The Colorado Sun this morning published a new look at Colorado Democrats’ looming 50-way primary in their effort to unseat Senator Cory Gardner next fall. Reporters John Frank and Jesse Paul began their piece with an… interesting angle:

“The Democratic field of candidates for the U.S. Senate race expanded to roughly a dozen this week, but there is still something missing: a woman with a political track record.”

Ok, then. If we are to assume that a woman-with-a-political-track-record is required to run for Gardner’s seat for the sake of womanhood, we’ll accept that and move on, we guess (now do the same for every ethnicity).

The story then lists former state Democratic House leader Alice Madden as a possible female entry. Madden, of course, lost her 2016 bid for CU Regent at Large to Heidi Ganahl, whom, it should be noted, is… a woman.

The piece then names fledgling (flailing?) Secretary of State Jena Griswold as another possibility, noting that she met with Democratic Senate mob boss Chuck Schumer earlier this month to discuss a bid.

Wait, what? To the extent that Griswold has a political track record, her record is being forged in real time, with scary consequences. When she’s not forgetting to actually vote in elections that she now runs, Griswold spends her days leading the charge on some wacky bills at the State Capitol, including: forcing all Coloradans to become registered voters; effectively locking any non-billionaire unaffiliated candidate out of the running for political office; and giving the Secretary of State (ehm, herself) unfettered power to serve as judge, jury and executioner on any campaign finance complaint. Former Deputy Secretary of State Suzanne Staiert lays all of these shenanigans quite succinctly in a Colorado Politics guest editorial today.

(On the latter, perhaps a reporter might be willing to ask supportive Democratic lawmakers whether or not they’d vote for such a measure if, say, Republican Wayne Williams was still Secretary of State.)

All of this is to say, Griswold is actively weaponizing Colorado’s formerly revered election laws for her personal gain. It’s pretty messed up, but it bears repeating that she had never run an election at any level (and failed to even participate in a number of elections as a private citizen) prior to running for the office she just assumed three months ago. Additionally, sources tell The Peak that a great many of the nonpartisan career staff in Griswold’s office are miserable under the new regime.

Is that the kind of leadership Colorado deserves in a U.S. Senator? That’s up for Democrat primary voters to decide, but if Griswold emerges from the pack of crazies, Senator Gardner’s going to be looking at six more years in Washington.