Where There's A Will ...

It's a risky strategy, but from the beginning, CO Conservation Trust ex-Pres. Will Shafroth (D) has played the CO-02 race as the outsider. His hope: That feuding between the other two candidates, who've basically ignored him, will leave him an opening to win the 8/12 primary. Will it work?

-- At least re: the media, things are going according to plan. Late last week, Shafroth picked up his second major Denver paper endorsement of the week, from the Denver Post. Newspaper support has questionable impact, in any race, but it did give Shafroth enough material for a new TV ad in which he claimed momentum.

-- But if you've followed the back-and-forth between the two top candidates, you wouldn't even know Shafroth is running. Ex-state Sen. Pres. Joan Fitz-Gerald (D) and ex-CO Board of Ed. Chair Jared Polis (D) have been hammering each other, on the air and in debates, which suggests their polling shows this as a two-way race.

-- Being the nice guy doesn't normally pay off, and even the papers' endorsements noted that taking the high-road often relegates a candidate to obscurity. We'll know if his strategy has paid off, though, by the tone of Fitz-Gerald's and Polis' camps the next two weeks. If they start turning their attention to Shafroth, watch out.