Mediaboss Marketing

If you dont believe American politics has become a spectator sport, you werent listening to the cable bloviators on Nov. 7. Speculation about the 2023 election's implications for 2024 dominated their analysis of voter results. This is, of course, something like reading tea leaves at the bottom of your mug for predictions of the future. We are experiencing a Mad Max episode where global turmoil threatens to erupt into another World War. The explosions we are witnessing in Ukraine and Gaza may sound far away, yet for the worlds remaining superpower they could prove the thunder before the storm. Both an ailing Ayatollah in Iran and the Russian czar in Moscow are hellbent to rearrange central Asia before they exit the world stage. For them, violence is Gods will.

An aspiring China would like nothing better than to watch the United States let itself become entangled in those disputes. Whether Joe Biden can navigate his way past these conflicts without putting American boots on the ground will be a far better predictor of his chances in 2024 than anything voters had to say last week. Its easier to identify the losers than the winners in 2023. We can start with a pair of governors, Glenn Younkin of Virginia and our own Jared Polis. Each of them has been a ghost dancer in their respective partys just-in-case auditions for the 2024 presidential race. Undeclared candidates, theyve been taking steps to prepare to jump into the arena should their respective and presumptive presidential candidates suddenly be sidelined by illness, death or incarceration.

Youngkins credentials as an authoritarian-lite, MAGA-wannabe were badly damaged as his brand took a beating at the polls in Virginia. He was the never-Trump Republican candidate-in-waiting visible behind the glass marked "break in case of emergency." The fulsome geniality that led to his surprise election as governor two years ago has apparently exceeded its expiration date. If he had delivered majorities in both chambers of the Virginia legislature, Glenn would have been on his way to designation as the dark-horse favorite for the GOP nomination. Instead, he will be occupied in squabbles with Democratic majorities about every line in the state budget, as well as nasty battles regarding the definition of parental rights in public education, abortion decisions and related culture wars. All good news for Nikki Haley.

Stay up to speed: Sign-up for daily opinion in your inbox Monday-Friday

Colorados governor did not suffer as fatal a blow from the defeat of Proposition HH. But the loss of his signature fix for property tax increases, which dwarf those that triggered the Prop 13 revolt in California 30 years ago, is not a good look especially when you are attempting to send out the message you're prepared and ready to run the entire country. The legislative clean-up ahead will be challenging. Villains will have to be tossed under the bus, both Senate President Steve Fenberg of Boulder and Denver Sen. Chris Hansen have been nominated for this privilege depending on whom you speak with. Gov. Polis was well advised Thursday to accede to the Republican request for a special session, thereby displaying his bipartisan cred. Still, some kind of compromise must be cobbled together no small trick.

If successful, the governor can probably maintain his standing as a promising short list possibility for vice president a good match, say, for Gretchen Whitmer. Forget the top of the ticket for now. Polis will also have to abandon the attempt to better fund public schools using a raid on TABOR refunds. Truth be told, Proposition HH was never primarily about property tax relief so much as it was a backdoor gimmick to fund public schools. The good news is even Republicans have acknowledged Colorados teachers are underpaid. During the sole debate on the merits of HH, opponent Mike Fields noted his mother, a career teacher, deserves a better salary. The legislature can probably tackle this challenge during next years regular session, although Republicans are likely to insist any additional revenue be reserved for classroom teachers rather than additional assistant principals.

It was intriguing to see Mike Coffman cruise to an easy re-election as mayor in Aurora where changing demographics make it increasingly difficult for Republicans to win. Mike has held office, more or less continuously, for 30-plus years. There is a lesson for Republicans in his success. As I once noted, pundits, many of them Republicans, have predicted Mike would lose his next election for most of this period. And, indeed, he did finally lose his congressional seat to Jason Crow but not before knocking off Democratic heavyweights like Morgan Carroll and Andrew Romanoff. Coffman has proven a dedicated, persistent and honorable public servant. Though I have not and would not agree with him on every public policy, I would harbor no reservations about having him represent me. It appears Im not alone in this assessment.

When Mayor Coffman decided to go undercover and spend a few nights at several Denver homeless encampments he came in for a barrage of criticism. Perhaps there were grounds for questioning conclusions he reached regarding drug use. But I felt sympathy for him. In 1983 I was working as a telephone repairman during a strike at Mountain Bell where I was an installation manager. Tipped by someone, my picture appeared on the front page of the Rocky Mountain News hanging from a pole in Lakewood. When I asked a Denver Democratic captain what he thought rank-and-file Democrats thought of their chairman working during a strike, he replied, I suspect they were surprised you could actually climb a pole. I was surprised Auroras Mayor was willing to sleep on the sidewalk.

Miller Hudson is a public affairs consultant and a former Colorado legislator.

Continued here:
The Election Day lessons of Polis, Youngkin and Coffman | HUDSON - coloradopolitics.com