Ben Nighthorse Campbell

Retired GOP warhorse (or is that Democrat warhorse) is coming out of retirement from the US Senate to lobby for Native Hawaiian rights. Patton Boggs has retained Ben Nighthorse Campbell to lobby Republicans in the Senate on behalf of the Akaka Bill.

Colorado has five living former United States Senators: Bill Armstrong, 71, who served from 1979 to 1991; Hank Brown, 68, who served from 1991 to 1997; Ben Nighthorse Campbell, 75, who served from 1993 to 2001; Gary Hart, 71, a Senator from 1975 to 1987; and Tim Wirth, 68, who served from 1987 to 1993. 

Former U.S. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.) told the Rocky Mountain News on Tuesday that he's not endorsing either Republican Bob Schaffer or Democrat Mark Udall in this year's U.S. Senate race.

Some people call them centrists – others see them as opportunists or traitors:  it’s the group of Colorado politicians who have been viewed, from time to time, by members of their own party as ideologically-challenged.  For some, it’s not so much that they don’t have any philosophic underpinnings -- it just that they like themselves way too much to tie themselves to a mere political party. For others, it’s that they have philosophic underpinnings that go against their party.

Here’s a look at our top-ten? Traitors or centrists?  We’ll let you decide: