•George Will profiles the Colorado U.S. Senate race in “A Rocky Mountain showdown.”
•Former GOP rivals in the heated Republican U.S. Senate primary, Ken Buck (the nominee) and Jane Norton, appeared together briefly this week in a sign of party solidarity.
•Democratic Rep. Ed Perlmutter (CO-7) and GOP challenger Ryan Frazier disagree on banking regulations and methods of encouraging credit availability to small businesses as part of an effort to boost the economy.
•South Carolina Republican congressional candidate Tim Scott will campaign with Frazier later today at a joint press conference and meet-and-greet in Aurora and Wheat Ridge, Colorado.
•Democratic Rep. Betsy Markey (CO-4) clashed with her Republican opponent, Cory Gardner, over farm subsidies–an enormous issue for the state’s 4th district that occupies nearly the entire eastern third of the state.
•The Denver Post–“drop out now”–and the Colorado Springs Gazette–“do the right thing”–have both issued impassioned pleas for Dan Maes, the Republican nominee for governor, to exit the race as soon as possible in favor of the party selecting a replacement candidate, as they point to repeated campaign gaffes that include questions of competence and integrity.
•Colorado beer baron Pete Coors, a prominent Republican and the party’s 2004 nominee, joined other prominent Republicans such as former Sen. Hank Brown (1991-1997) and former state senate president John Andrews in calling for Maes to bow out. RedState blogger Erick Erickson said Maes “needs to disappear,” citing the potential damage to the rest of the Republican ticket in November. Many grassroots groups or their leaders also revoked their previous support for Maes.
•Maes remained defiant, rebuffing the controversy as attacks from the GOP “machine” and party “power-brokers.”
•Maes did attend a prerecorded debate, to be aired this weekend, along with his Democratic opponent John Hickenlooper and Tom Tancredo, now running under the American Constitution Party banner.