( -front paged by Senate Watch- )

For any other Republican candidate thinking of announcing statewide campaigns soon (I'm looking at you Caplis, Beauprez, Hasan & Ament), Ken Buck's announcement should serve as a model for what not to do. Let's review the four step model taken by Buck:

Step 1: Pre-empt your own announcement by launching a Facebook group & non-functional website

Step 2: Deny that you're running for Senate to your hometown newspaper, making sure to time it so that headlines of "Buck denies he's entered Senate race" circulate in print at the same time as your actual announcement.

Step 3: Make your actual announcement days after most have stopped caring.

Step 4: Send out an email blast directing your supporters to a left-wing blog attacking you on their front page and that played a major role in sliming the Republican Senate candidate in the last election. (What is this, G.O.P. Stockholm Syndrome?)

Look, Ken Buck is a great guy but he's going to be facing a lot of questions of whether or not candidates in the Beauprez-Schaffer mold are viable statewide given their performance in the last two election cycles. He can't afford to start slipping up now.