August 06, 2010 12:50 AM UTC

Bennet Strongest D Candidate in the General

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• by: MADCO

Forget for a minute how the Colorado D’s got here. 2008  election, transition, Bennet appointment, nine months of rumor and Romanoff chasing other jobs and the LT Gov. thing followed by an announcement of a challenge….followed by another announcement that the challenge would continue and not be sidetracked by the gov thing.

Forget all that and think about this…

It’s less than a week before the end of the primary and Andrew Romanoff and Michael Bennet are in a very close race for the D nomination.  If someone had predicted this in Aug or even Nov 2008  no one would have believed it.

Negativity is the great equalizer – but only because we let it be.  I choose to ignore it as much as possible when I try to decide how to cast my own vote.  I respect that  campaigns must win in order to do anything and that sometimes hardball negative campaigns are required.  I hope if he needs it,  Bennet has it in him because he’s the best chance we have to keep the seat D.

The D nominee will either have to face  Buck or Norton. Either way, it will be a well funded R campaign,  with organized and motivated R voters and county organizations, running an anti-D, anti-Obama, anti-anything, campaign in Colorado.

Whichever D we nominate, in the general all the D’s are going to have to get it together.  If we can’t – then we lose.

And Bennet makes the strongest D candidate in the general.

Bennet is the only candidate in the race who has created jobs.  The medium and low information voters care about this and this cycle so will the highest information voters, even the single issue voters for whom jobs is not that single issue.

If he wins, he’ll  have beat a popular, experienced D with a large network of party activists and friends.

Bennet is new. DT posted recently what i’ve heard elsewhere, that AR has a strong message for the general: He’s not an incumbent D.  Bennet’s is even stronger – he’s not a D who has ever held elected office before.  And if Romanoff is the nominee, that’s not how it will go.  It will be pitched more as he was the heir apparent, but he didn’t get picked. Why?  No matter he voted this way and that way and etc.  Do you really think Ref C is not a big part of why Norton is trailing right now?

Bennet can do well where Obama did well.  Though I’d predict a lower overall turnout and less R crossover., Bennet can carry some big biz R’s and U’s, more likely to happen for him than for AR.

Bennet showed he would stand up to the teachers’ union at DPS. Though D’s haven’t all cheered that, it’s not a negative in the general. In fact, it’s probably a positive.

Bennet has the necessary fundraising chops. Udall had no primary, the 08 turnout and coattails and he still spent $15million to win by a much smaller margin than Obama.  Where and how is AR going to get that kind of big money?

Someone else apparently supporting AR recently posted that voters are emotional and irrational. That they are all “pissed off at this do nothing Congress and ineffective President.”    Whether that characterization of Congress and the President is correct or not, I agree that perception is out there.  

Bennet has never argued the point – he agrees the Senate is broken:  Been there, seen it, started working on it.

Bennet can make this argument better than AR because Bennet is the new guy, never in an elected position before.

Finally, again, even if Bennet is the more electable D in the general, neither D can win if in the general all the D’s cannot get it together.  If we can’t – then we lose.

Until this strange campaign, AR has been good. Sometimes even very good, and if he wins the nomination. I’ll support him because he’s good and because he is much closer to the kind of Senator I would want than Buck or Norton.    

Bennet is also good and he is also the stronger general candidate and has my support in the primary.