Beauprez mulls a return to the campaign trail

Bob and Claudia Beauprez on the campaign trail in 2006. (The Denver Post)

Former Congressman Bob Beauprez splits his time between his home in Lafayette and his ranch in Jackson County, where the view is so spectacular and the atomsphere so serene he wonders why he can’t shake his urge to run again for office.

For months, he has toyed with taking on U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Denver, in 2010. It’s a decision, Beauprez will make with his wife, Claudia.

Rumors intensified over the weekend that Beauprez was in the race, in part because he talked to Republicans about staffing.

“I’m not definitely in, and very definitely not out,” he said Monday. “But we know we can’t wait much longer before getting extremely serious about the race or putting it to rest.”

He said he discussed staffing issues because that’s part of deciding whether to get in the race. Beauprez laughed when told that Republicans say he is having trouble luring locals so is talking to out of staters.

“Just put that I’m getting my staff from Mars,” he said.

Beauprez fired off a series of one-liners, then added that he was in good mood because he was going to the ranch. The former dairy farmer now raises buffaloes and is awaiting the birth of a third grandchild, a girl, in September.

Washington, D.C., where he spent two terms representing Denver’s suburbs in the 7th District, seems light years away.

“But I can't shake the politics,” he said. “I wake up in the morning reading all the press clips and writing and opining. My life is still almost completely consumed with politics.”

In the back of his mind, always, is his 2006 run for governor where he lost to Democrat Bill Ritter by 17 percentage points.

“I don't want to lose again,” Beauprez said. “I probably know better than many what it takes to get it done, and the mistakes that can be made in the long haul.”

Bob Martinez, who served as chairman of the Colorado Republican Party that year, said Beauprez did not run a good campaign. Martinez is backing Aurora City Councilman Ryan Frazier for the U.S. Senate.

“The party needs a fresh face,” Martinez said. “I have not heard anybody saying Bob should run for the Senate.”

Other Republicans  in the race are Ken Buck, Weld County district attorney: Luke Korkowski, Crested Butte attorney; and Cleve Tidwell, Denver businessman. Former  state Sen. Tom Wiens of Douglas County, has formed an exploratory commitee.

Ritter in January named Bennet, the Denver schools chief, to a vacant Senate post, infuriating Hispanics and the backers of other Senate contenders.

The rancor over the appointment, coupled with 2010 being an off year for elections, has Republicans believing they have a chance of knocking off Bennet.

“But taking on an incumbent, even an appointed one, is never easy,” Beauprez said.

Beauprez said he is “asking the questions that need to be asked” as he deliberates about whether to run.

"I don't want to go in assuming everything is just going to work out, somehow, and the team will come together, somehow, and the money will be there, somehow, and at the end of the day we will win, somehow,” Beauprez said.

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