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Last week's political news sure had some shocking developments, with Attorney General Ken Salazar announcing for the U.S. Senate while two other Democratic candidates, Mark Udall and Russ Bridges, immediately withdrew.
That's shocking because the Democrats are starting to act like an organized, disciplined party that wants to win elections. While it may be good for our political system to have two real parties, it's hard on us columnists, who enjoy brutal, divisive primaries with mud-slinging hard-charging speeches about how their opponents are whores, thieves, traitors and the like.
Fortunately, the Republicans may come through with a senate primary, and we'll find out who is most in favor of the death penalty for partners in gay marriages who get abortions.
A Republican primary looms because Gov. Bill Owens announced that he would not run for the U.S. Senate.
That wasn't a surprise, because Owens would gain nothing from that race. For starters, there are 100 U.S. senators and only 50 governors, so which office offers more status? Which one comes with a mansion? Which comes with a chance to do things on your own, rather than having to deal with the other members of some obscure subcommittee?
It's no secret that Owens is ambitious and would like to be president of the United States someday -- probably 2008 when the GOP nomination would be open. He has a better chance at that if he stays out of the Senate.
For sake of argument, assume he did get elected as a senator from Colorado, and went off to Washington to take office next January. As a junior senator, he wouldn't be able to offer much in the way of oration or legislation, since the senate esteems seniority.
Thus he wouldn't have much chance to make a national reputation.
The duties of a senator can't be all that demanding, since senators like John Kerry and John Edwards have found plenty of time to campaign for the presidency this year, but there still are some senate duties that would keep a Sen. Owens from campaigning as much as he would like to.
Further, senators often have to vote on bills. That means taking a recorded stand on divisive issues like gay marriage, gun control, abortion, Patriot Act attacks on our rights, tax cuts for billionaires and subsidies for oil companies, to name a few. Any way a senator votes, some bloc is going to be offended, and the bloc's voters will use it against the senator.
And the U.S. Senate is not a great launching pad. No one has gone directly from the senate to the White House since John F. Kennedy did it 44 years ago.
So the Senate wouldn't do much for Owens's political career -- assuming he could get elected this fall. I don't think that was a safe assumption, as evidenced by the outcome of Referendum A last November. Owens proposed it and stumped hard throughout the state for it, and it went down by a 2-1 margin. It didn't pass in a single one of our 64 counties.
An opposing candidate who also opposed Referendum A -- Scott McInnis in a primary, or Ken Salazar in the general election -- could work that angle hard to Owens's disadvantage.
Now look at the prospects when he eschews the Senate race. He can serve out the rest of his term as governor, leaving office in January of 2007.
His record as governor will have absolutely no bearing
on his prospects for the presidency in 2008, since the
major right-thinking media have already deemed him
America's best governor.
Political fixers like Karl
Rove freely lie about how the finances of our state
government are in good shape.
George Will praises
Owens and our economically vibrant
state.
As an ex-governor two years from now, Owens will have ample time to visit Lincoln Day dinners from Maine to California to build a following among the grassroots Republicans, and he has his own think tank, the Center for the New American Century, which can come up with policy papers and position statements to enhance his national stature.
It's a much better launching pad than the Senate -- every president elected since 1976, except George Bush the Elder, has been a governor or an ex-governor.
On the other hand, every Colorado politician who's received some reasonably serious mention as a national candidate since then -- Bill Armstrong, Pat Schroeder, Gary Hart, Dick Lamm -- has run aground along the way.
So it's hard to construct a secure career advancement path for our governor -- but it is easy to see why the U.S. Senate isn't on that route.
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