Colorado Progressive

Via John Tomasic, it appears that the National Republican Senatorial Committee has identified its candidate to run against Michael Bennet in 2010 (presuming Bennet can stave off a significant primary challenge). CompleteColorado.com posted a screen grab confirming that the NRSC has purchased a pair of domain names to promote ex-lieutenant governor Jane Norton’s bid for the U.S. Senate next year.

There are a couple things to keep track of here. First, domain names are cheap. We shouldn’t make too much of the NRSC spending $10.69/year, or less, per domain. There’s a strong case to be made that, based on available information about the primary field, an astute NRSC staffer decided to do a little proactive purchasing. The NRSC even suggests as much themselves (late in this article). If Norton isn’t the NRSC’s pick after a few months of campaigning, then it’s really not a big deal to forget about the domains and the twenty bucks (or sell the domains for considerably more money to the interested party). For what it’s worth, I think the NRSC should have skipped Go Daddy in favor of NameCheap. Registration would have come to just $9.69 a year, and there’d be no chance of anybody asking whether NRSC funds should support this. But I digress.

Next up, as Tomasic points out in his article, state Republicans, regardless of their early preferences, aren’t thrilled with the move.

Colorado Republicans, independents, and other engaged citizens don’t even know where all the candidates stand on the key issues yet — especially Jane Norton, the newcomer and great unknown. For example, I would be interested to hear where the former Department of Public Health director and recent McCain campaign state co-chair comes down on the critical health reform debate of our time.

If the NRSC really does plan to endorse Norton, then as Ben DeGrow points out they’ve put the cart before the horse. DeGrow sees the NRSC hand pushing Ken Buck out of the race and squeezing Tim Frazier, but that’s pretty speculative so far. The fractioning and frustration this leads to within the state party will be interesting to watch, though only a handful of political junkies will likely remember any of this a year from now. One important thing to track–and this is not unique to the Republican party–is how the national organization shapes the substance of the political and policy conversations within the state party. Voters might be more impressed to hear some substantive debate *before* the national committee makes a pick, but that appears increasingly less likely to happen. And as the Republican Party squelches intra-party debate even before policy positions can develop, look for more evidence that the party is running on empty.