The Republican nominee for Colorado's U.S. Senate seat will not be an Aurora city councilman

ColoradoPols is reporting that former U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez will likely run for Senate next year. This makes sense to me. No offense to Ryan Frazier, but it's really hard to jump from a city council position to U.S. Senator in one year. Beauprez has long had the luxury of sitting back and waiting. Waiting to see how the GOP field is shaping up, how vulnerable Sen. Bennet looks, how weak the Democrats are nationally and statewide, etc. He can do this because he's got enormous name ID and great access to campaign funds and staff. It's not hard for him to assemble an organization relatively late.

Yeah, Beauprez ran a pretty crappy race for governor back in '06, but don't underestimate him. Bennet is definitely vulnerable and won't get much electoral help from the guy who appointed him. And if "The economy shrank by slightly less than expected" is 2010's version of good economic news, the Democrats are going to be in a world of hurt next year.