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ENLARGE
LONE TREE — It is just after 7 a.m. and former Democratic House Speaker Andrew Romanoff is eating French toast with 20 or so Kiwanis members seated around the table.
O'Neill Quinlan, a former member of the Regional Transportation District board of directors, begins by saying it's not easy getting guest speakers and he has e-mailed or called U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet's office six times about talking to the group and has yet to receive a response.
"I'm glad to be here even if it was just because you couldn't get the other guy to show up," Romanoff says, and the meeting room at Mimi's Cafe in Lone Tree erupts in laughter.
So begins another day in Romanoff's uphill quest to become Colorado's next U.S. senator.
The politician who just over a year ago was considered a Democratic rising star is now resented, even reviled, by some who were once his biggest fans.
Since his surprise decision to enter the race in August, Romanoff's political obituary has been written, rewritten, posted, pulled down, tweaked, shelved and dusted off.
One week a poll announces Romanoff is doing better against the Republican Senate candidates than Bennet. The next week he has to cut ties with one of his national advisers after a video surfaces of the guy bashing union leaders and environmentalists.
And Romanoff keeps on campaigning.
One Kiwanis member, after citing a string of what he says are Bennet's shortcomings, including that the former Denver Public Schools chief was just seen "campaigning with a president going downhill faster than Bode Miller," has a simple question for Romanoff:
"How can you possibly lose to this guy?"
Everyone laughs, especially Romanoff, but he knows that plenty of others wonder why he thinks he can win.
Bennet has more money, more endorsements and more support from what Democratic political consultant Steve Welchert calls the "the elite 17th Street Democrats."
Romanoff says his campaign strategy is simple.
"We're trying to talk to as many voters as possible, recruit as many volunteers as possible and build on the relationships I developed over 16, 17 years."
Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/ci_14527070#ixzz0hVqv7EnV
O'Neill Quinlan, a former member of the Regional Transportation District board of directors, begins by saying it's not easy getting guest speakers and he has e-mailed or called U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet's office six times about talking to the group and has yet to receive a response.
"I'm glad to be here even if it was just because you couldn't get the other guy to show up," Romanoff says, and the meeting room at Mimi's Cafe in Lone Tree erupts in laughter.
So begins another day in Romanoff's uphill quest to become Colorado's next U.S. senator.
The politician who just over a year ago was considered a Democratic rising star is now resented, even reviled, by some who were once his biggest fans.
Since his surprise decision to enter the race in August, Romanoff's political obituary has been written, rewritten, posted, pulled down, tweaked, shelved and dusted off.
One week a poll announces Romanoff is doing better against the Republican Senate candidates than Bennet. The next week he has to cut ties with one of his national advisers after a video surfaces of the guy bashing union leaders and environmentalists.
And Romanoff keeps on campaigning.
One Kiwanis member, after citing a string of what he says are Bennet's shortcomings, including that the former Denver Public Schools chief was just seen "campaigning with a president going downhill faster than Bode Miller," has a simple question for Romanoff:
"How can you possibly lose to this guy?"
Everyone laughs, especially Romanoff, but he knows that plenty of others wonder why he thinks he can win.
Bennet has more money, more endorsements and more support from what Democratic political consultant Steve Welchert calls the "the elite 17th Street Democrats."
Romanoff says his campaign strategy is simple.
"We're trying to talk to as many voters as possible, recruit as many volunteers as possible and build on the relationships I developed over 16, 17 years."
Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/ci_14527070#ixzz0hVqv7EnV
