Tom Lucero Defeated in Congressional Bid

Cory Gardner wins Republican nomination in Colorado

Running as an underdog candidate in the race for the Republican nomination for Congress in Colorado's 4th District, Tom Lucero needed an edge.

Lucero must have thought that he had found an edge by running on his role in the firing of University of Colorado Professor Ward Churchill. Churchill was fired for multiple cases of academic misconduct in an investigation that followed the publishing of his infamous "little Eichmanns" essay.

By running on his role in that affair, Lucero was effectively running against Churchill rather than his opponents in the race. That may have been a mistake, as Cory Gardner was the only candidate to surpass the 30% of votes cast to appear on the ballot at the Republican GOP's nomination meeting.

Gardner received the votes of 61% of those who cast ballots in the preliminary vote. Lucero received 19%, third to Dean Madere who received 20%.

It's unfortunate for Lucero and for the Republican Party. With issues pertaining to education coming to the forefront in the lead-up to the 2010 midterm elections, Lucero could have emerged as a star candidate for the GOP.

Lucero's role in the firing of Churchill would have resonated clearly within a party in which the topic of university Ethnic Studies programs has become something of a cause celibre.

At least Lucero's seat on the U of C Board of Regents will remain in Republican hands. No Democrats have filed candidacy papers in the district.

Gardner, on the other hand, seems to be the annointed cabinet by the Republican National Committee. Although Gardner has been critical of RNC Chairman Michael Steele even though the party has aided him through its "Young Guns Program".

Gardner has been electorally successful in Colorado, as he currently serves in the Colorado State House of Representatives. He serves as minority whip.

In Democrat Betsy Markey, Gardner will set his sights on an vulnerable incumbent who recently received some help from Vice President Joe Biden.

Even though Colorado Republicans didn't recognize the potential star candidate value of Tom Lucero, it won't require a major upset for Cory Gardner to win Colorado's 4th District come November.

Thanks Again, Ward!

Ward Churchill practically endorses Tom Lucero for Repbulican nominee

A recent campaign ad from Tom Lucero, who is seeking the Repubican party nomination for Colarado's fourth district, envoked the spectre of the firing of Ward Churchill, the plagiarzing and data-forging "academic" fired from the University of Colorado.

There was a certain petulant brilliance in the ad: taking advantage of a popular public branding of Churchill as a loud-mouthed asshole, and branding Lucero has the kind of guy who will stand up to an asshole.

The branding message of the ad is crystal clear: if Lucero can deal with Churchill, he can deal with anything the Democrats may throw his way in Washington.

More recently, Churchill himself lent Lucero a hand in his effor to brand himself as the ideal Republiican to seek the seat in question.

"I can think of no one who better reflects the principles and integrity of Colorado Republicans than Tom Lucero," Churchill quipped. "Who knows? He might even have what it takes to be the next Dick Cheney."

Churchill couldn't possibly intend to help Lucero win the Republican nomination, but he very well may have. In fact, he may have just helped Lucero win the election in November.

“At this point in the campaign, we are thrilled to have such a ringing endorsement of Republican values from Ward Churchill,” Lucero replied. “Churchill's comments help further the message that our campaign is trying to communicate.”

Whether or not Ward Churchill's denunciation of Tom Lucero helps him win a seat in the House of Represenatives will have to wait until November to be seen. But if Lucero does win, one can look forward to Lucero thanking Churchill in his victory speech.

Running Against an Asshole: It's Crazy Enough to Work

Running in a crowded race for the Republican nomination in Colarado's fourth district, Tom Lucero has taken an interesting approach to the race.

Instead of running against his three opponents, Lucero has chosen to run against Ward Churchill, the University of Colorado Professor he successfully fired after he embarrassed the institution one too many times.

The ad even drops the name of Bill Ayers -- the former Weather Underground terrorist who was catapulted into a position of international prominence by his relationship with Barack Obama.

"Remember Bill Ayers? Ward Churchill's friend?" the narrator asks, as words in red bold font appear over images of newspapers and of Churchill himself. "Little Eichmanns? Stated more 9/11s are necessary? Proclaimed 'I don't answer to Tom Lucero'."

"Took care of that mess in Colorado," Lucero then complains, beaming proudly. He then goes on to discuss what he would like to accomplish in Washington as the 4th district's congressman.

In most cases it's considered poor taste to campaign against someone who isn't running in it.

But there's a certain tactical brilliance to Lucero's tactics, especially in the Republiican primary. The glimmer in his eye and the smile on his face demonstrate an unabashedly no-nonsense attitude toward the Churchill affair, reaching out to the viewer and sharing a "yeah, fuck that guy" moment with them.

Moreover, publicly campaigning against Churchill could give Lucero an opportunity to correct the one looming issue remaining from the Churchill firing -- the wrongful termination lawsuit that Churchill inexplicably won after being fired for academic misconduct (although he was denied reinstatement).

If Lucero can successfully draw the Churchill issue back into the public eye, he can remind the public that Churchill was actually fired for his considerable past of academic misconduct -- stemming from cases of plagiarism and forgery of data -- after Churchill had embarrassed his institution one too many times.

In fact, Churchill's firing wasn't the only bone that the crazed dissident had to pick with Lucero. He also didn't approve of Lucero's demands that the University of Colorado's course offerings be vetted at a time that the University was facing a choice between reining in an out-of-control budget amidst incredible wastefulness or having to continually go to the state for increases of funding to the school -- something that would have necessitated ongoing tax increases.

"The larger framing was articulated by one of the regents, Tom Lucero, at the regents meeting the other night: I want a justification for the existence of whole departments. I want to review the tenure system altogether," Churchilll once whined. "I want every course justified to my satisfaction."

"How could Tom Lucero possibly have assimilated the knowledge to pass scholarly judgment on the individual courses and their content and the scholarship that attends them in all these different areas?" he asked.

"This is transparently clear: Anything that he doesn’t like, whether he knows anything about it or not, is to be gone," Churchill pouted. "He has announced—telegraphed—the fact that he doesn’t like anything having to do with cultural studies, ethnic studies, dissident political studies, gay rights. None of that has anything to do with proper scholarship in his mind, not that he knows a goddamned thing about any of it. And it’s not that he’s a particularly malevolent individual. He’s representative of the whole. That’s the mentality that goes into this. This is a book-burning exercise. It’s a stifling of political discourse."

That's awfully rich coming from an individual who once insisted that speech that he doesn't like -- such as Columbus Day celebrations shouldn't be allowed to happen.

In fact, as it turned out, Tom Lucero's desire to vet the course offerings at the U of C had nothing to do with wanting to "stifle political discourse", but rather had everything to do with bringing the institution's budget under control so that it wouldn't have to periodically force tax increases on the citizens of Colorado.

Certainly, these kinds of concerns mean something to an individual like Ward Churchill, who see universities as little more than a platform from which they can force their political views on their students.

(Contrary to popular views individuals like Churchill are actually a minority among university faculties -- often an outspoken and powerful minority, but a minority nonetheless.)

With the exception of a collection of far-left lunatics who seemed to believe that Ward Churchill should have been allowed to forge data, plagiarize and humiliate his insitution at will, most people seem to understand that Ward Churchill is, frankly, an asshole.

For Tom Lucero, campaigning against that asshole might just be crazy enough to work.

At the very least, it's fun.