Environment America's Colorado Campaign Judges Mark Udall Insincere on Energy

PolitickerCO reports that a 501c4 named Environment America "is launching a ground organization" in Colorado to advocate the election of Mark Udall:

Environment America political director Ivan Frishberg, praising Markey and Udall’s record on green issues, said the organization aimed to go to bat for open seat and challenger candidates who would bring strong environmental resumes to Washington.

This raises a valid question about Mark Udall's recent U-turn in favor of offshore drilling to meet America's domestic energy production needs: Why would Environment America, a group religiously opposed to offshore drilling, spend valuable time, energy, and resources to support a candidate who says he now favors offshore drilling?

Environment America must be very confident in the insincerity of Mark Udall's latest position of political convenience. In other words, don't expect Udall to make any amendments to the party platform at the upcoming Democratic National Convention.

I think this ad by Freedom's Watch gets it most right about Skip, er, I mean, Mark Udall.

DNC Could Be Mark Udall's Stage to Show He's Serious about Drilling for Energy

Regarding Mark Udall's apparent U-turn on energy policy, the Wall Street Journal has been on the case. Last week, Kimberly Strassel pointed out that Udall's newfound support of the so-called "Gang of 10" energy proposal shows Udall still isn't serious about real solutions:

Any guesses as to Mr. Udall's other action this week? That's right. He embraced the Gang of 10's "compromise." It wasn't a huge sacrifice, since the proposal mostly limits drilling to a few coastal states, while spending $84 billion in subsidies primarily for the sort of "green" energy Mr. Udall favors. Meantime, he's betting the "bipartisan" nature of that bill will provide him political protection against Mr. Schaffer's attacks, while heading off more aggressive GOP drilling proposals in Congress this September. [emphasis added]

Today the Journal's editors speculate on the possibility of bold action at the Democratic National Convention to dig the party out of its hole:

For example, the platform draft now says that "We know we can't drill our way to energy independence." Then there's the bit about ending "the tyranny of oil," which will require "far more than simply expanding our economic and political resources to keep oil flowing steadily" from overseas and elsewhere. There's also no mention of drilling offshore, much less in Alaska, and nothing about exploiting our vast domestic supplies of oil shale.

Fortunately, Democrats have time to fix these political oversights. If they are serious, surely Democrats will have someone rise on the convention floor next week and offer an amendment that endorses offshore drilling and pledges not to extend the Congressional ban on drilling that expires on September 30. Come to think of it, Democrats should offer this amendment in prime time. How better to steal the drilling issue from Republicans?

It's a terrific idea to test the Party's seriousness about applying a truly comprehensive energy solution that would benefit Colorado's middle-class families.

What better approach than having Mark Udall be the one to offer the amendment? Since the DNC is in Udall's backyard (relatively speaking - as close as Denver is to Boulder), and since Udall has professed a serious change of heart on the issue, why not? Maybe the amendment at least could come from the Colorado delegation, and Udall could publicly endorse it.

The Journal expounds:

Mr. Udall's lead in the polls has vanished. "We've got to produce our own oil and gas here in our country," he now says in a new TV spot. But a campaign ad isn't enough. Surely, Mr. Udall will now want to acknowledge his mistake of a year ago and fight to lift the oil-shale ban on the House floor next month. That is, unless his new pro-drilling rhetoric is merely campaign triangulation that he doesn't really believe.

If Mark Udall wants to take the energy issue off the table, and show he is truly serious about solutions rather than political posturing, he could join Bob Schaffer in endorsing a comprehensive energy policy.

Mark Udall Has Current Edge, But New Campaign Phase About to Begin

From CQ Politics' latest analysis, Colorado's U.S. Senate is the fourth most likely to change hands in this fall's election. After noting Mark Udall's recent lead in the polls, they add:

The state still is closely divided politically and Republicans say they are confident that their candidate, conservative former Rep. Bob Schaffer, will hold the seat by proving to voters that Udall, whose political base is in the liberal college town of Boulder, is too far left for Colorado....

