March 07, 2010 11:31 PM UTC

Finally, Real Romanoff vs. Bennet Journalism

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• by: Colorado Pols

We know a lot of you have grown impatient lately with what many consider to be inadequate local political coverage, particularly from Denver’s only remaining newspaper of record, the Denver Post.

Well, folks, the reason we defend our few remaining local political beat reporters, like the Denver Post’s irreplaceable Lynn Bartels, even as we too are occasionally frustrated by editorial choices we tend to think are not made by her or her newsroom peers, are moments of greatness like today’s lengthy feature on the Democratic U.S. Senate primary between Andrew Romanoff and Michael Bennet. Excerpts of which include:

The politician who just over a year ago was considered a Democratic rising star is now resented, even reviled, by some who were once his biggest fans.

Since his surprise decision to enter the race in August, Romanoff’s political obituary has been written, rewritten, posted, pulled down, tweaked, shelved and dusted off.

One week a poll announces Romanoff is doing better against the Republican Senate candidates than Bennet. The next week he has to cut ties with one of his national advisers after a video surfaces of the guy bashing union leaders and environmentalists.

And Romanoff keeps on campaigning.

One Kiwanis member, after citing a string of what he says are Bennet’s shortcomings, including that the former Denver Public Schools chief was just seen “campaigning with a president going downhill faster than Bode Miller,” has a simple question for Romanoff:

“How can you possibly lose to this guy?”

Everyone laughs, especially Romanoff, but he knows that plenty of others wonder why he thinks he can win.

That’s as much as we care to cite here, please do give the Post the benefit of your click-through on this story. We regard it as a significant breakthrough for political news coverage this election year, and not just because it is the first major media in Colorado to introduce the Pat Caddell our readers are so well acquainted with. It’s the first story we’ve seen that actually sets out the long history of Romanoff’s shadowing the appointment of Michael Bennet to the Senate, the months “agonizing” over whether to get in the race while Bennet shored up his position, then the damaging uncertainty over running for Governor instead. More recently, the risky open campaigning against a popular Democratic president. And now, with caucuses less than ten days away, Romanoff is hitting his trademark small venues hard–but a vast fundraising disparity has accumulated…

Anyway, it’s the story you know, but you should take heart in the fact that it is being told accurately in major media. That’s all that was missing up to now, and maybe they really were just saving the good stuff for when lay newspaper readers are paying attention–like the week before caucuses.

If so, cheer it on–and watch for some entertaining Jane Norton features soon.