It's still early in the game, but it's interesting to see the chess pieces start to move around on the board in advance of November's general election. Already a “king” has fallen in Gov. Bill Ritter, who announced Wednesday he was ending his reelection bid. He pulled out that old chestnut about wanting to spend more time with his family, which is often political-speak for “I've got some dirt that's going to come out of the closet and ruin my chances anyway.”

Or, who knows, maybe he really does want to spend more time with family, especially given his lack of popularity not only with the red part of the state but the blue as well. Given the largely unpleasant and highly polarized nature of politics today, it's a wonder anyone stays for more than one term.

Speaking of … with Summit County's Dan Gibbs opting to bow out of the State Senate in favor of running for Bob French's opening seat on the Summit Board of County Commissioners, who's lining up to either run against him or for that Senate seat? The answer to the first is “no one, so far.” It'd be a tough race for any Republican or independent against the popular Gibbs, but it'd be surprising and dismaying if he ran unopposed. On the Senate side, Dems can't find anyone yet to run for Gibbs's seat while Tim Leonard, a Realtor from Evergreen, is the only Republican to announce his intentions yet. Leonard has been knocking around the political block for a while, running for governor as an independent in 1998 and the State Senate in 2006 — also as an indy.

One possible source of GOP strength locally is in current District Attorney Mark Hurlbert. He can serve as DA until 2012, but is then term-limited. Hurlbert has proposed a ballot question to amend the law to allow him to run for another term, and so far has the support of the Fifth Judicial District county commissioners (minus Lake County) to get a question on the 2010 ballot. Hurlbert needs to convince those Leadville guys he deserves another term … or he can dunk the DA's office altogether and run for that Senate seat or, who knows, fight Gibbs for the county commissioner slot. Now that'd be a race …. Look to hear something from Hurlbert pretty soon.

After the drama of the last race for State House District 56 (memorialized wonderfully with all those pink Ali Hasan tote bags Summit locals are still carrying around), Rep. Christine Scanlan (D) this year faces another Summit Countyite, Republican Debra Irvine. A fine-art painter by trade, Irvine has been chair of the Summit County Republicans for three years. Beyond that, her political and leadership experience seems limited, and she'll likely have a tough go against the popular and tough Scanlan. Even though Hasan had a seemingly unlimited campaign war chest, Scanlan kept her cool and defeated him handily. Of course, she was helped by the many silly things Hasan did and said — who can forget his “vow of celibacy” statement?

Hasan, by the way, has a new project: He's running for State Treasurer and was in Frisco Thursday for a kick-off event. It's hard to imagine the state GOP being too excited about this development — especially given that nothing in Hasan's resume suggests he has much in the way of financial or leadership experience. He is a nice guy with a lot of charisma and money, though, and often that can get you places in politics. But he also has at least two other Republicans to run against in the primary — W.R. Stapleton and J.J. Ament.

It'll be interesting to watch the governor's race now that Ken Salazar says he won't leave his slot at Interior Secretary to run. It looks like Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper will go for it — and he'll probably cream Scott McInnis.

But we'll see … it's early yet.



Summit Daily editor Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@summitdaily.com or (970) 668-4618.