Mark Udall's Toughest Climb

There was a time, way back at the beginning of my career, when I wanted nothing more than to be an Important Political Journalist. I interned at the Village Voice (when it still mattered), then moved back to my more-or-less hometown of Washington, DC, to report on that town's biggest business: politics, law, and lobbying. 

That was interesting for a while. Then I got sick of fake news, partisan posturing, and being constantly lied to. (You know, the same stuff pretty much 53 percent of America is also sick of, by now.) So I shifted gears, began writing about more everyday people, their passions and pursuits, which occasionally included killing each other; I also started writing about athletes who I felt were interesting and unique as human beings. (Bode Miller being one example.) 

Which brings us the long way around to Colorado's Mark Udall, who's running for Senate in a hotly-contested and crucial race for both sides. Whether or not you agree with Udall's left-of-center politics, you have to admit he's not your typical politician. Not many congressmen have summited even one of Colorado's 14,000-foot-peaks, let alone all 54 of them; probably none have stood atop an 8,000-meter mountain, or been trapped at 25,000 feet on Everest. Udall's climbing experiences give him, I think, an interesting and useful skill-set for politics, particularly if you hail from a region where your point of view is (or was) maybe not all that popular. He's used to the tough, often unpleasant slog. 

Udall, of course, is  son of the late great Rep. Mo Udall, one of the last truly fiery liberals in Congress, who gave Jimmy Carter a run for his money in 1976 Democratic primary race. He was also a guy who could pal around with (shudder) Republicans, including his young protege John McCain; later, when Mo lay in the hospital, incapacitated by his Parkinson's, McCain was one of his only regular visitors. 

For this long profile of Mark Udall in the November Men's Journal, I spent a day with Udall last January, going to FEMA forest-fire meetings and then backcountry skiing near the Continental Divide; you can guess which activity he enjoyed more. I came back in August, when the campaign with Republican ex-congressman Bob Schaffer was at its most heated. Udall was a bit more tense then, but still very much the Western statesman. Voters must have noticed: He was roughly tied in the polls back then, but now sits on a double-digit lead. Did someone say "Future Interior Secretary"? 

UPDATE: Yes, He Won.