March 07, 2013 06:00 PM UTC

Bennet, Romanoff Burying the Ol' Hatchet?

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• by: Colorado Pols

Most Pols readers will not soon forget the odd, long, bruising, and odd battle between Andrew Romanoff and Sen. Michael Bennet in the 2010 Democratic primary for U.S. Senate. The weirdness began in early 2009 with Gov. Bill Ritter's out-of-left-field appointment of Bennet to fill the seat vacated by Ken Salazar, who accepted President Obama's nomination for Secretary of the Interior. Democrats weren't particularly excited about Bennet's appointment, largely because he was unknown outside of Denver. There was also a good deal of lingering resentment that Romanoff did not get the nod from Ritter.

Inexplicably, Romanoff then waited until August to finally jump into the Primary, giving Bennet lots of time to raise money and convince Colorado Democrats that he was the right man for the job. Romanoff raised just enough money to be a pain in the ass for Bennet, but not nearly enough to overcome Bennet's huge head start (not to mention his connections to President Obama). Bennet overcame some last-minute negative ads from Romanoff and ended up with an 8-point victory before going on to defeat Republican Ken Buck in the General Election. Romanoff, Bennet, and many of their respective supporters carried some obvious lingering resentment well past Election Day. 

Today that hatchet was symbolically buried with an email announcement from Romanoff's campaign for Congress in CD-6:

Now I have even more good news to report: I’ve earned the endorsement of Sen. Michael Bennet. Here’s what he said:

"Andrew Romanoff has a long record of fighting for Coloradans and a commitment to empowering our next generation with greater opportunity.  Andrew has always placed the needs of his constituents above Washington’s politics-as-usual.  At a time of partisanship and gridlock, he will work across the aisle to move our nation forward.  I am proud to endorse Andrew today and look forward to helping elect him."

I am very grateful for Sen. Bennet’s support, and I’m eager to work with him to break the logjam in Washington.

Our campaign is growing stronger every day. More than 1,000 Coloradans have joined our team in the last four weeks alone. I’m honored to count Michael Bennet among them.

Well now, doesn't that give you the warm fuzzies?