Faux Candidacy Over?

The Denver Post is reporting that Mark Benner, who was running aginst Mark Udall as a matter of form only is likely at the end of his rope as a candidate:

Mark Benner, the insurgent Democratic candidate for Colorado's open U.S. Senate seat, got just 1.2 percent of the vote in the preference poll taken during the party caucuses Feb. 5, according to results released by the party Tuesday.

Although there is a slim chance that Benner could rally delegates in county conventions, his showing in the poll virtually ends his candidacy.

We speculated that he never was serious and that this was nothing more than an attempt to make Mark Udall look more "centrist" in the same way Mike Miles made Ken Salazar look more centrist in 2004.

If the purpose is to make Mark Udall seem centrist, it has already backfired. The Denver Post, as our fellow bloggers pointed out yesterday called [ Mark ] Udall "solidly liberal" in response to the [ Mark ] Benner candidacy. Those are words it will find it difficult to take back.