CO-04 (Special Election)
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(R) Greg Lopez
(R) Trisha Calvarese
90%
10%
President (To Win Colorado)
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(D) Joe Biden*
(R) Donald Trump
80%
20%↓
CO-01 (Denver)
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(D) Diana DeGette*
90%
CO-02 (Boulder-ish)
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(D) Joe Neguse*
90%
CO-03 (West & Southern CO)
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(D) Adam Frisch
(R) Jeff Hurd
(R) Ron Hanks
40%
30%
20%
CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado)
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(R) Lauren Boebert
(R) Deborah Flora
(R) J. Sonnenberg
30%↑
15%↑
10%↓
CO-05 (Colorado Springs)
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(R) Dave Williams
(R) Jeff Crank
50%↓
50%↑
CO-06 (Aurora)
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(D) Jason Crow*
90%
CO-07 (Jefferson County)
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(D) Brittany Pettersen
85%↑
CO-08 (Northern Colo.)
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(D) Yadira Caraveo
(R) Gabe Evans
(R) Janak Joshi
60%↑
35%↓
30%↑
State Senate Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
80%
20%
State House Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
95%
5%
February 19, 2010 11:00 PM UTC
37 Comments
I agree with much of what you say, peacemonger.
I went a bit farther in the diary I posted a bit before yours. I think Romanoff has said quite a bit about himself and the campaigns he runs, and I am not sure he has helped himself even for future races.
My diary is at: http://www.coloradopols.com/di…
Anyone who’s been watching this race or Andrew Romanoff’s behavior in public can easily trace his campaign’s divisive negativity and whiny tone straight back to the candidate.
He’s in the first competitive campaign of his life, where a politician is truly tested, and Colorado is seeing the result of that test. It is truly embarrassing.
I cannot accuse Romanoff of being as petty as his campaign. I want to believe he is a bigger man than that. I like to think he will run again for a seat where he is better suited.
He is hurting himself more each day, and we need him.
rich.
Joe Sestak got into his primary race vs. Specter in August of 2009 – one month before Romanoff.
Would you begrudge him? I mean, Obama endorsed Specter already too.
But he has said himself he is not a ‘loyal democrat’
as you can see here, Specter has been campaigning and fundraising against democratic candidates in support of Republicans.
Is that the kind of Change Obama campaigned for?
And it turns out that Obama has been intervening to choose candidates and to ‘clear the field’ for elected officials, thus thwarting our democracy, on a level not seen since FDR.
Sestak says federal job offered to quit race
Obama touts Bennet as outsider
Obama clears the field for Gillibrand in New York
Obama asks Patterson to quit NY Governor’s race
Larry Sabato offers this insight on the perils of this interference into local elections.
And guess what pm, just because you think someone should not run for a primary does not represent the will of the electorate.
Heck, if just one person wants to primary a candidate, at least it makes that candidate have to answer on their positions.
You’re taking the same line of attack as the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which sent out links to those same article! You sure you guys aren’t in cahoots?
I was not aware that the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech excluded the President of the United States. Why, therefore, does Obama’s endorsement “thwart our democracy.”
The FDR reference is also both outdated and wrongheaded. If memory serves, he challeged ten or 11 Democrats who had opposed his court-packing plan. All but one of them was reelection — which hardly constitutes a “thwarting of Democracy.” As I recall, most of them were southerners in states where the Democratic primary was the equivalent to election. That’s very different than Obama;s efforts to strengthen the party in states, like Colorado, where the Rs have a strong chance at winning the seat in November. Personally, I don’t find the President’s endorsement of Bennet to be dispositive, but I certainly don’t begrudge it either.
Otherwise they would agree with you.
thank you.
Forgot to log out and log back in under the “redstateblues” name. All these sock puppets are hard to keep track of!
Sure does make a lot of sense.
Dangit, forgot to switch again!
I have a few requests I’d like to send in for how you fill out the non-Pols backstory for us….
Ugly, very ugly.
And thats while MB is stopping by the bank to drop off another $675k from yesterday’s events, from Colorado voters, who believe in him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…
http://www.andrewromanoff.com/…
And all the money in the world won’t change this. So why don’t we let Democratic primary voters decide who they want in D.C.? The proven leader who has never been afraid of tackling the serious problems facing Colorado — or the political neophyte who claims to be an agent of change but has acted more like a “career politician” in his short time in the Senate than Romanoff ever has?
Ritter gave us MB but we are under no obligation to keep him. The difference between MB supporters and AR supporters is that MB supporters think we are stuck with MB. Not yet we aren’t.
You MB supporters can keep telling yourself the issue in this primary campaign is policy differences. AR supporters know better. This is about leadership and our guy is a leader. Really, when is a primary ever about policy differences? Was Obama-Clinton about policy differences? Get real.
The money issue is another red herring. If AR wins the primary the money will come. And MB is dropping another $675K in the bank because people wanted to see the President and wanted to get their picture taken with the President, not because they believe in MB.
is your old girlfriend, again?
