The Left's Intensifying Tug-of-War over Udall's Political Drift

The battle is on within the Colorado Left. Last Friday, the Dead Governors called a poll showing a three-way race for the U.S. Senate "mythical." Counting on recent voting patterns, they try to ward off the strong pressure from the Left that their anointed candidate Mark Udall has started to feel as he abandons his Boulder liberal roots to run for the center of the political spectrum. There is no Green Party threat, they say:

That's all well and good for Schaffer, but no third party candidate received more than 1% of the vote in the 2006 gubernatorial race or the 2004 Senate race. Even the most well-known and well-funded Green Party candidate in recent history, Ralph Nader, managed just 5% of the vote in Colorado when he ran for President in 2000. Touting this three person poll is beyond ridiculous, because a Green Party candidate in Colorado will be lucky to get 2% of the vote.

Is this wishful thinking on their part? It well may be. The war in Iraq has changed up the political dynamic, so that relying on figures from as recently as the last 2 election cycles might make the Dead Governors' logic just that: wishful thinking.

A palpable anger is growing among the Nutroots, as witnessed in this post today from the Metro Denver Greens:

Finally, Mark Udall, John Salazar and Ed Perlmutter cast very wimpy votes in the U.S. House of Representatives yesterday. They voted to condemn an ad in a newspaper because the radical Republicans scared them into doing so.

Hey, you guys, it should be the job of the Congress to bring our troops home, not legislate free speech.

Of course, you can (and should) question the judgment of sanctioning the slander of an honorable American general. But how long will the seething rage among elements of the Left in Colorado abide Udall abandoning the faith?

Green Party candidate Bob Kinsey may become all the more palatable for more and more disaffected Left-leaning Colorado voters. After all, principles never die. The Denver Metro Greens' site says it well: "Progressive and tired of wimply, spineless Dimocrats? Vote Green!"