Colo. Senate candidate Ken Buck is apologizing for a degrading remark he made about the Tea Party movement last month. Buck regrets disparaging tea partiers

Insurgent Colorado Senate candidate Ken Buck is apologizing for a degrading remark he made about the Tea Party movement last month that was caught on tape by a Democratic tracker.

The Denver Post and 9News is expected to report Sunday night that Buck referred to the members of the Tea Party as "dumbasses" after a campaign event in Crowley, Colo. last month.


"Will you tell those dumbasses at the Tea Party to stop asking questions about birth certificates while I'm on the camera? God, what am I supposed to do?" Buck says on the tape, according to his campaign.

Buck campaign spokesman Owen Loftus told POLITICO that the candidate spent Sunday explaining and apologizing for the remark in interviews with the state's two dominant news outlets.

"Ken points out he does gets frustrated at times with those individuals pushing those issues. He shouldn't have cussed. He regrets the remark. He was venting his frustration to a Democratic tracker and he shouldn't of," said Loftus.

Loftus said that Buck, whose candidacy has been fueled in part by Tea Party members uninspired by one-time GOP frontrunner Jane Norton, was aware he was speaking to a Democratic tracker and simply made a mistake. The birther issue has been a tricky one for Buck to navigate: While he signaled he would support legislation to ensure a presidential candidate has U.S. citizenship at a meet-and-greet in June, he has also stressed it is not a priority for his campaign.

"They're following him for over a year now and they're bound to catch somethings. And out of frustration, he said this," explained Loftus. "I don't blame them. I think they're much more afraid to go against Ken."

The Norton campaign leaped on the remark, calling Buck, "two-steps short of a fraud."

"He's a self-proclaimed tea partier who trashes tea partiers when he thinks no one is looking. He's an alleged fiscal conservative who increased his budget by 40 percent. He's a Tom Tancredo disciple who trashes Tancredo when he thinks the mic is off. Ken says he can appeal to swing voters and beat Michael Bennet, and then trashes the roughly 50 percent of voters who wear high heels. Bottom line: The voters of Colorado can’t trust Ken Buck," said Norton spokeswoman Cinamon Watson.

The Weld County district attorney is in an increasingly negative primary contest with Norton, the former lieutenant governor who squandered an early double-digit lead despite high name recognition and backing from national Republicans.

While Buck's opponents were expected to hop on the verbal slip, the campaign said it was confident most Tea Party members would respect his explanation.

"He's referring to those small groups that really are just missing the bigger picture here. I think the Tea Partiers are looking at the much bigger picture and the issues of the deficit and health care and that we need to stand up to the establishment and change Washington," said Loftus.

Buck got into hot water last week for being caught on camera saying that voters should choose him over Norton because "I do not wear high heels." The comment was in response to a Norton ad that accused Buck of not being "man enough" to launch attacks against her himself -- a reference to the outside groups who have spent millions on television targeting her record.

To stem the tide of bad press, the Buck campaign released an internal poll conducted by Magellan Strategies that showed him leading Norton 46 percent to 37 percent.

The winner of the Aug. 10 primary will go on to face appointed Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet or his primary rival, former state House Speaker Andrew Romanoff.