Whatever Happened to Betsy Markey?
Fort Collins’ Democratic hopeful says it’s part of her strategy to stay out of the limelight ... for now at least
By Rebecca Boyle, (Bio) rboyle@fortcollinsnow.com
9:23 a.m. MT May 2, 2008
One of the most important tasks in congressional campaigns is definition.
Candidates—new ones especially—need to tell voters who they are before their opponents do, and drum up as much early support as possible.
Many go about this by having camera-friendly events that showcase their ability to, say, flip pancakes, hold babies or wave at crowds.
There’s another, old-fashioned way, too—to go underground, from the grassroots, and work behind the scenes. Call it the inverted-pyramid style of politics.
That’s been the game plan so far for Betsy Markey, who is hoping to unseat U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Fort Morgan, this fall.
She has been holding fundraisers and a smattering of public events, with many more planned as the weather gets warmer. But she’s been quiet in the first few months of the election year, and it’s intentional, according to her campaign.
Markey’s campaign points to her still-growing base of 500-plus volunteers, more than 60 of whom attended a January party at Markey’s Mountain Avenue home, and to her plans for new issue platforms and public events this summer, including a new economic plan unveiled Tuesday.
But staying below the radar has been part of Markey’s intent to be a different kind of candidate, her campaign manager said.
“We thought it was really important that Betsy took the time in the district, on her own, to define herself to voters before Marilyn Musgrave does,” said Anne Caprara, Markey’s campaign manager. “Our focus for the last few months has really been the grassroots and the infrastructure stuff.”
She said the campaign wanted to avoid trumpeting every event Markey has on the calendar—a fairly uncommon strategy in the media-saturated world of modern politicking.
Markey strolled to several businesses in Loveland on Wednesday, for instance, and Caprara intentionally didn’t notify most Northern Colorado media, preferring to avoid the appearance of a staged photo-op.
She has also been mum about Markey’s meetings with influential Republicans, whom she wouldn’t name, saying the intent was truly to court potential supporters, not stage a stunt. Markey invited several GOP residents to her home for a private dinner, without any staff or media present, so the guests could ask her questions in an un-staged atmosphere.
Caprara noted that Musgrave’s campaign has accused Markey of being a weak candidate.
“But there is a different focus here. We are going to point out the differences between them. But my, and I know Betsy’s, main concern and main priority isn’t to sit here and throw stones at the other candidate. It’s to define yourself, talk about yourself, what your issues are about, run a positive campaign, and not just take every shot at a negative (statement) that you can,” she said. “We’re really going back to that old retail style of campaigning, where you are focusing on the grassroots and talking to voters one on one.”
Markey came out of the gate swinging last August, chalking up endorsements from boldface-named Democrats like state Sen. Bob Bacon, former Senate president Stan Matsunaka and her former boss, U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, who endorsed her candidacy on the steps of the state Capitol in Denver.
But aside from a few appearances at party functions, Markey has been largely quiet ever since, taking time to travel and hold intimate meetings with potential supporters and key players in the sprawling district’s far-flung counties.
By contrast, former State Rep. Angie Paccione, who lost to Musgrave by just three percentage points, seemed to be constantly in the spotlight at the same juncture in 2006. She even attended some of Musgrave’s events early in the race, asking questions and making herself visible.
Colorado State University professor John Straayer, a state political expert, said it makes sense this year for Markey to cast a wide net before training her sights on Fort Collins, Loveland and Greeley voters.
“If I were doing it, I would not want to be coming down to the final weeks of the campaign and have to spend a lot of time in a car, shooting across wide open spaces. You can get from Fort Collins to Greeley to Loveland pretty fast, and so you can do a lot of campaigning in a highly populated area in the course of a day. You can’t do a lot of campaigning in the eastern plains in the course of a day,” he said. “You try to figure out how to most efficiently establish a presence, in the least populated areas, and do it earlier rather than later.”
Given the election results in 2006, a stronger focus on the eastern plains might pay off for a challenger.
