Schaffer seen as potential beneficiary of conservative PAC

Colorado U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer is emerging as a likely beneficiary of the Senate Conservatives Fund, a political action committee founded by U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) that launched this week.

DeMint, who said this week that the fund was designed to benefit Republican candidates who adhered to a down-the-line conservative philosophy, was friends with Schaffer when the two occupied seats in the U.S. House, Schaffer campaign manager Dick Wadhams noted.

Wesley Denton, a spokesman for the Senate Conservatives Fund, tells PolitickerCO.com that in the next several weeks, the organization would be making decisions about which candidates it would be supporting. But he acknowledged that Schaffer was a contender. “I certainly think he’s under consideration,” Denton said.

DeMint, who is in his first term in the Senate after serving three terms in the House, is seen as popular among the Republican Party’s conservative set for his advocacy of conservative principles like limited government and traditional family values.

Matt Miller, a spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, suggested an endorsement from DeMint’s committee was a sign that Schaffer was out of touch. “It wouldn’t be surprising at all if a PAC intended to elect the most far-right ideologues would support Bob Schaffer,” he said.

Schaffer is running against Democratic U.S. Rep. Mark Udall for the seat of retiring Republican U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard.