Colorado Politics

Did Obama Win in Colorado?

By Jule Banville, 8-12-10

	Politico's take is measured: Sure, Obama helped; but Bennet's a wicked fundraiser on his own.

Michael Bennet may have been uneasy about getting a nudge or several from the White House, but that was prior to his victory yesterday in the Democratic primary for Senate in Colorado. The margin wasn’t huge--54.2 percent to 45.2 percent, according to the Denver Post--but it was enough for the New York Daily News to headline its story, “President Barack Obama’s Colorado victory: U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet win good news for president.”

Bennet, appointed to fill out Ken Salazar’s term when he was tapped to head Interior, beat out Bill Clinton’s horse, Andrew Romanoff. Now Bennet will face Ken Buck, a prosecutor and Tea Party favorite, according to Associated Content’s Mark Whittington, in the general election.

The White House has been quick to get its share of the pie. On Wednesday, officials gave reporters a list of what was done by Obama’s camp to help Bennet--including robocalls featuring TV star George Lopez. As reported by the Denver Post, these same officials’ goal was to show that its political operation still has the goods after recent Democratic losses in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New Jersey.

Also from the same article in the Post:

Bennet acknowledged the assistance Wednesday in a TV interview on “Good Morning America,” calling the White House effort “a huge help.”

But asked whether President Barack Obama would be heading to Colorado to help in the fall, Bennet said, “We will have to see,” leading some analysts to suggest that he may be less eager to associate himself in the general election with a president whose ratings with Colorado’s independent voters are low.

But Politico’s coverage keys in on Bennet’s ability to raise cash independent of Obama:

While events with President Barack Obama and two cabinet secretaries brought in $700,000, that was just a drop in the bucket compared with the nearly $7 million he raked in on his own. His nearly four-to-one cash advantage over Romanoff, which allowed him to go up with TV ads as early as March, cannot be underestimated. ... Added state party Chairwoman Pat Waak: “Certainly the work by the DNC helped to some extent because it multiplied the volunteers, but I think Bennet had a really good ground operation.”

So who comes out ahead for the fall? The Democrats or the Republicans? The answer, of course: Both.

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