Ken Buck Resists "Tea Party" Label
Politico reports that Ken Buck is not describing himself as a "Tea Party" candidate:
Buck also resisted the tea party label. He said a better description is that he is the candidate of the “grass roots.”
"It is a much broader group than just tea parties," he said. "What I'm saying to everyone in the media is, don't put labels on me."
It was precisely the fear that labels would stick which led many Washington political operatives to root for Buck’s opponent, former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton, in the primary. They believed she would have been a more tested and more electable choice to take on Bennet, who was appointed to a Senate vacancy in 2009 after Ken Salazar became Interior secretary.
Those operatives were certainly right in anticipating the Democratic barrage.
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Robert Menendez in an interview called Buck part of “a triumvirate” with Paul and Angle, and said all three are “too extreme to win a general election.” He cited Buck’s support for curtailing the federal government’s role in education, his willingness to alter the 14th Amendment and his criticism of Social Security.
In what now may count as his most infamous remark, Buck was captured on tape last month saying he ought to be elected because, unlike his female primary opponent, he didn't wear high heels.
“There will be female voters, some of which may have even voted for Jane Norton, who find that terribly insensitive and sexist,” said Colorado Democratic Chairwoman Pat Waak.
On the policy front, Democratic operatives are circulating “oppo” — opposition research — showing Buck speaking sympathetically about Paul’s father, Texas congressman and quixotic presidential hopeful Ron Paul, and his plan eventually to return the United States to the gold standard. That is an obsession of libertarians regarded as eccentric by most mainstream policymakers.
“You know, Ron Paul’s absolutely right,” Buck said at a 2009 meeting of the Pikes Peak Economic Club. “We’ve got to audit the Fed. … You know, we don’t have enough gold in this country to go to a gold standard right now. I mean, we could go to a gold standard, but we’re gonna have some — again, that adjustment can’t be made in one day.”
In an interview with POLITICO, Kaine said Buck is “another example in a Senate race where the tea party energy is nominating somebody who, in all likelihood, is going to make our job easier than it would have been otherwise.”
