For the first time, I’m leaving an office blank.
Let me begin by congratulating Phil Weiser on becoming Colorado’s next governor. Yes, it’s a certainty. Even if they find him with a live boy or a dead hooker, Phil Weiser will be our next governor.
Competent socialist
So, in preparation for what may — perhaps, possibly, ever so slightly might — turn into future criticism, let me say some nice things about him.
Phil is genuinely a good guy. He is pleasant, approachable, works hard and is thoughtful. And, because I know he enjoys hearing me say it, he is affable — a quality once found in a few Republicans.
Mind you, I would have preferred Jena Griswold as our next governor. I’d much rather face an incompetent socialist than a competent one.
Phil is, regrettably, competent.
Like any practiced politician, he began tacking toward the middle as soon as he won the primary. He even sounds convincing when he says he is concerned about businesses and employers fleeing Colorado.
That concern alone ought to make him a vocal opponent of Amendment 87, the graduated income tax that would send business and capital sprinting toward the border.
But many Democrats will criticize their party’s policies in private and defend them — or go mysteriously mute — in public. That tells you something about the cancel culture of Colorado’s socialist left. The party that celebrates diversity…doesn’t.
I also commend Phil for refusing to endorse Issue 7A, the latest in a long line of ludicrous attempts to fund a statewide choo-choo in the age of driverless cars.
Danger ahead
Phil will soon discover that being governor requires very different skills than AG. Filing endless lawsuits to virtue signal to his Trump-deranged base won’t keep the lights on, balance a budget or persuade an employer to stay in Colorado.
He is inheriting a regulatory and fiscal mess created entirely by his own party, and the bill will likely come due during his term.
Business leaders and saner Democrats keep assuring me Phil will be a business-friendly governor. Like a second marriage, that is the triumph of hope over experience.
I will not vote for Phil. I believe he will accelerate the progressive leviathan already strangling Colorado.
I worry he will tamper with the Colorado Labor Peace Act and drive still more businesses from the state.
I fear he will continue Jared Polis’ maniacal environmental agenda, which is already raising costs and power outages. My own home has lost power seven times since the beginning of August.
And I worry he will put the teachers’ union ahead of children, obstructing the new federal scholarship tax credit. Polis was right to enroll Colorado in the program, calling it a no-brainer.
No Republican in sight
I’d love to vote for the Republican. Sadly, there isn’t one in this race.
I cannot — and will not — vote for Victor Marx. Fortunately, my refusal will not alter the outcome. He is going to lose by 25 to 30 points.
I’m not withholding my vote because he is a con artist. Politics is hardly a con-artist-free profession.
I’m not withholding it because he is a serial liar. If that disqualified candidates, ballots would be much shorter.
I’m not even withholding it because he is an exorcist. That may be the strongest argument for him. Colorado government could use a good exorcism.
I’m withholding my vote because he has demonstrated, at every opportunity, that he possesses no political philosophical compass, no policy acumen and no understanding of even the simplest workings of state government.
He is a Rorschach test for understandably angry conservatives. They look at him as an inkblot and see whatever candidate they desperately want him to be.
He isn’t merely stupefyingly unqualified. He is unhinged and, perhaps, dangerous.
None of the above
There are alternatives on the ballot, from unaffiliated candidate Greg Lopez to a smattering of minor-party contenders.
But until independent candidates emerge who are business-friendly, socially tolerant and thus capable of actually winning — and, yes, they are coming — I see little reason to encourage those whose only function is attention-seeking.
When voters skip a race or ballot question, election officials call it the “undervote.”
This year, for the first time, I’ll be part of one.
I’ll be curious to see just how many Coloradans join me.
Jon Caldara is president of Independence Institute, a free market think tank in Denver.
