April 05, 2013 01:11 PM UTC

Romanoff Campaign Off to Strong Start After First Quarter

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• by: Colorado Pols

Democrat Andrew Romanoff is off to blazing start in his bid to unseat Republican Rep. Mike Coffman in CD-6. Even though Romanoff just announced his candidacy in February, he managed to raise more than $500,000 for the fundraising quarter that ended on March 31. And as the Colorado Statesman reports, Romanoff has picked off one of Coffman's key 2012 supporters:

Attorney and Democratic Party power broker Steve Farber, who about this time last year caused a flurry in Colorado political circles by hosting a fundraiser for Republican Congressman Mike Coffman’s reelection in CD 6, has jilted the incumbent and on April 4, co-chaired a big name $1,000 to $5,200 a-person fundraiser for Andrew Romanoff, Coffman’s likely Democratic challenger in 2014.

A registered Democrat, Farber co-hosted last year’s fundraiser for Coffman at the private home of Blair Richardson, along with well known Republicans including Alex Cranberg, Larry Mizel, Patrick Hamill and Mike Shaw, and contributed $2,500 to Coffman’s campaign at the time. U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., was the special guest at the event…

…Farber said he recently told Coffman that he was planning to sit down with Romanoff, with whom he’s always had a good relationship, and see which one of them shared the most similar standings on issues with him. Romanoff easily won out, Farber said.

“There’s a true distinction between Andrew and Coffman,” Farber said without going into details on the record.

Steve Farber has long been one of the most important figures in Colorado politics because of his ability to raise vast sums of money for candidates and causes. He normally supports Democrats, with some notable exceptions such as his backing of Coffman in 2012. Whether Farber is a "true" ideological Democrat (whatever that might mean) is really irrelevant when it comes to the political meaning behind where he puts his support.

Farber says he chose not to support Democrat Joe Miklosi in 2012 because he had known Coffman for decades and had no connection with Miklosi, and we don't doubt that he is telling the truth here. But Farber is also a smart businessman who understands the benefit of backing the winning horse, and it wasn't hard to tell that Miklosi was a bad candidate running a poor campaign. Miklosi's first two fundraising quarters were awful, while Coffman began 2012 with nearly a million dollars in the bank. It's also important to remember the broader context at the time: Coffman was considered to be the likely Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in 2014 (until he started to regularly shoot himself in the foot with idiotic statements), which also made Coffman the more attractive horse to choose in 2012.

The fact that Farber has ditched Coffman in favor of Romanoff is more important than you might think at first glance. Yes, Romanoff will have Farber's significant fundraising help, which is critical in itself. But Farber's decision to back Romanoff also means that he has little confidence in Coffman's ability to fend-off a much better Democratic opponent in 2014. In essence, Farber is a canary in the dangerous mine that is Coffman's re-election campaign.