A GOP Senate primary battle heats up unexpectedly in Colorado:

When Jane Norton, a former Colorado lieutenant governor, announced her Senate bid last year, the National Republican Senatorial Committee may have hoped for a cakewalk. Affable, noncontroversial, and pro-life, Norton was a known commodity and well-liked in Washington, especially by Sen. John McCain, who appreciated her work as state chair of his presidential campaign. According to the Denver Post, the NRSC went so far as to register a pair of websites in her name.
But while they didn’t constitute a formal endorsement, the websites stirred a “backlash” among party activists, explains Dick Wadhams, the state-GOP chair. Fed up with Washington minglers, many conservatives lost interest in the blonde-coiffed frontrunner. Capitalizing on their frustration was the Cinderella campaign of Ken Buck, a conservative district attorney from northern Colorado. Months later, propelled by tea-party fervor, Buck finds himself surging in the GOP primary.

Read the rest here.