If you missed the first debate — actually a forum, for you nitpickers out there — between Michael Bennet and Phil Weiser in their race to become the next Colorado governor, you didn’t miss all that much.
But, let’s agree, it was a start.
The race began some months ago, but it still won’t have started in earnest until one or more of at least two things have happened: The TV ad avalanche begins (not for a few months yet, please!!!), and the candidates’ stands on issues get a little more refined. Come on, there’s lots of room to disagree on, say, how to solve the state’s affordability crisis.
So far, we have Weiser saying that Bennet hasn’t taken on Donald Trump strongly enough in the Senate, and Bennet saying that Weiser has been exaggerating his role in the 50 lawsuits he has either filed or joined against Trump and the Trump administration.
Can anyone name another issue separating Bennet and Weiser yet — other than one’s a senator and one is an attorney general? The jobs are pretty different, but neither one guarantees the officeholder would be good, or not so good, as governor.
To his credit, Weiser does have a ready slogan for those who don’t want to have to choose: Weiser for governor, Bennet for senator.
Bennet has a more difficult time explaining why he wants to leave the Senate to be Colorado’s governor. He says he can do more for Colorado in fighting Trump as governor than as senator, but it’s an argument — one that seems counterintuitive — that he still needs to explain more thoroughly.
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Maybe the reason we haven’t seen really sharp divisions is that the candidates agree, in general, on most of the big issues facing Colorado, from the ill effects of TABOR on Colorado’s budget to support for migrants who are being intimidated and worse by the masked thugs from ICE.
Both step back from any strong criticism of Gov. Jared Polis, the person they’re trying to succeed. But when or if Polis commutes election grifter Tina Peters’ sentence — which is looking increasingly likely — I assume they will each take on Polis.
I wonder how strongly, though, and if there will be a difference that matters. If anyone has made nice with Trump, it’s Polis, even when Trump calls him a sleazebag.
(By the way, I should have mentioned Bennet and Weiser are running for the Democratic nomination, meaning one or the other will eventually have to face a Republican opponent in the general election. If you’re wondering about the odds: As the bottomless-pocketed Dodgers seek a dynastic three-peat in baseball, the Democratic dynasty in Colorado has seen one Republican candidate for governor win in this century, and that was 24 years ago.)
The debate/forum earlier this week, sponsored by the Colorado Young Democrats, was the first time Bennet and Weiser had squared off before an audience. The debate did get a little chippy, but there was no blood left on the floor.
When the real chippiness comes — and it will — you’ll know it when you see it.
But what is clear, and has been for a while, is that Trump will be at the center of the race, and the candidate who can convince voters that he — sadly, it’s always a he, isn’t it? — can better protect Colorado from both Trump and the Trumpist depredations he has turned loose on us, will have the edge.
And the fight for that edge is where the current edginess lies.
Trump has been bad news for the nation, of course, and, in particular, for Colorado, which has handily rejected him in three consecutive elections, none of them rigged. Trump has responded by basically declaring war on Colorado. Fortunately, the war here isn’t as damaging — yet — as the one being fought in Minnesota. (Check out this video from the New York Times, featuring Todd Heisler, the Pulitzer-winning photographer at the Rocky Mountain News, of a woman ICE is dragging out of her car.)
The war, though, is real. And Trump is winning — whether it’s his veto of the unanimously approved Arkansas River conduit, or his threat to take NCAR from Colorado and break it into small pieces, whether it’s the social services funding that Trump is, unconstitutionally, trying to take from Colorado and four other blue states he sees as enemies.
But in different ways, Trump’s escalating war on Colorado has allowed both candidates to show off their strengths. The first bill Bennet introduced as a senator was for the conduit, which was first championed in the 1960s by John F. Kennedy. He got to stand with Lauren Boebert in criticizing Trump for his revenge-tour veto. He led eight Democratic senators demanding oversight on the Venezuela incursion. He and John Hickenlooper held up Trump’s funding bill because of the defunding of NCAR.
Let’s just say Trump’s behavior gives a Democratic senator ample chance to show fight, not that all that many have.
And I think it’s fair to say that Weiser, who began the race as a long shot, wouldn’t have much of a chance if he hadn’t been part of the 50 lawsuits against Trump and his administration. He deserves credit for his role. And he definitely seems to have a chance now.
This is one place where the debate did get chippy. As you’d expect, Weiser didn’t file most of those lawsuits. He joined other attorneys general in the cause, but he has led in more than a few. And the Democratic AGs’ collective stand has provided us with one of the more successful checks on Trump, although those checks often disappear when the cases reach the Supine Supreme Court.™
Bennet keeps saying that Weiser is exaggerating his role. Weiser, meanwhile, has criticized Bennet for voting for several of Trump’s cabinet nominees, including Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, who, among other Trumpian horrors, tried to freeze funding on SNAP payments.
“I don’t believe, when you’re up against a lawless bully, you try to make nice,” Weiser said, referring to Bennet’s vote for Rollins and seven other Trump cabinet nominees. (Hickenlooper voted for 11.)
Weiser added, also clearly referring to Bennet: “I’m not afraid to do the right thing when there are political consequences. It is important that leaders lead with their values and fight for what is right.”
Bennet — who says he voted for Rollins because she agreed, and has kept her promise, to meet weekly with Western congressional members during the fire season — reacted pretty strongly. He concedes he regrets some other confirmation votes, as he should.
“There’s literally nothing easier in the world than voting against a Trump nominee on the floor of the U.S. Senate,” Bennet said, “except for maybe joining someone else’s lawsuit that’s been filed against Donald Trump and saying that you have filed against Donald Trump.”
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Was Bennet making nice with Trump? You’d be hard pressed to find evidence of that. It’s also fair to note that Bennet was a leader in the confirmation fights against Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and against Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
And is Bennet really saying that Weiser isn’t a fighter? After the debate, Bennet told reporters that though he thought Weiser was taking too much credit, he was glad to see the AG signing on to lawsuits challenging Trump. Of course, he was. He’ll be joining more as the AGs try to keep up with Trump’s lawlessness.
What we know — with the primary vote not set until June — is that both candidates have raised a lot of money, that they’ll be bombarding us with TV ads, that it will take a while before most voters are actually paying attention, that there will be issues we may not have thought of yet, that the race will surely get ugly by the end.
And that, whatever else happens, one of the two will almost certainly be Colorado’s next governor.
Mike Littwin has been a columnist for too many years to count. He has covered Dr. J, four presidential inaugurations, six national conventions and countless brain-numbing speeches in the New Hampshire and Iowa snow. Sign up for Mike’s newsletter.
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