We Post Them As We Find Them - Big 40

The Seminal, a new Ohio left wing blog has decided to take sides. Read this and guess who they picked (drum roll):

Now, after careful research [ mostly conducted by reading Schaffer v Udall ] on the campaigns and personal histories of the two men, I feel comfortable giving my full support to Democratic candidate Mark Udall. Ultimately, the decision was an easy one; the positions on one side attracted as much as the other repelled.

They go on to write about our scoreboard:

The pro-Schaffer blog referred to above thinks painting Udall as a "liberal" will hurt him with Colorado voters, who they believe prefer "moderate" candidates. As such, they're keeping a tally of the different labels that are used to refer to Mark. Their scorecard reads...

One label, however, is conspicuously absent from their scorecard: "progressive." Mark's record distinguishes him from the "liberal" crowd, which includes disappointments like Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi.

He belongs to better company. Mark Udall is a progressive candidate for a country badly in need of progressive leaders, and he enjoys my full support.

We actually do have a label for "progressive" and have used it in the past. A politician who is progressive is farther to the left than "liberal," so we count that label in the "reliably left wing" column. Had the Seminal writer followed the bread crumbs back far enough, he would have discovered our substitution.

We might not have written this elsewhere, but the original purpose of this scoreboard was to prevent both of the two major Denver papers from trying to claim that Udall is a moderate when his own party was celebrating his liberalism. Colorado is cursed with Bill Ritter who is governing of late as a left wing lunatic because the Denver Post scammed the public (or perhaps got itself scammed), telling all comers that he would govern as a moderate. The Post has now referred to Mark Udall as "solidly liberal," so we keep this up for entertainment value and possible future use.

The Mark Udall is not a moderate scoreboard:
extremist 2
reliably left wing 10
liberal 28
moderate 0
conservative (chuckle)

We started this scoreboard when we noticed that liberal blogs and the msm were routinely calling Mark Udall a "liberal," "reliably left wing," and even "extremist." We do not count comments from conservative blogs and we didn't count a comment on a liberal show by a conservative politician. Those who would like to check our methodology can follow the bread crumbs backwards.

I Left My Heart In San Francisco

As promised yesterday, we are incrementing the scoreboard by one. The Seminal, a self identified liberal blog called Mark Udall a liberal.

The Mark Udall is not a moderate scoreboard:
extremist 2
reliably left wing 8
liberal 28
moderate 0
conservative (chuckle)

We started this scoreboard when we noticed that liberal blogs and the msm were routinely calling Mark Udall a "liberal," "reliably left wing," and even "extremist." We do not count comments from conservative blogs and we didn't count a comment on a liberal show by a conservative politician. Those who would like to check our methodology can follow the bread crumbs backwards.

A Liberal Fan Club In A Close Race

The out of state folks at The Seminal are obviously fans of this blog. Well, perhaps not fans, but we are clearly a resource.

Their reporting is a heck of a lot more accurate than it was just a few days ago. They quote the Independent Thinking video at length. That is what comes from being careful to provide links.

After an abysmal first essay, which Ben panned, they put out a well balanced second essay that describes the contest as being where we think it is:

That, coupled with the recent blue streak in Colorado politics (all branches of the state's government will have a Democratic majority if a Democrat wins in '08) has made it one of Time Magazine's Top Ten Senate Races to Watch.

The outgoing Senator Allard won his 2002 reelection with only 51% of the vote, and in the 2004 Senate elections Coloradoans sent Democrat Ken Salazar to Washington, also with 51% of the vote. Though it has a conservative track record, Colorado is clearly a state that now swings both ways.

We wouldn't want our new friends to put too much stock in the legislature being in the hands of Democrats as it has been cleverly gerrymandered by agents of the State Supreme Court. Republican legislative candidates in aggregate routinely get more votes than Democrat candidates. The district this writer lives in goes 80-20 Republican while just a few miles south, the Democrat wins by a nose. That is what gerrymandering will do, and it leads to overconfidence and misleading assumptions by folks who don't live in Colorado.

