Colorado Republicans Aligning with Presidential Favorites

Dan Haley writes yesterday that the Colorado GOP’s gubernatorial also-ran and former Congressman Bob Beauprez is raising coin for presidential hopeful Mitt Romney (I received the same email request). Of course, former Governor Bill Owens is a senior adviser to the Romney campaign, and perennial donor and former candidate Bruce Benson is also on board. No doubt many of the state’s Republicans rank-and-file are going to find the support of the Benson-Owens-Beauprez axis as a reason to be skeptical of the former Massachusetts governor’s candidacy.

Meanwhile, some other big Republican names in Colorado are throwing their support behind Rudy Giuliani and organizing an April fundraiser. Among them are former U.S. Senator Ben “Nighthorse” Campbell, Beauprez’s 2006 primary opponent Marc Holtzman, House Minority Leader Mike May, former Denver Bronco stars John Elway and Ed McCaffrey, former Nuggets GM Kiki Van de Weghe, Douglas County Commissioner Jack Hilbert, former society columnist Diane Wengler, Denver GOP Chair Mary Smith, and several other prominent business leaders, entrepreneurs, and attorneys.

A cursory search through various corners of the Internet found no clearcut evidence of who, if any, in Colorado has joined Team McCain. (Though for sake of fairness, if any reader has the information, I’d be glad to post it.)

So is there room in this state for a groundswell of Fred Thompson support? At this point in the game, the answer is “why, certainly.” Whether he makes the jump into the fray sometime this summer is the suspenseful question that will loom in the minds of Republican activists across the country.