Essentially Romanoff has erased a 17point deficit over the last couple months in a poll conducted by Survey USA for the Denver Post.
"Romanoff and Bennet are about even — 48 percent to 45 percent, respectively — in the poll of 536 Democrats who have voted or are likely to vote in the Aug. 10 primary. The question has a margin of error of 4.3 percentage points.
The results show a surge for the former state House speaker since June, when he was 17 points behind, and are likely a reflection of a well-organized and passionate ground game, analysts say. Romanoff recently sold his house and cashed in savings to loan his campaign $325,000.
Romanoff's movement is "dramatic," according to pollster Jay Leve of Survey USA, the firm that conducted the poll."
This after a deluge of media ads by Bennet, robo calls by Obama and heavy out of state endorsements by many in the Dem establishment.
This also on the heals of an expose by a small Denver suburban newspaper , (Cherry Creek News), that brought to light Bennet's involvement of a classic corporate private equity raid of Regal Theaters where Bennet's billionaire investor employer received $1.4B in dividends and Bennet personally received $11.4M in compensation from a bankrupt reorganization process.
Ironically, the details of the source of Bennet’s wealth are revealed largely in a lawsuit by Louisiana teachers, whose investment in theater chain Regal Cinemas went south after Bennet and Anshutz gained control of the company through the purchase of debt, forced other debtors and shareholder into taking losses, then sped off with $1.4 billion in cash, while jobs were lost.
The story begins with Regal Cinema, the largest movie chain in the country at the time, with some 17% of all screens nation-wide and revenues of nearly $2.5 billion. Regal was born when Anschutz joined three bankrupt movie companies, pulling them together in early 2002. In 2003, a relatively healthy Regal issued an "extraordinary cash dividend" of $5.05 per share to all shareholders, totaling approximately $715 million, including $373 million to Anschutz. To pay that dividend, the company took on over a half billion dollars in debt. The company went from healthy to imperiled, out of cash, and downgraded by analysts. In 2004, a second "extraordinary cash dividend" was issued, this time amounting to $710 million. The company went into an additional $930 million in debt to cover the dividend. Anschutz would get an additional $368 million from that transaction. The company acknowledged in a federal Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing that the additional debt would adversely affect Regal’s ability to fund itself going forward. Ratings agencies Moody’s and Standard & Poors downgraded Regal’s debt to negative— a Moody’s VP said, "It’s pretty mind-boggling to me that this company, recently out of bankruptcy, will pay out $1.6 billion...
Here’s the excerpt from Bennet’s official Senate biography: Bennet "led the reorganization of four distressed companies including Forcenergy (which later merged with Denver-based Forest Oil), Regal Cinemas, United Artists, and Edwards Theaters, which together required the restructuring of over $3 billion in debt. Michael also managed, on behalf of Anschutz, the consolidation of the three theater chains into Regal Entertainment Group, the largest motion picture exhibitor in the world."
...Bennet made more than $11.4 million during the years after the Regal Cinema deals. In 2001, Regal Cinemas closed 30% of its theaters, shuttering 128 theaters. With 30-50 full or part-time employees at the average theater, these closures eliminated an estimated 4,000 – 6,400 jobs."
Voting is already underway through mail in ballots and tomorrow early voting commences as the primary approaches on Aug 10th at the polls.