Maes, Buck victories raise questions about GOP unity

The conservative ascension that vaulted two longshot GOP candidates to victory in Tuesday’s primary election was still sending shock waves through the party Wednesday.

The two — gubernatorial hopeful Dan Maes and Senate contender Ken Buck — unseated the GOP’s old guard by leveraging the strength of the party’s new, energetic right wing, a coalition of Tea Party enthusiasts, small government fans and voters angered by health care legislation.

“It shows that the insurgents are strong and the white bread, mainstream Republican types are not in favor,” said Sean Paige, a conservative Colorado Springs city councilman and frequent speaker at Tea Party events.

Maes scored a narrow 5,000 vote victory over longtime GOP stalwart Scott McInnis, who served six terms in Congress. A businessman from Evergreen, Maes didn’t have enough campaign money for advertisements and was a virtual unknown a few months ago, but he had a group of fervent followers who pushed him over the top.

“What difference did they make? Well he won the election,” said Colorado Springs Republican state Rep. Kent Lambert, among the few local Republican elected officials who signed on to the Maes cause. “They have had it with the establishment and they would rather have a common Joe citizen representing them rather than someone who is a political professional.”

Another mainstream GOP candidate went down Tuesday. Senate hopeful Jane Norton, once the frontrunner, was defeated by Weld County prosecutor Ken Buck, who grabbed the new conservatives to win with 52 percent of the vote.

“It’s risky when you call any Republican a moderate,” said Bob Loevy, a Colorado College political science professor. “Norton ended up yelling, ‘I’m not a moderate’.”

Mainstream Republicans say they’re already rallying to Buck.

Maes, though, has some work to do before he can unify the party.

“Dan Maes has clearly tapped into a vein of support from voters and citizens who are very unhappy with the status quo,” said Colorado Springs Republican state Rep. Bob Gardner, who backed Norton and McInnis. “Now, he’s going to need to demonstrate his ability to govern.”

Colorado Springs state Rep. Mark Waller said Maes needs to extend an olive branch to McInnis supporters to gain traction.

“I think that would be a good start,” he said.

Democrats had one primary Tuesday night.

While the contest between incumbent Sen. Michael Bennet and former House Speaker Andrew Romanoff for the party’s Senate nomination was hard-fought and nasty at times, it doesn’t appear to have resulted in lasting rifts.

Bennet won easily and Democrats say they’ll unite to back him against Buck.

“We can come together,” said Christy Le Lait, the executive director of the El Paso County branch of the Democrats.

Colorado Springs Democratic Sen. John Morse, the chamber’s majority leader, said unity will be easy to achieve for his party.

“We had two stellar choices,” Morse said.

Morse said the two conservative Republican picks leave the middle ground of Colorado politics open for his party.

With moderate Democrats in gubernatorial hopeful John Hickenlooper and Bennet, Morse sees victories in November.

“For the Republicans, the right wing has pulled it further and further to the right,” Morse said.

Many GOP loyalists are worrying about that issue.

“Republicans can’t win without some of those middle-of-the-road voters, they just can’t do it,” said Colorado Springs state Rep. Larry Liston. “There’s not enough of us conservatives to cobble to together a majority unless we find some common ground with some people who don’t see everything our way.”

The party will face a challenge on the right in November in the governor’s race. Former Congressman Tom Tancredo, representing the American Constitution Party in the gubernatorial election, could siphon off conservative votes, making the moderates a key GOP target.

But moving the party to the middle for the general election could be a tall order.

“Some of our people get that and some people don’t,” Liston said.

City Councilman Darryl Glenn said finding consensus within the GOP should be the first priority. Glenn said Maes could help that process through his lieutenant governor pick.

“I firmly believe, though, that at the end of the day we will come together because the stakes are too high,” Glenn said.