Marilyn Musgrave has repeatedly been called an ineffective extremist.

The Greeley Tribune recently wrote that Marilyn Musgrave "works too often along the fringes of her party. She has focused mainly on a conservative social agenda. She has not shown an ability to be an effective leader in the state Senate. This single-minded agenda will not get her far in Congress either. The 4th needs a congressman knowledgeable about farming, the economy, the national defense, water, health, Social Security and education. Musgrave has shown no interest in thinking through what each of these issues mean to Coloradans, instead promising to support every plank of the Republican Party."

The Rocky Mountain News refused to endorse Musgrave, insisting that she has placed a "heavy emphasis during her legislative career on an agenda of social issues that are not and should not become a primary focus of the U.S. Congress."

Jim Johnson, former Republican 4th District Congressman, has blasted Musgrave for her extremism: "Marilyn Musgrave appeals to the far right of the Republican party with her emphasis on rights of gun owners and her rigid opposition to the right to have an abortion. Her advocacy of a national Right to Work law and other positions would brand her as such an extremist in Congress that she could accomplish little or nothing for her constituents."

After Musgrave's time in the Statehouse, the Denver Post said, "Musgrave's four years in the House have produced few dividends for her district. A region with intense school-finance and highway needs and a distressed agricultural base has bigger worries than gay marriage, the issue to which Musgrave has devoted much of her energy. Further, her abrasive tactics appear to have blocked her efforts in other, more constructive, areas" (The Denver Post, 9/27/98).

Jeff Bedingfield, a moderate Republican and Musgrave's opponent in the Primary Election, called her one of Colorado's "least effective legislators," passing "only 37% of her bills."