A New Candidate for CD-7?

UPDATE: Herb Rubenstein is expected to announce his candidacy for CD-7 on June 15.

We've been hearing rumors for weeks that Herb Rubenstein was considering running for congress in CD-7 as a Democrat, and those whispers are growing louder now -- to the point where an announcement may be made within the next two weeks.

We don't know a lot about Rubenstein, other than that he only recently moved to Colorado. Rubenstein runs a leadership development think tank called GSI, based in Maryland, that recently opened an office in Denver.

If he can raise a lot of money out of the blocks then he could at least be a player in the race, but in a Democratic primary with two announced candidates already, the "carpet bagger" issue will be a tough hurdle to overcome.

Comments

[Ter Ducken]

Who? I can tell you one thing. I would never vote for somebody who moved here from another state to run for congress.

[7th Wide Open]

Herb will likely petition on which only takes 1k signitures and skip all the party foolishness. He could position himself as the outsider ala Hickenlooper. Still too early and we don't know much about him but it would be shortsighted for any campaign too write him off this early.

[Politicalwatch]

This guy will only make it easier for Perlmutter because he is the favorite son in the district running against two outsiders -- and the "anyone but perlmutter" crowd -- which may number about 10 people (most of whom surface on this blog) will now have two candidates to choose from. This new guy will have more money than Peggy, so my guess is that this dries her up even more than she has already dried up. At least Rubinstein will not have to explain why he endorsed Bill Owens because he apparently didn't even vote in that election. What a hoot!

[jeffco leftie]

http://www.denverpost.com/carman/ci_2765017

I'm with Diane Carman - Joan for Governor!

[dinosaur]

If Rubinstein gets in that will mean TWO carpetabggers in the race -- don't forget that Peggy Lamm has never voted in the 7th district and only moved there a month or so ago in order to run for Conngress.

[Ter Ducken]

The funny thing is that even though Lamm has been in Colorado longer, Rubenstein has probably lived in the district longer. Lamm is still the bigger carpetbagger if you use residency as the criteria, because she just moved in to the district a month or two ago.

Of course Rubenstein will petition on, but the carpetbagger thing will still drag him down with overall primary voters. He can't be an outsider "a la Hickenlooper" if he isn't even local. Hickenlooper was well known in Denver for his business dealings and had been there for years. Rubenstein is just showing up out of the blue. There's a big difference, and he'll get hammered for it by Perlmutter. People don't like the idea of someone moving in from out of state to run for congress.

[progressive]

Ted --I agree with you. Plus, comparing Rubenstein to Hickenlooper is ludicrous because Hick was active in Democratic politics and Denver's civic life long before he ran for Mayor. Rubenstein has no such pedigree and appears to be just an egomaniac.

[Alfalfa]

Who the hell is this guy? Jesus, we've beaten one of the carpetbaggers (the one from 6) and now we have to deal with an out-of-state guy? At least Conti and Lamm lived in Colorado before taking on this race.

And, you gotta be suspect of someone who calls himself a "strategic visionary" and "futures planner" in his bio. Get a real job. Sounds like a lot of mumbo-jumbo blather to me - perhaps a way to fleece corporations of their cash all in the name of the great calling of "consulting."

I've said it before about other candidates who seem to think their destiny is serving in Congress: if you've never been involved in local politics or service, maybe set your sights a tad lower. Get involved in your community (or, MOVE to the community first), serve your NEW communtiy in various ways, maybe run for school board, or a city council, or even a county seat. One, you'll be in a better position to reach your dream of being in Congress, and, two, you might actually do some good for your community instead of just furthering your egotistical goals.

[marla]

Herb WHObenstein?

Get real. I don't think this guy ever got a vote. He must be halucinating to think he can come from liberal Maryland or D.C. and run in Colorado. Sounds like he has a lot of time and money to throw away.

Marla

[vladimir]

Hey if your opponents are Peggy Lamm and Ed Perlmutter anything is possible -- Both had lousy undistinguished legislative records --
Of course maybe Peggy's good gal pal and anti-choice leader Jane Norton and Bill Owens will endorse Peggy -- in the primary only of course --
Too bad her schtick did not work and Peggy had to settle for a job with Rutt Bridges -- you'd have thought her endorsment of Owens would have yielded more than a pat on the head -- but hey no one has ever accused Peggy of being in the upper IQ echelon

[Carpet Bagger?]

Do you actually think people in the 7th District know where their district stops and any other one begins? The denver-metro districts, inlcuding 7, 6, and 1, and 2, are so mish-mashed across county lines that no one knows where they stop and start - even some politicians don't know! "Normal" people, like those who don't read this blog, don't even keep track of county lines - maybe they pay attention to school districts, but that's it, folks. So whether Peggy lived a few miles outside of the district or not is a totally moot point.