Eric Sondermann is of course correct Victor Marx is an unserious, unelectable, embarrassing Republican nominee for governor of Colorado. But I respectfully submit that the “through line,” as Mr. Sondermann describes it, is not from Trump to Marx, despite their both being grifters with a loose, and mostly forgotten, acquaintance with the truth.

Instead, the through line starts much earlier: I propose the first unmistakable symptom of the GOP as a party that stands for nothing and a Democratic Party that stands for economically ignorant things was the 2010 election. For folks not here in Colorado, you will remember the Tea Party election, a furious reaction to both parties.

Republican (and many independent) voters disapproved of Obamacare specifically and President Barack Obama generally, but did not trust the feckless “establishment” go-along-to-get-along Republicans to be the antidote. Republican voters were sick of calls for “bipartisanship” which, as represented particularly by U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) and an earlier iteration of Sen Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), always meant conservatives accepting more liberal positions while extracting no important concessions from the Democrats.

But that’s not really the relevant story for today, the story which I’m surprised Mr. Sondermann, who mentioned his “half-century of observing our state’s politics” seems to have missed: in 2010, Republicans nominated a man named Dan Maes, every bit as unqualified to be governor as Victor Marx is, albeit Mr. Maes was slightly less bizarre than Colorado’s king of “retooling prayers.” Maes’ nomination, like Marx’s, was a scream of anger and frustration by the Republican base. To a degree, it’s understandable. Just not to the degree of thinking that Maes or Marx is a rational choice.

The years between those two massive nominating mistakes by the state GOP were consumed with GOP infighting, incompetence and corruption as the well-planned and well-funded Democratic “Blueprint” combined with a massive influx of left-leaning voters from California turned the state from light red to today’s deep blue.

Sondermann is correct at the moment the Colorado GOP base’s avatars are conspiracy-theory loons, scam-PAC grifters and perhaps the state’s leading antisemite. As easy as it is to think of this heinous clown-car as the cause of Democratic dominance in the state, they, like Trump, are more a symptom than a cause and to that the history that gave us the blight of Victor Marx begins with Donald Trump is to misunderstand a much bigger and more important trend: both parties are failing Coloradans and Americans, but at least in Colorado the Republicans have proven themselves to be much less serious, much less organized and much more willing to see an utter lack of relevant experience or knowledge as the primary virtue in a candidate. Or, to put it another way, Republicans don’t concern themselves much with winning anymore.

Colorado Republicans deserve to get crushed, which is a shame because Democrats are destroying this state (at least from the perspective of it being a place where businesses want to operate, which obviously has long-term implications for population as well).

I’ll make one more prediction, in gentle disagreement with Eric Sonderman: He predicts Victor Marx will lose to Phil Weiser by less than 30 points. I think Eric is too optimistic.

Ross Kaminsky
Host, Ross Kaminsky on the News (with Jeana Gondek)
Weekdays 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. MST
KOA 850 AM and 94.1 FM (Denver)
Send us your feedback: Click here.