We also wouldn't want them to put a lot of stock in either the win by Ken Salazar or Bill Ritter. Both ran as "moderates" and faced a divided Colorado Republican party. Bill Ritter has turned out to be so far to the left that the Denver Post, which supported him in 2006, regularly eats his lunch. That won't help Mark Udall, whose liberal blogging and msm friends (including you) regularly call him a liberal to the point that we keep a scoreboard. (We'll update the scoreboard later tonight or tomorrow as we have time.)

There is a more than even chance that having the Democrat convention in Denver will be unhelpful to Mark Udall.

This isn't the gimmie that many on the left thought it might be just six months ago. It will be a close race. We commend The Seminal for observing that Bob Schaffer:

is a formidable opponent, as demonstrated by his recent appearance on the television program Independent Thinking. There he expressed views that are bound to resonate with Colorado's conservative voters.

Strike out the word "conservative" and just leave it at "resonate with Colorado's voters."

They are correct when they say:

It's going to be a fun one out west.

So much of the liberal blogosphere in Colorado is untruthful and unethical that we are quite happy to see a well written and balanced essay from a liberal source. No Democrat blog in Colorado would have written what you wrote. They get paid (literally) to be nasty. Welcome to the arena of civil discourse.

A Little Remediation for Out-of-State Observers

A new team of Web writers for "The Seminal" - originally from Northwestern University, no less - has declared its intention "to follow four key Senate races in 2008," including Colorado. Like the authors of Schaffer v Udall, these writers are independent (or so they assert), but unlike us they are avowedly Leftward-leaning. Here's their introduction to Colorado:

With republican [sic] incumbent Wayne Allard out of the race, Colorado is looking like one of the best pickup opportunities the Democrats have in 2008. Possible Republican candidates for the seat include former U.S. Rep. Bob Schaffer, Delta County Commissioner Wayne Wolf, U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez and a slew of others.

The Democratic challenger will be popular Congressman Mark Udall. Udall is a strong proponent of responsible redeployment from Iraq, as he explains in this statement:

We must end our continued entanglement in this war, but we must do so in a way that inhibits the development of terrorist bases, manages to salvage our national reputation in the region and keeps faith with the humanitarian obligation we have to the Iraqi people.

I believe that we should begin the process with a phased withdrawal that makes clear to the Iraqi political leadership that they alone have the ultimate power to settle their differences and build a stable society. America can help. The United Nations should help. But in the end, the solution to unending war in Iraq rests with the political will of the Iraqi people.

He is also focusing his campaign on education, health care and energy independence. You can contribute to Udall's campaign here.

Since I look forward to reading their analysis of the race in the coming weeks and months, I thought it would be best first, as a kind gesture, to save some of their readers from confusion and misinformation, and to point out the need to stay up-to-date with events in our fair Centennial State.

Basic facts:

1. Wayne Wolf is running for the 3rd Congressional District, not the Senate.

2. Bob Schaffer is the only declared Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate race. Bob Beauprez, who is not running, wrote on his own blog in early October:

Udall’s chief opponent in his quest for the Senate is the rock solid Bob Schaffer, but the Boulder liberal is also concerned that he may get challenged by a candidate from the left that could slice off 5-7% of the electorate that otherwise would be his.

3. Speaking of a marginal challenge from Udall's Left, the only other declared candidate in this race from either major party is Left-wing Kucinich activist Mark Benner.

Other observations:

1. Udall, who The Seminal describes as favoring "responsible redeployment from Iraq," has voted several times for an irresponsible "cut-and-run" strategy, even as the "surge" showed signs of success.

2. For awhile, the issue statements on Udall's site were down. As a public service, we reposted some of them here.

3. To provide balance to The Seminal's link to Udall's contribution page, here is where you can go to donate money to the campaign of principled former Congressman Bob Schaffer.