Mark Udall currently has the edge, but the race is sure to tighten up as it enters a new phase in which:

1) Bob Schaffer gets to ply his natural edge in televised debates with Boulder liberal Mark Udall
2) The arrival of the Democratic National Convention provides an opportunity for independent voters to see some of Mark Udall's less respectable cousins up close and personal
3) Voters across Colorado get engaged with the issues and the campaign while still paying four dollars or more per gallon at the pump

While Schaffer v Udall has been covering Colorado's U.S. Senate showdown in earnest for more than a year, the longest and most in-depth part of the campaign lies ahead.

Udall Watch and the Difficult Decision of Colorado Democrat Superdelegates

Not only are Mark Udall and other Democrat superdelegates paralyzed with indecision about which candidate to support, the Rocky Mountain News reports today that Colorado Democrats themselves are still undecided about who one of their superdelegates should be:

Mayor John Hickenlooper and former Mayor Federico Pena will likely face off this month to be named Colorado's one at-large "superdelegate" to the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

The two are the only nominees for the slot, which could have national implications because superdelegates likely will decide the contest between Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama.

Unlike delegates who are pledged to a candidate based on the outcome of their state's primary or caucus, superdelegates are free to vote for whomever they think has the best chance of winning in November.

In honor of all the recent news about Mark Udall's superdelegate troubles, Schaffer v Udall this morning has unveiled Udall Watch - a countdown clock until the Democratic National Convention and the Boulder liberal Senatorial candidate's impending decision: Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton?

On Superdelegate Mark Udall's "Recurring Nightmare"

In a Los Angeles Times column today, political scientist Norman Ornstein highlights the serious challenge faced by Democratic superdelegates:

As the front-runner, Obama is playing it cool, although he is still using his spare moments to call superdelegates and chat. If Obama wins Indiana, odds are that a pent-up flood of supers finally will endorse him on May 7, signaling an early end to the process. If he holds Clinton's edge in Indiana to somewhere close to 2% and wins North Carolina by anywhere close to the 15% margin he holds in the polls, odds are that a trickle of superdelegate Obama endorsements will become a steady stream, resulting in a slower May decision.

If neither of these scenarios pan out, the supers will try mightily to resolve the issue on or after the last active voting on June 3, to keep their convention from careening out of control. But they need a good reason to end their torture. Ambiguous results, damaging enough to Obama to keep him from closure but not definitive enough to move these reluctant power brokers to the Clinton camp, are their recurring nightmare. [emphases added]

Superdelegate Mark Udall, the Democrat U.S. Senate candidate from Colorado, has as much or more to lose than any of his fellow undecideds - especially if the Denver convention does careen "out of control."

A "recurring nightmare" is not a good way to get a good night's sleep.

Colorado Voter Registration And Party Affiliation--April Update

The latest numbers from the Secretary of State's office--

Republicans--1017738
Democrats--900823
Unaffiliated--1013548
Total--2932109

SvU's voter affiliation tracker has been updated:

Previous coverage here.

**Update--
As it gets closer to the election, these numbers will help to predict the final outcome as voter turnout percentages (overall), party voter support for candidates (percentage of registered party members that vote for their party's candidate), and the great unknown of the unaffiliateds. Democrats must have the unaffiliateds break their way if the parties' own voters show up in roughly the same proportion and vote in roughly the same percentage. The GOP still owns the pure registration advantage over Democrats, and a high voter turnout and a split independent vote will tilt the advantage ever so slightly in favor of the GOP (at least in general election voter terms). Even a slight advantage may do nothing more than stanch the bleeding of recent electoral losses. Coattails of each party's nominee will also likely provide further help (or hindrance) to the state's Senate candidates and other downticket elections.

Safe prediction? Turnout will be somewhere between 80 and 90% in 2008.

Silent Superdelegate Mark Udall Betraying Elitist Sympathies with Obama

An apparently unofficial Barack Obama supporter at a site called "Obama Blog" is urging readers to put the pressure on undecided superdelegates such as Boulder liberal Rep. Mark Udall.

More than a week has gone by, and Mark Udall still is avoiding the question of whether he shares Obama's elitist views about "bitter" small-town Americans who cling to guns, religion, and bigotry. By not condemning these views, it seems fair to assume that Udall either holds them personally or just doesn't feel they're a big deal.

