Colorado Democrat Gubernatorial Primary Takes A Giant Leap To The Left

This week, Colorado’s Democrat gubernatorial primary moved even further to the left with Ed Perlmutter’s departure from the race. While Perlmutter was hardly a centrist choice for Democrats, their remaining candidates virtually guarantee the party’s nominee will embrace extreme policies that will put them further out-of-touch with Colorado voters and less likely to succeed in 2018. With contenders like far-left Congressman Jared Polis and “Bernie Sanders-style” candidate Mike Johnston headlining the field, Perlmutter refused to answer earlier this week whether he thinks Polis is “too liberal to win a general election:”

The Denver Post reports:

“Not only does the multimillionaire lawmaker have the means to self-fund a campaign, but the Boulder Democrat in June outlined a platform that has the potential to pull the field to the left…

At his Tuesday announcement, Perlmutter sidestepped a question on whether Polis is too liberal to win a general election.

‘Jared, he’ll get out and campaign as hard as anybody,’ said Perlmutter. ‘And he’s going to have to convince people that his ideas and his philosophy and his views of the world are aligned with theirs…’”

With Colorado Democrat gubernatorial candidates pushing the party further away from the mainstream, the party appears headed for a costly primary between far-left, extreme candidates that will only damage Democrats’ ability to put forward a competitive nominee in next year’s general election.