November 04, 2009 01:49 AM UTC

Romanoff Pushes On, Still Sans Message

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• by: Colorado Pols

We’ve questioned before the complete lack of any real message coming from Andrew Romanoff’s campaign for U.S. Senate. As the campaign enters its second full month, there is still no clear message from Romanoff.

Click below to read Romanoff’s latest email sent out to supporters. It’s filled with the same vacuous stuff that his previous emails have included. “Grassroots effort,” “Meaningful and lasting progress,” and our favorite, “Real reform requires risk.” It all sounds so very…vague. And that’s not going to get Romanoff elected.

And please, we offer a simple plea not just to Romanoff, but to hundreds of other candidates: Stop using the “Not trolling for dollars on Wall Street but talking to people on Main Street” line. It’s soooo played.  

“You gotta dance with them what brung ya.”

Most candidates for Congress spend the bulk of their time raising money from powerful interest groups – the same groups they’re expected to regulate once in office.  No wonder so many politicians are reluctant to rock the boat.  You can raise more money, and stay in office longer, by playing it safe.

That’s not acceptable, especially not now.  History has handed us a once-in-a-lifetime chance to make meaningful and lasting progress on a host of issues, from health care to the economy to the fate of the earth itself.  To make the most of this opportunity, we need bold leadership in the U.S. Senate.  Timidity won’t do the trick.  Real reform requires risk.

Click here to take action.

If we are serious about curbing health-care costs, for example, we’ll need to reform the ways in which we deliver and compensate care, so that providers are rewarded for improving outcomes, not simply for prescribing procedures and ordering tests.  If we are serious about securing a higher standard of living for ourselves and our children, we’ll need to retool our schools, retrain our workforce and rebuild our infrastructure, rather than rely on financial gimmicks and foreign debt.  If we are serious about safeguarding our environment, we’ll need nothing less than a revolution in the production and use of energy, so that we no longer have to spill our blood or spoil our skies just to power our planet.

Click here to make a difference.

None of these steps will be easy.  But few will even be possible unless we reform our political system.  Too many elections are foregone conclusions – contests in name only – or yard sales, in which public offices are auctioned off to the highest bidder.  The politicians who prevail pose little threat to the status quo; their victories are bought and paid for by an incumbent-protection racket that regards democracy as bad for business.

How do we break the grip of these plutocratic potentates and reclaim our democracy?  We restore the power of people.  That’s why I’m writing to you today.  We are building a broad, grassroots campaign, fueled by and focused on the people of Colorado.  I’m proud to have enlisted more than 2,500 Coloradans in this cause, covering every county in the state.

Join us.  Together, we’ll prove that you can get elected to national office not just by trolling for dollars on Wall Street but by talking to people on Main Street.

Someone once said there are two kinds of politicians in the world: those who want to be somebody and those who want to do something.  I’m running for the Senate because I want to get some things done.  I will not flinch from tough decisions.  I will fight every day for the far-reaching reforms we deserve in health care, job growth and energy policy.  And I will jam the revolving door on Capitol Hill, so that lawmakers and lobbyists can no longer form job-sharing agreements that turn public office into private gain.

If you believe, as I do, that we need to change the tune in Washington, not just the politicians who dance to it, sign up right now.