Udall decides against run for Governor.

[El Supremo]

http://www.9news.com/acm_news.aspx?OSGNAME=KUSA&IKOBJECTID=6ae9e8d2-0abe-421a-0128-275a1676b8c9&TEMPLATEID=0c76dce6-ac1f-02d8-0047-c589c01ca7bf

OK who is the Democratic front runner now?

[F.Gordon]

1. Who is this Rutt Bridges?

Udall's announcement emboldens former Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter and venture capitalist Rutt Bridges, both of whom have expressed interest in the job but lack Udall's name recognition and party ties.

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~33999~2743679,00.html

[El Supremo]

2. Rutt Bridges is...

the head of the Bighorn Institute. A moderate think tank that is famous for passing the No Call List in Colorado before it went national. He and two others spent millions to get some targeted Dems elected last November. None of those candidates like to talk about that now. He also briefly ran for the Senate seat, but when Ken Salazar announced he and Udall pulled out.

Before that he founded Advance Geophysical and then sold it to Landmark Graphics for about 60 million dollars (Landmark was later bought by Halliburton). He and his wife then divorced amicably and she got half. He recently remarried. He owns a loft in the former Denver Dry Tea Room.

[F.Gordon]

3. Wow! Thanks!

He sounds like more of an "outsider" than an "insider". Have you met the guy? I need to take a looksie when I get a chance.

Also shows my ignorance of the local players. Have you heard of any other faves besides the two mentioned by the Post? So far, I'm not thrilled with the "variety" of choices.

[DaveinMD]

7. Rutt is a great guy

I got a chance to meet him a couple of times. He does really great stuff at Big Horn. Incidentally, Gary Hart works there too.

[CODem]

12. Where are the women?

Why is no one mentioning the potential female Democratic candidates, starting with Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald? And what about U.S. Rep. DeGette, Gail Schoettler (who ran a very strong race for Gov. in 1998), Alice Madden, Jennifer Veiga, Peggy Lamm, Elbra Wedgeworth, etc.?

[CO Liberal]

4. It Looks Like Mark Udall Will Be Running for Wayne Dullard's Senate Seat

So we'll have both seats. And once we drive Musgrave, Beauprez, and Tancredo out of office, we'll have a Democratic-majority in the Colorado delegation to Congress.

(I don't think we'll get Hefley out, because there are too many stupid people in the 5th CD.)

[rockymountaindem]

6. Hefley will never leave.

So much for his self-imposed term limits, eh?

[DaveinMD]

8. there are a bunch of rumors

that Hefley is retiring because of how he was removed from the Ethics committee because he actually wanted to fairly investigate Delay.

[CODem]

11. Hefley never agreed to term limits, to the best of my knowledge

Tom Tancredo has reneged on his term limits pledge, but, unless I am mistaken, Hefley never took such a pledge.

[coloradodem2005]

9. It won't be Hefley. It will be someone else.

I get the impression that Hefley won't run again anyway because he is getting shafted by his own party. For being relatively honest compared to them. As for the 6th, there are plenty of stupid people here too. After all that Tancredo has done and not done, I cannot believe that he got re-elected with the margin that he had over Joanna Conti. And she was the best candidate we had in this district.

[El Supremo]

5. I just watched Colorado Inside out on Channel 12 and they say...

Ritter, Bridges and Hickenlooper. In no particular order. The Repukes are Beauprez (pushed like Shaffer was), and Coffman.

I think we can beat any of them. I personally like Hick the best, but he is so wet behind the ears (but with a meteoric rise) that he could blow it.

[Damien]

10. Hickenlooper?

I've heard his name as an option, but I wasn't sure.

I don't know what kind of chance he would have anyway...