In 2006, Musgrave beat Paccione by comfortable margins in almost every rural county—including a whopping 71 percent in Washington County and 67 percent in Baca County, in two examples.
Caprara said Markey has been focused on residents in those rural counties, trying to make her accessible to people who would normally have a hard time talking one on one with a Democratic candidate.
In addition to the private meeting at Markey’s home, she has held coffee klatches with farmers and ranchers and plans to pop up at small-town festivals throughout the summer.
Supporters said when Markey joined the race in June that she would be the Democrats’ best chance for change in the 4th, in part because she could attract Republican votes as well as Democratic ones.
For her own part, Markey said she doesn’t think one party has a monopoly on good ideas, and intends to work with Republicans before and after she is elected.
“As I travel the district, I talk to lots of different people, and we’re not Republicans and Democrats and independents alone, we are Coloradans and Americans first. And I believe that’s what we need when we go to Washington, D.C.,” she said. “I think it’s good to focus on working together. It’s not just bipartisanship, it’s not just Democrats and Republicans in this district. You need to make sure that rural interests are sitting at the table with urban interests, particularly when you are talking about issues like water. I believe that labor and business needs to sit at the same table when talking about economic development in this region. So it’s not just bipartisan; I think it’s bringing people with all different perspectives to have a seat at the table and have their voices heard.”
Caprara said the best way to win a vote is to sit down with someone, so the campaign has made a point to reach out to Republicans.
In some ways, Musgrave’s own recent outreach has contrasted directly with Markey’s. She has spent more time than in the past in Fort Collins, Loveland and Greeley and has made it a point to hold town-hall meetings and to visit service agencies that help the poor, including area food banks and Fort Collins’ Open Door Mission.
That fits well with another message in Musgrave’s victory margin last time: She won Weld County with 49 percent of the vote. Her 6,678-vote edge in Weld made all the difference; she won overall by just 5,984 votes. A renewed focus on the more populated areas could conceivably widen that gap this fall, and it means Markey can’t forget about the Front Range cities even as she seeks support in rural areas.
Jason Thielman, Musgrave’s campaign manager, said he believes Markey was a weaker Democratic candidate compared with other potential primary challengers who since decided not to run, including Paccione, State Sen. Brandon Shaffer, D-Longmont, and Reform Party-cum Democrat Eric Eidsness.
“(Markey is) somebody who is not a proven vote-getter, whose political career has been basically as kind of a political hack, an assistant to an elected official, and someone who has served as a local party operative, as opposed to somebody who has actually had the job of putting together legislation,” he said. “That is a very different position from frankly the one I hold, which is to be an operative.”
He also said Musgrave would focus on policy in the months ahead.
“The most effective way she can provide the foundation for her campaign is to work extremely hard at doing the job the people who elected her to do,” he said.
Caprara said her campaign, too, intends to ramp up Markey’s public appearances and events this summer.
She said building a campaign—which Markey has done herself—provides a good foundation for what voters want and how to accomplish those tasks.
So far, Markey’s work in Fort Collins has been focused on getting everything ready—what Straayer termed “the architecture” of a campaign.
“What I tell people, and I think a lot of people don’t realize, is you’re starting a small business,” Caprara said. “Getting your headquarters ready, it takes so much manpower, really, to do it, which is why our focus was to get it done early, at the beginning of 2008, so now as people start to really focus on the campaign, we’re ready to go.”
She and others said the presidential election has also overshadowed the race so far. McCain, Obama and Clinton dominate political pillow talk these days, rather than details about the 4th Congressional District.
It remains to be seen whether that will hurt or help candidates like Markey this fall, Straayer said.
“It’s going to suck some of the oxygen out of the attention that any other race gets—for any of them, and it’s not specific to the 4th Congressional,” he said. “I think any and all races are going to be overshadowed by the presidential race, in terms of public attention and media coverage.”
Given that, he said it makes sense to be quiet right now.
“You don’t want to campaign when nobody’s watching. The Nuggets don’t play basketball at 5 in the morning,” he said.
