With all the delight that the left is feeling about the right’s seeming lack of a candidate for the 2016 U.S. Senate race, they seem to have entirely forgotten their own dilemma.  Democratic U.S. Senator Michael Bennet is in worse shape than now-former U.S. Senator Mark Udall was at the same point in his re-election bid.

While we reported on this earlier this year, the issue again was raised by former Democrat Party Chair and pollster Floyd Ciruli recently.  Oddly, it was largely ignored by the media. The analysis from Ciruli’s blog:

“When examining former Senator Mark Udall’s approval and re-election numbers 14 months out to Bennet’s, it’s clear that Bennet, even without a Republican challenger, faces an unfriendly political environment. Compared to Udall, he has 6 points less approval; he’s below the President’s (45% national). And, he is underwater in his re-election numbers: 40 percent say “don’t re-elect” to 32 percent “re-elect.” Again, he compares poorly to Udall, who was 8 points up in the summer before the election. Of course, Udall lost by 2 points in November 2014.”

Bennet’s bad situation is compounded by the fact that, at this point, he will be running with Hillary Clinton at the top of his ticket, a woman who does not inspire passion to vote in Democrats, much less any other left-leaning or on-the-fence voters.  Hillary Clinton may not, in fact, be the candidate at the top of the ticket, although, the Washington Post this weekend suggested that time to find another viable front-runner was running out.

If Democrats don’t want want another bloodbath like 2014 in Colorado, they would do well to focus on getting their own affairs in order before they celebrate their victory a year in advance. Remember, Cory Gardner did not jump in the race until February 2014 before his victory that following November. There is still time, the Republican bench is deep, and Democrats have some major headwinds.