May 09, 2011 08:31 PM UTC

Breaking: Mejia to Endorse Romer

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• by: Colorado Pols

The rumor mill is out in full force today, on what might be the ultimate tipping point in the race for Mayor thus far.

From a statement we received from the Michael Hancock campaign, following James Mejia’s apparent endorsement of Chris Romer:

I know this was not an easy decision for James to make. He ran a great campaign and I wish him luck in his future endeavors. From the beginning of our campaign, we knew this was going to be a race earned through hard work. I am no stranger to struggle and am determined to win this race. We will continue to build momentum and will work hard to earn the support of Denver voters over the next four weeks, including those who voted for James. We are all Denver and we welcome Mejia supporters to Team Hancock.

Folks, it doesn’t matter what Mejia was offered, if anything, to endorse Romer. Both candidates were courting Mejia aggressively, and the fact that James has lent his support to Romer absolutely kills Hancock’s chances at becoming Mayor. The only way Hancock could compete against Romer, who has much more money, much higher name ID, and fewer negatives, was to garner a Mejia endorsement and use that to coalesce his significant bloc of supporters. At the very least, Hancock HAD to keep Mejia neutral — endorsing Romer is an absolute disaster.

Even if Hancock couldn’t get Mejia’s endorsement, he had to at least keep James neutral. Hancock’s officially lost the ability to say that there is a huge group against Romer now that the latter has garnered an endorsement from the candidate who nearly beat Hancock himself.

With Mejia’s endorsement, Romer is that much more the frontrunner. Hancock may have been able to beat Romer if he could solidify an “Anybody but Romer” coalition. That’s not happening now. Mejia scored nearly 30,000 votes in his own right. That’s a solid bloc that Hancock needed to make himself look viable.

This is it, folks. The race is essentially won. Hancock doesn’t have the money or name ID that Romer has. Now he doesn’t even have a coalition. June 7th is still a long time from today, but what is Hancock’s path to victory now? We just don’t see one.