CO-SEN Megathread: Cory In The House

[NewYorkExpress]

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/502927-hickenlooper-apologizes-for-resurfaced-comment-comparing-himself-to-slave

Well, these old comments from Hickenlooper have come up.

"If I was to describe a scheduler, a political scheduler, imagine an ancient slave ship with the guy with the whip, and you're rowing," Hickenlooper said to laughter in the video. "We elected officials are the ones that are rowing, and they have nothing but hard, often thankless things to do."

I'm starting to think Hickenlooper should just drop out at this point.

Nominating him might actually hand Gardner the Senate seat (much like nominating Richard Mourdock handed Democrats Indiana's Senate seat in 2012.).

[Gracile]

I want to believe that Romanoff has a chance, but I get the sense that Hickenlooper basically has this race in the bag despite his recent unfortunate comments.

[wbrocks67]

It's getting really desperate that Romanoff is just "finding" these random comments that Hickenlooper made years ago even in public. Just seems like a total smear campaign

[Landslide Lyndon]

I'm not a Coloradoan but I have the impression that voters are used by now to his weirdness/quirkiness and this kind of bizarre statements won't change many minds.

[Xing]

I supported Romanoff before it was cool. Either way, I don't buy the idea that Gardner would actually beat Hickenlooper because of these comments any more than the idea that he'd beat Romanoff because Romanoff isn't "moderate" enough.

[henster]

Dems didn't even need Hick to run here. Not as much as they needed Bullock, so the pressure on him back in 2019 to run never made sense to me. There was a solid field of candidates running who all would've beaten Gardner but now we may end up with candidate with a ton of baggage with an outside chance of losing.

[wbrocks67]

Dems didn't even need Hick to run here. Not as much as they needed Bullock, so the pressure on him back in 2019 to run never made sense to me. There was a solid field of candidates running who all would've beaten Gardner but now we may end up with candidate with a ton of baggage with an outside chance of losing.

Most people haven't even heard of these "scandals"

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

Dems didn't even need Hick to run here. Not as much as they needed Bullock, so the pressure on him back in 2019 to run never made sense to me. There was a solid field of candidates running who all would've beaten Gardner but now we may end up with candidate with a ton of baggage with an outside chance of losing.

Most people haven't even heard of these "scandals"

Recent convictions for gifts offences - which can easily be painted as corruption of sorts - matter way more than verbal flubs or mean tweets. They're hard to relate to and easy to despise.

If people haven't heard about Hickenlooper's ethics violations and contempt of court, you can rest assured that Gardner will broadcast them across Colorado. It won't save him, but it will hurt the probable nominee's GE campaign and could be politically fatal in another state.

[walleye26]

Honestly even with all this stuff going on I think there’s no way Gardner even comes close come November.

[Strong Candidate]

https://twitter.com/CATargetBot/status/1273368598375890944

Senate Majority PAC making a last-minute intervention on Hickenlooper's behalf.

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

I am changing my endorsement from John Hickenlooper to Andrew Romanoff in Colorado Senate race

If true, big!

[Strong Candidate]

I am changing my endorsement from John Hickenlooper to Andrew Romanoff in Colorado Senate race

If true, big!

This is the universe reintroducing balance after John Salazar switched from Romanoff to Hickenlooper.

[Woody]

"Strong candidate" John Hickenlooper just got a million dollars from national dems... just to survive the primary...

Hahahaha

https://twitter.com/hicksshtick/status/1273372284846084097
https://twitter.com/greggiroux/status/1273368721629863941

[wbrocks67]

"Strong candidate" John Hickenlooper just got a million dollars from national dems... just to survive the primary...

Hahahaha

https://twitter.com/hicksshtick/status/1273372284846084097
https://twitter.com/greggiroux/status/1273368721629863941

Not really... the ad in question is just a response to Gardner's ad. Clearly a GE ad.

Not to mention, I'm sure many of the votes have already been cast in CO where these late developments are unlikely to make a dent

[Pyro]

lol I wasn't aware of Hickenlooper recording himself showering but I am now.

https://twitter.com/JustinWingerter/status/1273998958742761473

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

lol I wasn't aware of Hickenlooper recording himself showering but I am now.

https://twitter.com/JustinWingerter/status/1273998958742761473

It was a 'clean campaigns' stunt from a previous race.

This ad has brought backlash, including from Polis who slipped in compliments for both candidates while calling out the attack. Being the first to go openly negative instead of using media outriders to do so and going negative in an arguably disingenuous way (inclusion of the slave ships remark) may end up doing more harm than good for Romanoff's campaign, but (as with the final, ill-fated weeks of Warren's presidential bid) it's not as if he can afford to avoid risks.

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

I'm starting to think Romanoff has a good shot here. Too many things are stacking up against Hickenlooper right now - college educated voters exploring further-left ideology in the wake of COVID and police shootings, the simmering ethics probe he isn't really doing anything to diffuse, a blase debate performance, some higher profile endorsements coming in for Romanoff. Seems like Romanoff has a big base energy right now that Hickenlooper doesn't.

People (myself included) called the March results a one-off, but the underlying currents are only shifting in Romanoff's favor as time goes on.

[brucejoel99]

I feel like the Polis endorsement is probably a big deal. (Okay, it's not technically an "explicit" endorsement, but the fact that he stepped in to defend Hick is the closest thing you'll see in the form of endorsement, considering he could've just stayed silent but evidently chose not to.)

[wbrocks67]

Aren't most of Colorado's votes already mailed in? It's not like everyone is voting in CO next week.

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

Aren't most of Colorado's votes already mailed in? It's not like everyone is voting in CO next week.

Almost certainly not - as with KY, a lot of voters will probably leave it ‘til late and drop their ballot off on the day of the primary. The first ballots in Colorado only went out this week, if I’m not mistaken.

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

Aren't most of Colorado's votes already mailed in? It's not like everyone is voting in CO next week.

Almost certainly not - as with KY, a lot of voters will probably leave it ‘til late and drop their ballot off on the day of the primary. The first ballots in Colorado only went out this week, if I’m not mistaken.

Mine was mailed on June 9th.

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

Aren't most of Colorado's votes already mailed in? It's not like everyone is voting in CO next week.

Almost certainly not - as with KY, a lot of voters will probably leave it ‘til late and drop their ballot off on the day of the primary. The first ballots in Colorado only went out this week, if I’m not mistaken.

Mine was mailed on June 9th.

My mistake - ballots started being sent out in the week of June 8th (i.e. last week).

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

https://twitter.com/ewarren/status/1274379536692625408
It's a small but welcome boost for Hickenlooper and you really hate to see it.

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

I did not see that one coming.

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

I did not see that one coming.

Agreed, but it makes most sense as a small part of her bid for the VP slot. In my view, that's a bad gamble - presumably adding only marginal gain to her chances there while damaging her credibility for 2024 should Biden lose. The probability of this still high enough to be worth preparing for.