Colorado: Ali Hasan

No shoes were thrown, but Ali Hasan did put his foot in his mouth last week at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., baffling the arch-conservative crowd with some decidedly moderate views.

“The problem with Republicans and the conservative movement right now,” he said, according to Sarah Posner in the American Prospect, “is we’ve identified the wrong enemy. Our enemies are not Muslims, are not gays, Mexicans, or immigrants — our enemies are labor unions and bailouts.”

The Beaver Creek Republican and founder of Muslims for America ran a colorful, and expensive but ultimately unsuccessful statehouse campaign against Democrat Christine Scanlan last year, touting celibacy, monorails and pheromone packs on pine trees.

Face The State's Rachel Boxer talks with Ali Hasan, the rabble-rouser who unsuccessfully ran for House District 56 last year, in the video below about his potential bid for state Treasurer in 2010.

Hasan made a name for himself after spending more than $350,000 on his campaign against incumbent Rep. Christine Scanlan, D-Dillon, and advocating the construction of a Monorail along I-70 to connect mountain towns to metro-Denver. Despite losing his House bid, Hasan is still promoting the idea of a monorail and says the state Treasurer can play a pivotal role in bringing one to both the I-70 and I-25 corridors.

Ali Hasan won’t take no for answer when it comes to the mountain monorail. The Beaver Creek Republican who won Eagle County but lost Lake and Summit counties and hence his really costly bid for the state Legislature, ran on a platform of promising a monorail in every pot.

That mass transit solution to I-70 weekend gridlock resonated with some voters, but clearly not enough, so Hasan now says he may do an end-run around the legislative approach and run for state treasurer in 2010 — an office where he could show the feasibility of his financial formula for mountain mass transit. He also wants to see a similar train along the I-25 corridor.

In a year that looks pretty good for Democrats, Republicans will be hard-pressed to make a big dent in the Democrats' 15-seat majority in the state House of Representatives.

But that doesn't mean all is lost for the GOP. House District 40 looks virtually certain to return to the Republicans, one year after Debbie Stafford turned rogue and delivered it into Democrats' hands.

There also appear to be a number of close races shaping up, the most interesting of these being House Districts 25, 27, 29, 30, 31, 37, and 56.