I have been getting some interesting reports lately on where 5th CD candidate Bentley Rayburn has been showing up. The first was when I heard that he appeared at the campaign kickoff for 6th CD candidate Wil Armstrong in Denver. Now that seemed somewhat strange since you would not expect to find many 5th CD voters at a campaign event in Denver. Then I thought that maybe since it was Wil Armstrong that Bentley was trying to suck up to Wil's dad Bill in order to get an endorsement. That seemed to make some sense to me. Another possibility is Bentley hoped to meet some big donors at the event. Though less likely, I am sure a few could have been there for Wil and Bill's sake.
However, I then heard that Bentley showed up at the open house last Friday for Bob Schaffer's campaing office, again in Denver. Yet again, one wonders exactly how many 5th CD voters would you expect at an event in Denver. Maybe he hoped there would be big donors there. Having been to many openings of state wide campaigns though, these events are for your volunteer base. Big donors don't care about them and won't show up, so if that was his reasoning he was sorely wrong. The only thought that makes any sense is that he was sucking up to the party leadership and Bob, maybe hoping for a picture in the Statesman. Either way, it seems like a big waste of time.
The most recent siting that makes me chuckle, is the report that Bentley was seen outside the gates of Schriever Air Force Base standing next to a giant blow up of himself in his flight uniform, waving to cars entering the base. While at first blush you may think that it is a smart thing to get himself in front of actual 5th CD voters and fellow military members like that, there is more to this one than you may think. Sure playing off the military connection is smart. However, Schriever is a Space base and Space guys can't stand fighter jocks. The Space guys get a small portion of the overall AF budget and they feel that the Fighter jocks get way too high a proportion and are way more arrogant than they deserve to be. Basically, they tend not to care for fighter jocks. So what was Bentley emphasizing there, that he is a fighter jock. Nice move Rookie!!!!!
While Bentley appears to be working hard, the question is whether he is working smart. The jury is definitely not leaning toward him at this point.
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