UPDATE: The NRCC emails a comment on Romanoff’s begging off:
“Democrats should focus as much attention on creating jobs for Colorado families as they have focused the last few weeks on finding a job for Andrew Romanoff. Even Congressman Coffman’s potential rivals know that Colorado voters have no interest in trading his leadership on job creation and growing the economy for a rubber stamp on Obama’s job-crushing, tax and spend agenda.”
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Andrew Romanoff has decided not to run for Congress in the newly gerrymandered 6th Congressional district. From great news to terrible news all in the span of 24 hours — what a turbulent time to be a Democrat operative!
Yesterday, the Colorado Supreme Court upheld the Democrats' gerrymandered Congressional map that targets Congressman Mike Coffman for defeat. This morning, the Democrats' top prospect begs off a campaign, leaving a no-name state Rep from Denver, Joe Miklosi, to be the only declared challenger in the newly competitive district.
With Romanoff out, speculation has turned to another no-name legislator, this time a former one, in Karen Middleton. Middleton's husband, Larry Beer, has endorsed Miklosi, but yesterday on Colorado Pols Beer seemed to be trying to walk back that endorsement, hinting at a possibility of Middleton joining the race.
The fact that someone as JV as Middleton is in serious consideration is a reflection of how not serious the Democrats take Miklosi. Rather than rallying around Miklosi, Democrats are desperately trying to find someone of stature to run against Coffman. Otherwise, all their effort in redistricting was for naught in 2012.
Miklosi really is a joke and that notion seems to pretty widespread in the media now. Even liberal columnists like Mike Littwin are trashing Miklosi, saying "Is Joe Miklosi the best Dems can do?"
The speculation about Middleton is also a reflection of how badly the Democrats have botched their 6th CD gerrymander. While their legal eagles succeeded in getting the courts to make Coffman beatable, they can't seem to muster a candidate capable of making use of that court-approved courtesy.
Yesterday, Lynn Bartels had a little fun with State GOP Chairman Ryan Call who, in spite of an obvious downer of a ruling from the Colorado Supreme Court, managed to strike a positive tone in his remarks to the press. Call sent out a release that effectively said: “to hell with the courts, let’s take this fight to the neighborhoods.” We said effectively the same thing as well.
Bartels, an equal opportunity knuckle slapper, made the GOP chief seem out of touch for taking such a rosy view of a lousy Supreme Court decision. But the fact is, while Democrats may have won the redistricting battle, they have little chance of winning an electoral war against Mike Coffman when the best they can do is Little Ole’ Joe Miklosi. Miklosi is a weak candidate, Coffman is a proven vote getter, and the political environment will not be a friend of even formidable Democrats next November.
No wonder Ryan Call is not-so-quietly smiling, even when the news cycle churns out a piece of bad news. No wonder the Democrats are still on the hunt for a real candidate…in other words a candidate not named Joe Miklosi. Today, we know that candidate won’t be named Andrew Romanoff.