July 31, 2010 04:44 AM UTC

The Democratic Senate Race

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• by: botw

I am a nearly 20-year resident of Colorado and committed Democrat who will vote for the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate in November.

Long before Governor Ritter appointed Michael Bennet to replace Senator Salazar in early 2009, I knew and liked both Michael Bennet and Andrew Romanoff. Back in early 2009, I would have said either Bennet or Romanoff could make an excellent Senator for Colorado. I would also have said then that they are quite similar in every important way.

I would have been very wrong.

It’s true that both Bennet and Romanoff have Ivy League educations. Both are smart and capable. Both have significant public policy backgrounds; Romanoff in elective positions in the Colorado House, and Bennet in a variety of important public sector jobs. Each had some experience the other did not; Romanoff had elective experience, and Bennet had a substantial business background, but they really seemed far more alike than different.

In the nearly ten months since Romanoff announced his primary challenge of Bennet, one difference has shined through. For me and other committed Bennet supporters, that one difference dramatically overshadows the evident similarities between these men.

Is it an important policy position? No. There isn’t a meaningful policy difference between them, though Romanoff has recently tried to manufacture some. Both are moderate Democrats. Romanoff was a state leader in the Clinton-inspired DLC (anathema to progressives for its moderate approach). Bennet is a lifelong Democrat and former Chief of Staff to the moderate, business-friendly Denver Mayor.

So what is the difference? It’s integrity. The difference is that with the launching of his campaign, Romanoff launched a relentless, hypocritical, and dishonest attack on Bennet’s character simply because Bennet’s campaign accepts PAC money. Exhibit A for the Romanoff approach is his first television ad, timed to coincide with the mailing of primary election ballots and highly critical of Bennet for accepting PAC contributions. Never mind that Bennet also has 20,000 citizen donors.

The real problem for Romanoff? As of January this year, and for years before that, Romanoff himself had a PAC called the Romanoff Leadership Fund. Romanoff’s PAC happily accepted corporate and other donations of the type he now says demonstrate “corruption.” Like Secretary Salazar, Senator Udall, and a host of other Colorado officials who have taken PAC money and whose integrity is unchallenged, Romanoff knows full well that taking PAC money doesn’t make a person a corrupt or bad public official.

Campaigns and television ads are meant to convey something important about a candidate. The Romanoff ad does say a lot to Democrats in Colorado, but it is not the message Romanoff intended to send. Like the nasty tone and substance of Romanoff’s campaign, the ad says that in order to reach his grail, he will make unfair, hypocritical attacks that would have been far beneath Old Romanoff. What New Romanoff has done in this race, primarily to himself, has been very telling for many of us who used to admire him.

Bennet, for his part, has maintained a civil, elevated campaign about the issues on which he has worked and made substantial progress for Colorado. Credit card reform. Financial re-regulation. The Fry-Ark water project for Southeastern Colorado. Troops to Teachers and other education initiatives. And he has shown that despite unfair attacks, he can and will keep his cool as he faces off against one of a pair of Republican candidates who are helpfully stomping on each other on their way to the Tea Party forums. To continue to fight for Colorado, Senator Bennet will need every bit of available funds to fight off the imminent, PAC-funded Tea Party attacks.