The air between the Democratic candidates vying
to represent Colorado in the U.S. Senate has grown a little thinner over the last few weeks.
With a week to go before Tuesday's primary, President Barack Obama participated in a tele-town hall for his preferred candidate, incumbent Michael Bennet, as Andrew Romanoff, the former state House speaker, surged in the polls.
Bennet "has been a breath of fresh air in a town with a lot of hot air," Obama told supporters who joined in on the call last week. He called Bennet
his "go-to guy" for education and healthcare reform since taking office 18 months ago to complete the unexpired term of Ken Salazar, who resigned to become interior secretary, The Washington Post reported.
The entry of Obama into the Colorado race comes as polls indicate Romanoff has chipped away at Bennet's double-digit lead. A Denver Post poll indicated Romanoff held a 48 percent to 45 percent edge over Bennet, with a margin of error of 4.3 percentage points.
Romanoff's rise is in the polls is more eye-popping since Bennet has plunked down nearly $5.8 million on his bid so far, more than three times the $1.7 million Romanoff has spent, including a recent $300,000 loan Bennet made to
his own campaign.
Even so, Romanoff has "officially gone all-in" for his U.S. Senate primary bid by selling his house and loaning his campaign $325,000 in proceeds, the Denver Post said.
"I'm never home anyway," he quipped.
Pundits say a loss by Bennet could call into question how much weight an Obama endorsement of Democratic candidates can carry this midterm election. The situation is even murkier because former President Bill Clinton has come out in favor of Romanoff and distributed a fundraising e-mail on his behalf, the Denver Post said.
In the Republican primary, former Lt. Gov. Ken Buck leads Jane Norton by 9 points, down from a 16-point lead in June, the Denver Post poll indicated. Pollsters said Norton may have picked up ground against Buck because of recent negative ads Buck has run, including one in which he says voters should vote for him because he doesn't "wear high heels."
Political gadfly Tom Tancredo's entrance into the race to succeed Gov. Bill Ritter, who chose not to run in 2010, has carved substantially into support for the two Republican hopefuls, giving Democrat John Hickenlooper, Denver's mayor, a double-digit lead in a three-way race in November, the Denver newspaper said. Tancredo announced he was entering the race as an American
Constitution Party candidate, after he warned Republican candidates Dan Maes and Scott McInnis to bow out or else, The Colorado Statesman reported.
In recent weeks, Maes and McInnis have been
trapped by negative news that may have torpedoed the Republican Party's chances of beating Hickenlooper in November, observers said. Maes was
smacked with a $17,500 fine for campaign finance violations and McInnis, a former congressman, was accused of plagiarizing articles he produced for a
private foundation.
Tancredo said the candidates' problems motivated his ultimatum that McInnis and businessman Maes agree to drop out after the primary if a poll indicated the GOP winner trailed Hickenlooper, the Statesman said. If they refused, Tancredo said he'd run against the GOP candidate and Hickenlooper in the general election.
But politicos such as state GOP chairman Dick Wadhams predict the former congressman's entry into the race could ring a death knell for the party's gubernatorial bid and possibly trickle down to state legislative races.
"It's difficult if not impossible to beat John Hickenlooper with Tancredo in the race," Wadhams said, noting that Tancredo would siphon enough votes away from the GOP nominee to give Hickenlooper a win.
A Denver Post analysis of contributions to the races for the 3rd, 4th and 7th Congressional District seats held by Democrats running unopposed
indicate Democrats have raised about $7.9 million in donations through mid-July -- nearly twice as much money overall as their GOP challengers.
Of the three races, Cook Political Report lists the 4th District seat held by Democrat Betsy Markey as a toss-up; the 3rd held by John Salazar as leaning Democratic and the 7th held by Ed Perlmutter as likely Democratic.
The most vigorous battle for bucks so far is in the 4th District, where Markey had raised $2.2 million and Republican challenger Cory Gardner, also running unopposed, collected $1.3 million through the middle of July.
Incumbents Salazar in the 4th District and Perlmutter in suburban Denver's 7th also have fundraising advantages so far. In both districts, Republican candidates face primaries in August -- Scott Tipton and Bob McConnell in the 4th, and Ryan Frazier and Lang Sias in the 7th.
"Whenever you are going up against an incumbent, they've got the keys to the vault," said Tipton, who has raised about $380,000 to Salazar's $1.2
million. McConnell, with former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's endorsement in his pocket, raised about $78,000 and loaned his campaign $79,000.
In the 1st Congressional District, incumbent Democrat Diana DeGette is unopposed while Mike Fallon and Steven Barton battle each other in the
Republican primary, documents from the Secretary of State's office indicate.
Democrat Jared Polis is unopposed in his bid to
be re-elected in the 2nd Congressional District. In the Republican primary, Stephen Bailey and Bob Brancato are vying to be the party's nominee.
Democrat and Republican candidates are unopposed in the 5th and 6th Congressional Districts. Democrat Kevin Bradley will square off against
incumbent Doug Lamborn in the 5th in November, and John Flerlage will face Republican incumbent Mike Coffman.