All that talk about what a formidable candidate Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler might have been in a potential run for the U.S. Senate next year appears to have been based on what the guidance counselors call strong potential rather than facts on the ground.

According to a poll conducted last month at the height of speculation over whether the Aurora theater trial prosecutor would jump in the race, the boyish DA isn’t very well known outside the courtroom, despite heavy coverage of what some dubbed the Trial of the Century.

Brauchler and fellow Republican Robert Blaha, who ran against Doug Lamborn three years ago in one of the Colorado Springs Republican’s customary primary races, both scored within a few points of Democratic incumbent Michael Bennet in a much-ballyhooed survey, but those in the know credit both their performances to the “generic Republican” factor more than either potential candidate’s personal bona fides. And the private survey, which was leaked to Chatter this week, backs up that assessment.

The poll, in the field Sept. 8-14, sampled 800 registered voters who said they were likely to cast ballots next year and has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3.5 percent.

First, the unsurprising results: Gov. John Hickenlooper scored 55 percent favorable impressions and 37 percent unfavorable, with 5 percent having no opinion of the governor. Only 2 percent had never heard of him.

The results were similar for Colorado’s two U.S. senators, Democrat Michael Bennet and Republican Cory Gardner, though Gardner had slightly higher favorable and unfavorable numbers, understandable since he was all over the airwaves just a year ago. Just 7 percent of likely voters hadn’t heard of Gardner, and 13 percent didn’t know Bennet from the guy down the street.

But Brauchler polled in a different realm from those three.

Asked for their impression of the fair-haired prosecutor, 6 percent said they thought favorably about him and 4 percent held unfavorable thoughts. Five percent had no opinion. And then – wait for it – a full 86 percent said they’d never heard of the guy.

Now, running for a hotly contested U.S. Senate seat – rumor has it Bennet will be targeted, if the GOP can find the right candidate – can introduce a candidate to state voters in a big way. And in a race that’s estimated to cost both sides, when all is said and done, in the $100 million range, it’s unlikely anyone with a TV set or digital device in the state will be in the dark about next year’s Senate contenders.

But 86 percent? That’s a heaping helping of anonymity to make up from a standing start, our sage politicos tell us.

info@coloradostatesman.com