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Andrew Romanoff, a staunch progressive who has championed policies such as the Green New Deal, on Saturday claimed victory over former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper in the state's Democratic Senate caucuses. Romanoff made the declaration with reported results showing him earning 55 percent of the raw vote and Hickenlooper with just 31 percent, the Denver Post reported. The Colorado Democratic Party has said that 55 of the state's 64 counties have reported results.

National Democrats are canceling more than $1 million of planned commercial airtime for Colorado congressional candidate Andrew Romanoff — a sign of waning confidence in his prospects. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had reserved $1.4 million for TV spending to boost Romanoff in the final two weeks of his race against Republican Rep. Mike Coffman. .. Romanoff, a former state House speaker and unsuccessful 2010 Senate candidate, was once regarded as one of his party’s top 2014 hopefuls. But, with Republicans benefiting from a favorable national environment and Coffman running an energetic reelection campaign, Romanoff has seen his prospects dim....

The battle for the House has turned into trench warfare, with Republicans trying to scrape out enough wins to give them a historic majority and Democrats doing everything they can to minimize GOP gains. If the election were held today, strategists from both sides say, Republicans would expand their current majority by between six and eight seats ... Republicans head into the final weeks of the campaign almost exclusively on offense. Of the 31 or so races seriously in contention, 22 — over 70 percent — are in districts held by Democrats. Twenty of the 31 districts were won by...

U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman’s searing criticism of Former Montana Governor Schweitzer’s ridiculously sexist comments inspired some pretty damning headlines yesterday. But, Coffman’s opponent, Andrew Romanoff, was silent on the matter. And, now we know why – Schweitzer was in Colorado seven months ago stumping for Romanoff. ... Calling Diane Feinstein a prostitute-turned-nun is probably not the way to win friends and influence people, so we have to ask – will Romanoff denounce his fundraiser buddy’s comments? We’ve reached out to his campaign for comment. They responded with [drum roll] silence. ... They say you are who your friends are. Perhaps...

DENVER – A liberal ally may have cheered Democrat congressional candidate Andrew Romanoff’s commitment to reject contributions from political action committees (PACs) and special interest groups, but the former state lawmaker appears to be sidestepping that pledge by accepting money from high-profile lobbyists and fundraising “bundlers.” T.Q. Houlton, a spokesman for the National Republican Campaign Committee (NRCC), blasted Romanoff, who faced similar criticism during his unsuccessful 2010 bid for the U.S. Senate. “After a devastating electoral loss in the 2010 Senate primary, Romanoff is making it clear that he is just another washed up professional politician looking to make full-time...

DENVER – Tea party favorite Ken Buck has defeated former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton to clinch Colorado's Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate. The vote Tuesday was seen as another blow to politicians with close connections to Washington. Norton was endorsed by GOP leadership and co-chaired John McCain's presidential campaign two years ago in Colorado. Buck, a Weld County prosecutor, was little known before he began courting tea party groups more than a year ago. He trailed Norton in fundraising but used his law enforcement credentials in vowing to crack down on "criminals" at home and in Washington.

Andrew Romanoff entered the presidential robo-calls/appearances derby today, with a late entry from former President Bill Clinton. Clinton also brought up a fairly unexplored topic in this campaign, mentioning Romanoff as “the top-line candidate.” Tuesday’s results in Colorado may well turn up an indicator of how much Democratic candidates want to be seen with Obama for the general election campaign.

Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) said Thursday he was aware the White House had urged Andrew Romanoff not to challenge him in a primary. Bennet told The Hill he knew beforehand that White House Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina had reached out to Romanoff in hopes of avoiding a primary challenge to the incumbent Bennet. “Yeah, I was aware,” Bennet said. “Right.” Romanoff, a former state House speaker, attracted headlines recently by stating he was contacted by Messina last September with various job offers... The White House also contacted Pennsylvania Rep. Joe Sestak (D) in hopes of avoiding a primary...

The White House confirmed Thursday that an aide had dangled the prospect of a government job in front of another contender for the Senate — prompting Republicans to call for a criminal investigation. Democrats, however, maintained that the administration was guilty of nothing more than good politics. White House officials said the aide discussed a possible federal post last year with Andrew Romanoff, a Senate candidate in Colorado, in a bid to avoid a contentious primary with Democratic incumbent Sen. Michael Bennet.

Here is a video report from Colorado that Democrat U.S. Senate Candidate Andrew Romanoff has confirmed that the Obama White House told him of three different jobs “that might be available should he decide to drop out” of the Democratic Primary against incumbent Democrat Michael Bennet. Romanoff confirmed that the offer came from White House Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina, and the offer came AFTER he had decided to run for the U.S. Senate. The Obama White House cannot claim they were just feeling Romanoff out about whether he was going to run. Romanoff had already decided to run,...

