years before his election in 1986, but spoke of growing up in Holly when it was time to dissemble about his background.
No matter how urban or urbane the statewide candidate (i.e., former Sen. Tim Wirth, a Harvard man), the spin doctors will find an ancestor who put down some sort of roots in rural Colorado. A fifth-generation ranch in a remote canyon usually trumps everything else, but a Leadville miner or a Las Animas sodbuster will work, too.
Since nobody checks these things, it's usually safe to stretch the family tree. In his days as a Texas candidate, Lyndon B. Johnson sometimes spoke of a grandaddy who perished with Travis and Bowie and Crockett at the Alamo, even though no genealogist ever found that ancestor.
Just this past Sunday, Alan Salazar wrote about being
from a family that settled the San Luis Valley centuries
before Colorado became a state.
The oldest settlements in the San Luis Valley date to 1851, exactly 25 years before Colorado became a state. Salazar is merely an administrative assistant to a congressman, not a congressman himself, but with this extension of his Colorado roots, he's obviously preparing to be a candidate himself one of these days.
As for Webb, he should have been able to claim an ancestor in the 9th Cavalry Regiment among the Buffalo Soldiers who were stationed at Fort Garland and lifted the Ute siege on Milk Creek after the Meeker Massacre in 1879.
Alas, Webb announced on June 28 that he wouldn't run for
the Senate. That's a pity, because Webb is probably the
best politician in Colorado. By politician,
I mean
someone who can identify issues that matter to people,
formulate a plan that is within the realm of the possible,
and then mobilize support and get something done.
A statewide Webb campaign also would have been educational for rural audiences.
Out here in the boondocks, we seldom make distinctions
about the developed zone that sprawls from Fort Collins to
Pueblo. In our saloon conversations, the entire
smog-covered grid-locked killer-cop water-grabbing
metropolitan area is Denver.
Yet in fact, Denver proper has enough water and doesn't need to develop new supplies from the hinterlands. It's places like Aurora and Colorado Springs and Douglas County that have been promoting schemes like Union Park Reservoir in the Gunnison Country, Elephant Rock Reservoir on the Arkansas River north of Buena Vista and the Conjunctive Use Project in a South Park aquifer.
It wasn't Denver that was lined up to buy water from deep wells in the Closed Basin of the San Luis Valley, and it isn't Denver that dries up agricultural land east of Pueblo.
A Webb candidacy could have clarified that for a statewide audience, so that we'd at least curse the proper villains when the occasion arose.
Also, he could have pointed out that Denver's crime rate has dropped, that the city's air is generally cleaner, and that it has become easier for rural residents to navigate the city because there are now abundant signs identifying neighborhoods and pointing the way to attractions like the museums and zoo.
In other words, he has a pretty decent record to run on, as opposed to another Denver Democrat whose name has been mentioned -- District Attorney Bill Ritter, who never saw a police shooting he couldn't justify.
And if Webb had traveled the state, speaking in Springfield and Walden and a host of other places where Allard has appeared during his senate term, rural and urban Colorado would have become better acquainted, to the benefit of all of us.
So, count me as one of those who's disappointed that Webb won't make the Senate run. Win or lose, the campaign itself would have enhanced an important Colorado dialogue.
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