From TPM Reader EH …
I’ve really enjoyed your recent posts (and reader emails) processing the recent New York primary elections. I strongly agree with the point you’ve emphasized that “left/right” is less salient than “fighter/non-fighter” in the current roiling within the broad left-of-center coalition. And I’d take it a step further and argue that anyone coded as “establishment” carries a strong presumption of belonging to the “non-fighter” camp.
Colorado’s Democratic primary for governor (tomorrow!) illustrates this dynamic as well as any current race I’m aware of. There’s very little policy daylight between current U.S. Senator Michael Bennet and state Attorney General Phil Weiser. Both are pretty conventional Democrats, they’re close to the same age, neither has been endorsed by DSA, neither has really bucked orthodoxy on the U.S.-Israel relationship. Bennet was the presumptive favorite at the beginning of the race because of his greater name recognition, fundraising ability, and clear support of the state party establishment.
But Bennet is struggling (losing, according to some polling) and it seems that his quasi-encumbent status and his association with the party establishment are actually hurting his campaign. Because there are so few policy disagreements, the race has largely been a proxy fight about how Bennet (and Hickenloooper, who’s also facing a stronger than expected primary challenge) voted to confirm too many of Trump’s nominees and Weiser brought lawsuits against the Trump administration.
My read on the mood of Colorado Democratic voters is that they’re furious at the party establishment about 2 things: losing to Trump twice and the flaccid response to the first 6 months or so of Trump’s second term. And those failures are sticking to Bennet, while Weiser is both more removed from those failures and has the stronger claim of having fought Trump instead of rolling over at the beginning of his second term.
This race will be one to watch tomorrow night.
