I’m hoping my kindly editor will forgive me for making way too many horse references in this column (Ed: we’ll see…). It’s just that the horse is kind of the centerpiece of the current battle for the Senate here in Colorado. And it is also a horse of a different color.

I’ve often described my old boss Michael Bennet as a “workhorse.” That is a political science word (which works, as I am a former poli-sci professor at the Air Force Academy) that means an elected representative who works hard on the important issues, large and small, and is not too concerned about how many TV cameras are pointed at him or her. Bennet is the quintessential workhorse, as opposed to people like Ted Cruz who I’m guessing begins each day by adjusting his hair, just in case Fox News wants to interview him. Those types of elected officials are called “show horses,” as they care more about looks than in doing the actual hard work the office demands.

I mention the workhorse thing again because I was made aware of Bennet’s opponent, Joe O’Dea, and his time on an actual horse. It seems in late July O’Dea took a week off from campaigning with regular folks to go on a trail ride in the beautiful Rio Grande National Forest with some very special friends of his. The 51st “Big Ride” was organized by the Roundup Riders of the Rockies (3R), an organization in which O’Dea has been active for many years. So far, so good.

But it looks like it might not have been a regular trail ride when we learn that the leadership of 3R has donated (directly or to a pro-O’Dea PAC) more than $600,000 to O’Dea. The PAC involved, The American Policy Fund, which supports O’Dea enthusiastically, is a group whose big donors are from the oil and gas industry.

Bennet may well be the hardest working senator out there. I recall, back when I was a staffer for him, seeing his calendar, which was always packed with work events. On one particular day, the scheduler did give him two whole hours of evening downtime, which was nice, since it was his anniversary. That’s a hard-working guy. O’Dea, of course, has yet to establish whether he will be a workhorse or a show horse. He worked very hard in establishing an impressive business resume, so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.

But put O’Dea on a real horse, and we get a clearer picture of who he is. He hopped off the campaign trail and onto horseback, amid a critically important senate campaign, to spend time with mega-donors in the Colorado back country. He is happily taking in personal donations and huge PAC contributions.

Bennet, on the other hand, is alone in the entire nation in being the only senate candidate who is not taking a penny from PACs or federal lobbyists. That makes him a horse of a different color (Ed: OK, enough with the horses).

Bennet has long sought to curtail the role of PACs’ and lobbyists’ money in elections. Bennet also introduced a bill to eliminate (and I love this term) “zombie bank accounts” for former candidates for office. As reported in Colorado Politics, these are the monies left over after a campaign ends. Often these former elected officials will become lobbyists, and then use their leftover money to help fund that lobbying effort. It’s too bad the Bennet zombie bill (another great term in politics) didn’t pass, as it would have stopped such shenanigans.

Back in 2008 when I made my quixotic run for congress, I leapt atop my rickety soapbox to nobly declare that I  would not to take any big-money donations from PACs. As it turned out, no big money PACs wanted to donate to my campaign, so it wasn’t too tough to keep that promise. But in 2022, Bennet, by refusing PAC and lobbyist money, is digging a significant financial hole for himself. O’Dea is not, as he is taking the money.

It should be noted that donations can quickly get complicated. If a lobbyist or a corporate PAC donates to yet another PAC that then runs ads for or against a candidate, is that still corporate money? Dark money and complicated donation trails make campaign promises like Bennet’s challenging, but it is clear that Bennet has drawn a line in the sand by not accepting direct donations.

As a first-time candidate, O’Dea has no record to run on. While Bennet can point to a ban on corporate donations and his zombie bill (that’s just fun to say), O’Dea can only be judged by his words and actions thus far. He has said he would have voted for Trump’s Supreme Court nominees (even the two that appear to have perjured themselves in their confirmation hearings when they said Roe was, to them, settled law), and he’s hung around with Mitch McConnell as part of his chasing of available dollars. Oh, and he rode horses for a week with rich guys.

Simply put, you don’t get to call yourself one of the “regular folks” when you don’t hang around with regular folks. O’Dea, who claims to be a moderate, chases big dollar donors and cozied up to the lead GOP senator – a gent who has long been committed to a far-right agenda.

O’Dea looks good on horseback, but his reasons for being in the saddle seem to be more about raising big donor money than reaching out to regular Coloradans.

I prefer workhorses.