From the perspective of many leading Republican elected officials and political consultants in Colorado, the governor’s race was supposed to go something like this: Heidi Ganahl, the Republican pick, very likely would lose to high-polling incumbent Democrat Jared Polis, but at least she’d give a strong showing and be a respectable presence at the top of the ticket.
These conservative politicians and consultants saw and still see opportunity to flip some key seats this year, but more than a dozen have told The Denver Post their main hope for Ganahl was that she’d do no harm.
But things haven’t gone to plan, and now the governor’s race is being defined in large part by what politicos on both sides of the aisle generally agree has been a disastrous campaign for Ganahl, a University of Colorado regent and the last Republican still standing in statewide office.
