After endorsing Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO) in his initial 2008 run, the Denver Post said Friday it had decided to back his Republican challenger, Rep. Cory Gardner (R-CO) this year.
“Congress is hardly functioning these days. It can’t pass legislation that is controversial and it often can’t even pass legislation on which there is broad agreement,” the Post’s editorial board wrote. “Its reputation is abysmal, and even its members rarely dispute the popular indictment.”
“It needs fresh leadership, energy and ideas,” it continued, “and Cory Gardner can help provide them in the U.S. Senate.
The editorial board particularly singled out the Udall campaign’s focus on women’s issues.
“Rather than run on his record, Udall’s campaign has devoted a shocking amount of energy and money trying to convince voters that Gardner seeks to outlaw birth control despite the congressman’s call for over-the-counter sales of contraceptives,” the Post wrote. “Udall is trying to frighten voters rather than inspire them with a hopeful vision. His obnoxious one-issue campaign is an insult to those he seeks to convince.”
The Post endorsed Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet in 2010 and President Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012.
The newspaper explained that it believed Republicans would “temper their policies” with control of the Senate.
“If Gardner wins, of course, it could mean the Senate has flipped to Republicans. However, that doesn’t mean it will simply butt heads with President Obama as the Republican House has done,” it wrote. “As The Wall Street Journal’s Gerald Seib recently pointed out, ‘A look back shows that eras of evenly divided power — Congress fully controlled by one party, the presidency by the other — have turned out to be among the most productive” because both sides temper their policies.”
