The Colorado primary is tomorrow, pitting formerly political unknown incumbent Michael Bennet as the establishment candidate and former speaker of Colorado's state house Andrew Romanoff as the outsider, just adding to the unique nature of Colorado's primary (though the real fun, in the form of crazy, remains on the GOP side, in the governor's race). The last major poll in the Senate race, conducted by Public Policy Polling, gives Bennet a small lead.
Michael Bennet's holding on to a small lead the day before the Democratic primary for US Senate in Colorado, 49-43 over challenger Andrew Romanoff.
Bennet's biggest strength is his support with senior citizens, who could account for as much as a third of the voters tomorrow. He's up 53-41 with them. The incumbent also leads with whites (50-44), women (49-42), and men (48-43). Romanoff's strength is with Hispanics (46-42) and voters between 30-45 (49-43.)
Both candidates are relatively popular with Bennet holding a 57/24 approval rating and Romanoff sporting a 52/27 favorability spread.
With nine percent undecided this late in the game, it could certainly break either way. Interestingly, the poll was conducted over the weekend, Aug 7-8, after Thursday's NYT published a damning story of a bad financial deal the Denver Board of Education took to attempt to shore up its pension fund while Bennet was superintendent, a deal that has cost the school system $140 million, to date. The story has been in local but apparently hasn't caught hold sufficiently to drive down Bennet's numbers.
Bennet immediately pushed back on the story, telling The Colorado Independent that the Times "got it wrong." Romanoff used the story to to launch an attack ad tying Bennet to Wall Street and calling the deal a "big casino bet gone wrong." Romanoff has rapidly closed the polling gap in this race, gaining 15 points since PPP last polled in May, so momentum is on his side. So consider tomorrow's primary a toss-up.
Since I brought it up in the lede, the crazy GOP governor's race is too close to call. The complete unknown Dan Maes is now essentially tied, 40-41, with former favorite former U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis, whose plagiarism scandal has sunk him. Perhaps Maes' growth comes from Coloradoans who share his grand UN bicycle conspiracy theory.
