A Victory for Progressives in Colorado
By Nick Sifuentes - Aug 15th, 2008 at 5:46 pmPundits with their red-vs-blue maps will tell you that Colorado’s looking bluer and bluer with each election cycle. Case in point: Jared Polis’ recent primary victory in CO-2, a strongly Democratic district which includes Boulder and the surrounding communities. Polis is a firm progressive; after making a fortune in dot-coms, he founded the Jared Polis Foundation, which is dedicated to increasing struggling students’ access to technology and strong educational programs. He also is in favor of a single-payer universal healthcare system and same-sex marriage. In short, he’d be a dream candidate anywhere in America, and it’s particularly satisfying that he won his primary in a state which has only recently been trending Democratic. To be sure, Polis’ victory does not suggest that all of Colorado has suddenly become a bastion of liberalism; this is the state that gave us the stunningly odious Marilyn Musgrave, after all.
Should Musgrave win re-election, she and Polis would make for uncomfortable company: Musgrave was the primary sponsor of the 2005 Federal Marriage Amendment, while Polis is openly gay. However, his Democratic opponents declined to raise his sexuality as an “issue,” showing that they were above using divisive identity politics to win what would have been a hollow victory. According to Time:
In one of the most liberal districts in the state, the campaign has focused primarily on the economy, Iraq, the environment and education.
The Time article does, however, highlight the fact that over $10 million was spent by various parties in the race, and that while no one used Polis’ sexuality as a wedge issue, his opponents did raise the issue of Polis using his own funds to partially finance his campaign. $10 million is an alarming amount to spend on a Congressional primary in a state which does not have particularly high advertising costs, especially for someone concerned with the extremely high barriers to entry which are present in modern politics.
That being said, the victory here is in avoiding the mistakes made by Nikki Tinker in the Tennessee primary from a few weeks prior. While congratulations are due to Jared Polis, we should also congratulate his opponents on running a fair, above-board campaign on the issues. At the risk of sounding cheesy, it’s worth saying that when candidates campaign fairly, it’s not only the eventual victor who wins.
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