Rep. Perlmutter, courtesy of his Twitter profile
Billed as the man to beat, U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter is exiting the Governor’s race a year before the primary. Here’s what the Denver Post said about Perlmutter’s exit:
“U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter plans to announce Tuesday that he will end his run for Colorado governor, just three months after the Arvada Democrat started it, according to two sources close to the campaign.
“The surprise decision by the sixth-term lawmaker comes a few weeks after another Colorado Democrat, U.S. Rep. Jared Polis of Boulder, said he would join the race.
“The entry of Polis put substantial pressure on Perlmutter — as Polis could pour a substantial amount of his personal wealth into his campaign while Perlmutter would have to compete for campaign funds with several other well-connected Democrats, including former state Treasurer Cary Kennedy and former state Sen. Mike Johnston.”
Perlmutter is an astute politician and he may be looking straight ahead into the wall of cash that Polis would bring the table and finding it insurmountable. If Perlmutter does not think he can win, what makes fellow candidates Cary Kennedy and Michael Johnston think they can?
This has a ripple effect throughout the entire Democratic political ecosystem. Will Perlmutter retreat back to his U.S. House seat? What happens to Brittany Pettersen, Dominic Moreno, and Andy Kerr who were vying to replace Perlmutter? What about the candidates lining up to replace Pettersen, Kerr, and Moreno? And it goes on and on.
Most importantly, we are disappointed. We have already popped popcorn in anticipation of this Democratic rising star smackdown. So tragic that our entertainment is up in the air.
This also has implications for Republicans in the gubernatorial race. Polis is the guy everyone wants to run against because he’s so liberal and will draw an insane amount of money into the race. We are truly delighted that he’s slipped into the top spot.