Colorado U.S. Senate candidate Andrew Romanoff confirmed Wednesday that Jim Messina, President Barack Obama’s deputy chief of staff, suggested three administration jobs that would be available to him last September if he dropped his plans to run against U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, who had the support of the White House. Romanoff said he informed the White House that he would stay in the race. The revelation comes days after the White House confirmed that Rep. Joe Sestak was approached about an unpaid position in the administration if he dropped his campaign against Sen. Arlen Specter. But in this case, Romanoff...

In a statement U.S. Senate candidate Andrew Romanoff (D-CO) was offered the possibility of three jobs by Jim Messina, the President’s deputy chief of staff. The candidate says: In September 2009, shortly after the news media first reported my plans to run for the Senate, I received a call from Jim Messina, the President’s deputy chief of staff. Mr. Messina informed me that the White House would support Sen. Bennet. I informed Mr. Messina that I had made my decision to run. Here is the email Messina sent to to Romanoff, describing three positions.

Administration officials dangled the possibility of a job for former Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff last year in hopes he would forgo a challenge to Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet, administration officials said Wednesday, just days after the White House admitted orchestrating a similar job offer in the Pennsylvania Senate race. These officials declined to specify the job that was floated or the name of the administration official who approached Romanoff, and said no formal offer was ever made. They spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they were not cleared to discuss private conversations.

Well hallelujah! After 8 months of being in a silent lockdown mode on the subject of whether the White House offered the Democrat Senate candidate from Colorado, Andrew Romanoff (photo), a job if he would remove himself from the primary race, the Denver Post has finally gotten around to reporting on it again following their initial September story. By strange "coincidence" the Post's sudden willingness to once again broach this subject happened just hours after their bizarre silence on this topic was pointed out by various blogs on the web including the NewsBusters blog of your humble correspondent yesterday. The...

WASHINGTON — Not long after news leaked last month that Andrew Romanoff was determined to make a Democratic primary run against Sen. Michael Bennet, Romanoff received an unexpected communication from one of the most powerful men in Washington. Jim Messina, President Barack Obama's deputy chief of staff and a storied fixer in the White House political shop, suggested a place for Romanoff might be found in the administration and offered specific suggestions, according to several sources who described the communication to The Denver Post. Romanoff turned down the overture, which included mention of a job at USAID, the foreign aid...

A Democrat candidate running against a Senate incumbent is offered a job by the White House as an incentive to drop out of the primary race. Sounds like the Joe Sestak scandal in which he alleged that someone in the White House offered him a job in order to drop out of the race against the incumbent senator from Pennsylvania, Arlen Specter. Right? Well, yes. However, this also perfectly describes another similar scandal in which it is alleged that the White House offered a job to Andrew Romanoff (photo) in order to drop out of the primary race for the...

Allegations that the White House offered Joe Sestak a job in exchange for dropping out of the Pennsylvania Senate race echo an earlier report of a job offer to candidate Andrew Romanoff in Colorado. On September 27, 2009 the Denver Post reported that the Obama administration offered Senate candidate Romanoff a position if he canceled plans to run for the Democratic nomination against incumbent Sen. Michael Bennet. The paper said the job offer, which specified particular jobs, was reportedly delivered by Jim Messina, Obama’s deputy chief of staff. One position cited by the Post was a job at USAID, the...

Allegations that the White House offered Joe Sestak a job in exchange for dropping out of the Pennsylvania Senate race echo an earlier report of a job offer to candidate Andrew Romanoff in Colorado. On September 27, 2009 the Denver Post reported that the Obama administration offered Senate candidate Romanoff a position if he canceled plans to run for the Democratic nomination against incumbent Sen. Michael Bennet. The paper said the job offer, which specified particular jobs, was reportedly delivered by Jim Messina, Obama’s deputy chief of staff. One position cited by the Post was a job at USAID, the...

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet has received plenty of attention — and from progressive groups, plenty of praise — for authoring a letter pushing Democratic leaders to save the public option through a parliamentary maneuver known as reconciliation. He mentioned the letter in a missive to supporters citing differences with primary opponent Andrew Romanoff But according to a report this week on the liberal blog TalkingPointsMemo.com (TPM), the idea belonged less to Bennet then to his House colleague, Jared Polis (D-Boulder), who worked out the strategy with a coalition of progressive groups hoping to revive the government-run health insurance option.

Andrew Romanoff set his sights on a race for the U.S. Senate only after the breakdown of several months of backroom negotiations with Gov. Bill Ritter to find an alternative political opportunity for the popular former state House speaker. the potential deal centered on appointing Romanoff lieutenant governor when Barbara O'Brien — who was considering other options — stepped aside. Romanoff allies said Ritter finally told the veteran state legislator in a meeting between the two men in late June that he would not get the job. That set off a chain of events that led Romanoff to consider a...