But you’re right to point out Bennet’s lack of leadership qualities. After all, he got bumped up from some mid-level manager position in some school district.
Michael Bennet is a health care hero.
Thanks to him, the public option is back on the table. That’s real leadership, my friend.
http://theplumline.whorunsgov….
According to Andrew Romanoff, if he had been up to him, health care reform would be dead. That’s leadership?
So on the one hand we have someone who would have voted to kill HCR in the Senate because it wasn’t to his liking, and on the other we have someone who has been working tirelessly to make HCR a reality despite its imperfections.
Yeah, I think I know real leadership when I see it.
And to fix some of those imperfections along the way — shaming Nelson to withdraw the special deal for Nebraska, finding the right time to reintroduce the public option with a way the Senate can adopt it. On that last, we’ll see what happens — it could be a sop to the base and ultimately go nowhere. But it’s got a better chance of passing now than it did before Bennet stepped in. Legislation is incremental, not all-or-nothing. I get the feeling Bennet understands this and can accomplish things in that environment.
what Romanoff said:
But we all remember back in December it wasn’t a false choice – in the real world this was the only choice 60 senators had: vote yes, flaws and all. Or vote no and kill the Senate healthcare bill.
We can imagine all manner of hypotheticals – none of which changes the real world, hard choice, the Senators had.
If you reply without explaining the fairy dust and the red unicorns- especially the red unicorns- say so in the subject and save us all the time and punishment of just reading this spin over and over and over and over
http://www.salon.com/politics/…
Is it time for Wade to admit he’s in Rick Santorum’s pocket? Along with some other things I don’t want to mention, as this is a family blog.
for once. Washington DC power brokers should stay out of local primary races.
(in his case he was referring to the Republican DC power brokers)
I am referring to the President.
As Larry Sabato says in my link above, FDR was the last President to inject himself into local primaries – and it cost him politically.
If Obama’s nominees that he has endorsed all win, then his efforts to dampen primaries and clear out challengers will have paid off.
If on the other hand, his endorsed candidates lose (which is likely to happen in Pennsylvania and Colorado) then it will leave Obama in a weaker position.
And your logic, that because Rick Santorum agrees that Primaries should be decided by local voters, as I do, means I am ‘in his pocket?’
what are you smoking?
I agree with MADCO that in December this was the choice. You could vote for the bill or agin it. Bennet has explained why he voted for it. I can’t tell if Romanoff and his supporters want us all to think Romanoff would have voted the same or different. It’s almost like they want it both ways, which isn’t how votes work.
Also, Bennet’s actions show he understands there aren’t only two options. First, he came out strongly against the Nebraska purchase, then Nelson said he would take it out. Second, he has come out again (as he has at least since June, which is before September) in favor of a public option.
This is leadership. And it is leadership on issues that matter to constituents, including the 850,000 Coloradoans without any health care and to those of us with health care who care about access and cost for all.
Bennet was out talking to people about this and other issues in every single county in Colorado in his first months in office, including during the August of our discontent. Where was Romanoff in all those months and who are he and his supporters to talk about lack of leadership from Bennet, especially on this issue?
Okay, let’s say that Romanoff’s statement at the debate was purely rhetorical, and it all comes down to where he would have started (the 20 yard line, not the 50 yard line talking point he uses on the stump.) I can accept that.
My point was that the Romanoff campaign, and many of his surrogates here on Pols, are saying that this race is about leadership rather than policy differentiation. Bennet has consistently shown himself to be a strong advocate for HCR including a public option, but Harry Reid actually acknowledging that Bennet’s letter helped influence his decision shows that Bennet is not only one of the strongest HCR advocates, but one of the strongest leaders on HCR in the Senate as well.
it’s a false choice- Bennet didn’t write the letter and Reid didn’t get on board until after there was a primary so
[insert difficult, and anti Bennet link , slight off subject here]
And then something else and yada yada yada.
takes cajones to do that.
However, if this was political calculation to gain base voter points – i.e. the Reconciliation can’t get to 50 (because people like our other Senator don’t want to ‘box the President in’) then it will be for naught.
than neither is this.
People like you just don’t understand that taking PAC money and having your own leadership PAC at the state level is a very appropriate, noble thing that leaders and party-builders do. Taking PAC money at the federal level makes you corrupt and part of the problem not the solution.
I guess Bennet’s year-long strong record — dozens and dozens of votes with the Democratic party, and leadership to get it done, is also just a political calculation to get more votes.
Wow, he’s sneaky!
he’s smart, but not like that.
And
he does not have that kind of trickery in him, he’s just not that guy*. He is what he is- and it’s not that hard to see or grok.
(yet – he could get there some day.)
1. RE: “Why don’t we let voters decide?”
You have a choice in the Senate election. No one is trying to take that away from you. It is called a caucus and a primary.
2. RE: “MB supporters think we are stuck with MB”.
After getting to know both candidates I freely choose Michael Bennet.
3. I attended the rally because I was excited my candidate was finally getting the recognition he deserved. Mr. Obama just happened to be there, too. And yes, he’s a dandy speaker- nice of him to drop in.