After the last election, which saw Republican losses everywhere you turned, two well-known Republican operatives, Josh Penry and Rob Witwer, took to the commentary pages of The Denver Post and explained how the Colorado GOP needed "improve" or "die:"
Penry and Witwer: We've forgotten that politics is a game of addition, not subtraction. And here's some more math: 50,000 Latino kids turn 18 every month in this country. These kids grow up in households where parents work hard and attend church on Sunday. These are American values. But yes, some of these kids -- through no fault of their own -- were not born American citizens.
We've seen the arc of the immigration debate, and through our own personal experiences, we've also seen that it must now be resolved at all costs. This is a human issue, with moral (and biblical) implications. It's time to bury the hatchet and forge bipartisan agreement on immigration reform.
About a year-and-a-half later, the Republican Party has blown off Witwer and Penry.
As the Durango Herald reported Thursday, in a report on 9News' gubernatorial debate, "three Republican candidates for governor said they would probably repeal a law passed last year granting in-state tuition to students who immigrated illegally."
None of the three GOP candidates wavered much, and no one thinks Tom Tancredo, whose long opposed immigration reform and who skipped the 9News debate, will do so, meaning the GOP gubernatorial field is unified on the issue.
Here's the 9News' exchange in the "lightening round" clip:
9News Political reporter Brandon Rittiman: Would you sign a bill repealing in-state tuition for college students in the country illegally?
Bob Beauprez: Yes.
Rittiman: That was a yes.
Mike Kopp: I would. I've, In fact, led the Senate effort against that the first time it went through.
Scott Gessler: Probably yes. Of course, you want to look at them. But probably yes.
It's time for pundits like Penry and Witwer to speak out again, and tell us why the Republican Party won't be dying anytime soon.