U.S. Michael Bennet, left, and Andrew Romanoff at a 2010 debate. The Denver Post
Once political foes, Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, in a news release late Friday afternoon, endorsed former Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff’s candidacy for the Aurora-based 6th Congressional District.
The two squared off in a 2010 Democratic Senate primary in which Bennet defeated Romanoff by about 8 percentage points.
“Andrew has always placed the needs of his constituents above Washington’s politics-as-usual. At a time of partisanship and gridlock, he will work across the aisle to move our nation forward,” Bennet said in a statement.
Romanoff is vying to unseat three-term incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman. In an effort to get an early start on the 2014 campaign, Romanoff announced his candidacy last month and has netted endorsements from every Democratic state legislator in the district.
The nonpartisan Cook Political Report in its February rankings for 2014 races listed the seat as “lean” Republican, though the district is the most competitive in Colorado as it’s divided evenly among Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated voters.
“If Senator Michael Bennet was serious about endorsing his political nemesis Andrew Romanoff, he wouldn’t have done it late Friday night,” said Tyler Q. Houlton, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Romanoff thanked Bennet for the backing, saying in a statement, “I look forward to working with him to break the logjam in Washington and advance the interests of ordinary Coloradans.”
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