Ken Buck suddenly announced his retirement from Congress, citing the dysfunctionalism of the House as one reason for his swift departure. You can hear more of his ideas about that in a video below. But here’s the practical and fascinating question that his departure piques: What about a special election to fill his seat? It is eight months until November. Ron Filipkowski at Meidas Touch researched how this might affect everybody’s least favorite congresswoman, Lauren Boebert.
It appears based on my reading of the Colorado Special Election statute that no Special Election may be held within 90 days of the general election in November, or within 60 days of a primary which is June 25. Therefore, it seems possible that a Special Election could be held next month to fill this seat.
It also appears, since Lauren Boebert is switching districts, that she would have to resign her current House seat in order to be eligible for the Special election. It is also too late to qualify for the ballot in her current district. So, Boebert appears to be in a bit of a bind where she likely will have to resign her current seat in CO-3 to run in the Special Election unless she wants to run against the winner of the Special Election in November, which is not ideal.
This is terrific. The best that we could have hoped for is Bobo getting primaried in June, which looks like it will be the case. She was initially coming in at 5th place and when last polled was at 3rd place. So this is not exactly encouraging news for her reelection, especially considering that she won reelection by 546 votes last time, albeit in another district. But from the looks of it, she could be gone next month and wouldn’t that be something to celebrate.
Those appear to be her two choices, either 1. Resign her CO-03 seat and hope to win the special election in CO-04, or 2. Hang onto that seat and go down in flames in November. I think that it’s probably safe to say that the winner of the special election in CO-04 is the person that the voters of that district want, and not Boebert.
This is an unusual circumstance, one of so many. My instinct is that Boebert will hang on until November. She knows she’s toast and she needs to keep the paychecks coming in while she figures out what to do with her post-politics life. On the other hand, it might be best for her to take a risk now. If the winner of CO-04’s special election turns out to do a credible job between now and November, that’s going to show her up even worse. So she might want to run in the special election now, get it over with, and leave with as little scrutiny as possible.
Or, Bobo’s thoughts might be that in November all eyes will be on the presidential election, which is valid, so she might as well hang in until the bitter end, even if she ends up looking bad. I mean, how much worse can she look, right? My instinct is that she’ll hang on until the bitter end because she’s got nothing better to do. Ken Buck may have his plans but I’m willing to bet Bobo has none.
Hey Bobo? Talked to Maddy Cawthorn lately? Maybe you can go hang with him and discuss Roman history and French haute cuisine. Last I knew Maddy was a scholar in one and a five star in the other. You’ll fit right in.
In any event, here’s Ken Buck talking about why he’s leaving.
Again I say, when Ken Buck is the voice of reason, what have we come to? And also again, this is just one more sign that the GOP needs to rebuild itself. Trump has MAGAfied the Republican party. Buck was apparently able to go along with it for a while, at least the gun crazy aspect of it, but now he’s done.
Boebert came in on Trump’s coattails and she’s going to leave on them, like small pieces of asteroid and space debris trailed Halley’s Comet. Her constituents are not happy with the way she’s conducted herself — and hopefully, those among them with brains have looked at how she’s actually voted and she’s useless on that level, which is the important thing.
Buck is sick of the circus side show. So are we all. What he and other Republicans need to do is regroup and reform a new conservative party. Maybe this is the grassroots beginning of that. Democracy depends upon two functioning political parties. It would be nice to see that happen again and this MAGA madness cease.
She has to make an intelligent, reasoned, dispassionate decision – and then act on it.
I can’t see that happening, she’ll flail around as usual, lose her options and be stuck with a bad decision.
How do we know this?
Exhibit A: Her life.
She’s got those new-ish boobs so that ought to get her at least a job at some strip club. Colfax is full of them if she stays in CO. She will sink to the level where she belongs which will be slightly above the bottom of a sewer lagoon. All that matter is she will be gone and it will be highly unlikely we’ll have to hear her say anything again. We will never hear the words “As the great Lauren Boebert once said…” Never ever.
It’s nice to note that in this case, the Buck stopped here.
“Buck is sick of the circus side show.”
Well, it’s not like he’s not partly complicit in creating that whole “circus side show.”