Last Friday was an eventful day in Colorado politics, as reported in Colorado Politics. It seems the current member of the U.S. House for Colorado District 5, Doug Lamborn, has decided that 18 years in the House is enough, and he has announced he will not seek reelection this autumn.

As my regular reader (Hi, Jeff!) will recall, back in 2008, when Lamborn was finishing out his very first term in the House, I decided to run against him. I didn’t formally declare until April of 2008, yet I faced no significant competition for the Democratic nomination. As a former political science professor at the Air Force Academy, the campaign was a fascinating few months. As a regular human being, it was exhausting, humbling and much more.

And though I eventually lost to Lamborn – whom I refused to demonize, and who called me the most honorable person against whom he had run – by roughly 60% to 40%, I did get more votes than any previous Democrat, so I enjoyed that. Far more importantly, I was a widower when I ran, and unbeknownst to me, my campaign manager hired a very nice person who had recently arrived in Colorado Springs as the “money” correspondence person for the campaign, handling thank-you notes, checking on donors and such.

Anyway, after the campaign, this nice staffer and I started dating, and as of next March, Dana and I will have been married for 14 years. My standard joke, of which Dana is rightfully sick, is I spent a quarter-of-a-million dollars running for Congress and I impressed just one voter.

So, I was quite flattered in the last few days when several folks reached out to me, urging me to run in 2024, thinking with Lamborn out of the way, and the recent purpling – at least to a degree – of CD5, the right kind of Democrat could win. And with the redistricting that has taken place since my run, when the district was reduced from six counties to only El Paso County, these nice folks thought I’d have a real shot this time.

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I can see their thinking, as a moderate retired military officer might be a good fit for 2024. And I get that. But today I must announce – sadly and with harps playing gently in the background, that I will not be a candidate for Congress in 2024. Did I just hear a loud sigh? Not so much…?  Crickets? Oh well.

Let’s talk about what it would take to win this open congressional seat, shall we? Open “safe” seats are rarely open. If he desired, I’m sure Lamborn could win reelection, in spite of the changes, for as long as he’d like to stay. Though people love to complain about Congress, when it comes to their own elected representatives, folks tend to think their person is OK. So yes, when elected to a safe seat, those elected to them tend to stick around.

And they can stay too long. Two recent examples of such overstayed safe seats – albeit in the Senate – are Mitch McConnell, the GOP Senate leader, and Democratic U.S. Sen., the late Dianne Feinstein. Both stayed far too long in office, and there was lots of evidence they are and were infirmed, at least to some degree. Lamborn is to be commended for not sticking around into his dotage.

So, why don’t I run?

Well, based on my 2008 experience, running for office can be thrilling. In my own case, I was running in what was considered to be the most important of the swing states during the Obama election. I had the opportunity to meet with and hang out with a remarkable collection of people, including the Obamas, Joe Biden, Mark Udall, and many others. Frankly, it was a thrill.

But those events were fleeting. What was omnipresent and relentless was the need to raise money. I had to pay for my staff, for stamps, for TV adverts, and a litany of other things. As a result, I spent up to eight hours each day on the phone calling everyone we could possibly reach, more than 100 people on a good day, in hopes of success. It’s called dialing for dollars inside the campaign world, and it is both humbling and exhausting.

Simply put, this time I don’t have the fire in the belly needed to essentially abandon my wife every day and most evenings to attend events, shake hands, and again, to raise money. I’m 65 now, not 50, and I have a different view on how I want to spend my remaining years.

Oh, and let’s talk about what’s happening on the GOP side of things.

I’m going to estimate between 13 and 17 people will declare for the GOP primary. We have already seen the CoPo story on state GOP Chair Dave Williams announcing his candidacy. And clearly Williams has already abandoned (if he even ever thought of it) the idea of a relatively civil campaign (such as Lamborn vs Bidlack was). Williams has declared his unbreakable loyalty to Trump, is an election denier and has declared he’s a “conservative wartime fighter” who wants to take out “corrupt Democrats” and “sell-out Republicans.” So, not so much for the idea people can disagree without somebody being evil.

Oh, and Williams noted, “Authentic Christian leadership means serving others above self and not letting failed, say-anything politicians in Washington D.C. get away with taking citizens for ride.” So, if you are not a Christian, good luck feeling represented by Williams, should he win. Seriously, read the CoPo story, it’s eye opening. His views make Lamborn look like a moderate.

There are already at least a dozen GOPers who are considering a run, and there are five Democrats already running, along with the usual collection of unaffiliated and third-party candidates. That’s a very different political landscape than the one I faced in 2008.

What all this means is the GOP winner of the primary will very likely – almost certainly – win in November in CD5. And just like the last time this seat was open in 2006, I predict the GOP infighting will get very nasty. The “winning” candidate out of the primary will, I’m guessing, be lucky to get 25% of the votes. Thus, a minority within a minority will pick the next member of Congress for us folks here in El Paso County – not exactly democracy’s most shining moment.

But it will be an interesting race to watch and to comment on. Short of Gov. Jared Polis calling me, asking me to run and a big dump truck of campaign donations pulling up to my house, I’ll be sitting this one out. I do predict the GOP primary campaign will be dominated by nastiness, vitriol, and exchanged allegations of lying and cheating, much like we saw back in 2006. You know: GOP politics.

Stay tuned.

Hal Bidlack is a retired professor of political science and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who taught more than 17 years at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.