Mark Udall grew up in Washington, D.C., the son of a United States Senator (who "ran for the Democratic nomination for President as a liberal alternative to the Southern centrist Jimmy Carter" in 1976). Maybe that lies behind any elitist sympathies.

After the stinging results of the Pennsylvania primary that look increasingly likely to push the Democratic race for President to the August convention in Denver, Mark Udall may be having second thoughts.

Colorado Voter Registration And Party Affiliation--March Update

From the Sec. of State's office, these updated figures for March 2008 of Colorado's voter registration numbers and party affiliation:

Democrats--893,472
Unaffiliateds--1,008,675
Republicans--1,015,993

Since February 2008:
Democrats +7,849
Unaffiliteds +5,672
Republicans +2,527

The trend since January 2004:



Takeaways--the rapid trend for the state's unaffiliated ranks continues, as Republican recovery rate lags behind that of both unaffiliateds and Democrats since early 2007.

It will also be important to watch the numbers heading into the summer, and especially the final two reports--September and October--following the Democratic National Convention. Should Recreate '68 and its allies create the disruption and mayhem they are so eager to achieve, it may not matter if unaffiliateds have overtaken Republicans as the largest voting bloc in Colorado. Voter backlash against the Democrats could be considerable statewide, if not nationally, especially if the Democrats add insult to injury by having a heated, brokered convention.

Stay tuned.

Cross posted from Slapstick Politics

Painful Reading for Mark Udall

If you're Boulder liberal Rep. Mark Udall, you don't want to be reading this:

So it will come down in Denver to the Party's super delegates, a mechanism reeking of rule by elites, adopted by the party which proclaims its devotion to the common man and woman, and which has made huge amounts of noise about making every vote count. Thanks to its convoluted primary process, with proportional arrangements frustrating the desire to have a decisive winner to allow the party to get on with hammering the GOP nominee, the edge in pledged delegates that belongs to Barack Obama will be difficult to overcome among the super delegates, who have been breaking his way since the first Super Tuesday.

Will the political party which depends on blacks voting for it by a 9 to 1 ratio be able to deny its backing for the nation's highest office to a black man who holds the pledged delegate lead? Will this be so even if the shine on his vague promises gets tarnished and his involvement in ordinary Chicago machine politics becomes clear over the course of the Rezko trial? Will this be so if by the summer it is clear that Clinton would be a stronger general election candidate, running better in more of the contested states than Obama (Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey, and in western states with high percentages of Hispanics)?

The tragic flaw of the Democratic Party is the hubris that allows it to style itself as the only force interested in the welfare of minorities and the poor, and the only party committed to real democracy. It is not accustomed to its own internal processes being subjected to much critical media scrutiny.

But Denver promises to be the greatest political media spectacle since the Democrats' Chicago convention in 1968. The two candidates are very close in the popular vote and in the delegate race. It would be foolish for either not to go after the nomination prize until mathematically eliminated. The ambition that drives both nominees pretty much ensures that this will happen. It could well end up tearing apart the Party.

Question: Do Beltway pundits think this prolonged and painful development will enhance Mark Udall's chances at winning the general election come November?

Udall Remains Quiet On Superdelegate Vote

Mum's the word for Mark Udall on his own presidential preference:

Udall campaign spokeswoman Taylor West said the congressman, while remaining tight-lipped about his preference, is certainly not "ignoring" how his constituents in the 2nd Congressional District voted.

Bold. Boulder. Liberal. He won't even stake out a position on his own party's presidential nominee!

Democratic National Convention Countdown

The Democrats, led by Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, Governor Bill Ritter, and DNC Chair Howard Dean kicked-off the one year countdown to next year's Democratic National Convention (full videos of all the speeches at Slapstick Politics).

Funny, though, that the Democrats mentioned picking up seats in the West in the past few cycles, and hope for more in 2008--but fail to plug their Democratic candidate Rep. Mark Udall. Udall wasn't even in attendance, though many other elected Democrats were on hand to rally supporters.

Surprising, given the prominence attributed to the race as one of the most competitive and closely watched in the country, that neither the Democrat's candidate or even a mention of the import of the Senate race itself was made. Maybe the Democrats were too busy speculating on Bob Schaffer's future to remember they have a candidate who was AWOL at a high-profile (if somewhat symbolic) event.