This is an interesting take: The Republican who chose not to run for U.S. Senate is guessing what the Democrat who won it, Michael Bennet, might do to help or hurt the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch of Denver.

George Brauchler, the south metro Denver district attorney who opted not to run for Senate last year, thinks Bennet will get on the Gorsuch bandwagon, possibly in the name of Colorado pride. That’s a bold prediction, given Gorsuch’s views against abortion – views that will be shared by any pick of President Donald Trump.

Democrats and other abortion-rights supporters are mounting an all-out campaign to complicate Gorsuch’s confirmation. They are the people Bennet counts on to keep him in office.

“Honestly, I don’t see him as a controversial pick,” Brauchler told Western Wire, a project of the Western Energy Alliance. “For the West in particular, you want to have someone who feels like the federal government should be limited to those powers extended to it either through the Constitution or by Congress.

“So I can’t imagine that’s a partisan issue.”

Everything is partisan in politics. Brauchler is commonly discussed as a Republican candidate for governor next year, and let’s not forget that there’s a lot of state pride in Gorsuch, a Colorado native son who would become the first Coloradan on the high court since Byron White stepped.

Gorsuch was a law clerk for White, “the only justice to ever lead the NFL in rushing,” he pointed out after Trump announced his nomination in a televised event Tuesday night.

Byron White’s name is on the federal courthouse in Denver, and he was All-American halfback for the University of Colorado and led the team to an undefeated season in 1937,

“I don’t think he’s the kind of guy that would try to blow this up, especially with Justice-to-be Gorsuch coming from our state,” Brauchler said of Bennet.

Bennet had said nothing personally by Wednesday evening, and his spokeswoman’s statement didn’t shed much light on what the senior senator from Colorado might do.

“Michael takes seriously the Senate’s responsibility to advise and consent on Supreme Court nominations,”  Laurie Cipriano said in a statement. “He intends to review Judge Gorsuch’s record carefully in the coming weeks.”