Why Andrew Romanoff Is Staying in the U.S. Senate Race

Perhaps former state House Speaker Andrew Romanoff will find a little inspiration in Republican Scott Brown’s epic upset of his Democratic opponent in Massachusetts last night—the upset that puts President Barack Obama’s health-care-reform bill in doubt. Not that Romanoff is a Republican. Quite the contrary.

But Romanoff does hope to run a David-vs.-Goliath campaign to trounce U.S. Senator Michael Bennet, a fellow Democrat. Breaking two weeks of silence yesterday, Romanoff’s strategy at a press event was clear: Shake an angry fist at politics-as-usual.

“The nation’s biggest insurance firms and drug makers and oil companies and Wall Street banks are pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into my opponents’ campaign coffers,” Romanoff said, adding, “The same special-interest groups that are bankrolling my opponents are blocking the reform that we need in Washington, D.C.” (via the Denver Business Journal).

Romanoff then referred to himself as “one senator who will say ‘no’ to backroom deals. One senator who will take on Washington’s political class by turning down the corporate cash that corrupts it” (via The Denver Post).

Polls show no clear favorite in the Senate race regardless of which two candidates square off against one of several Republicans in November, according to CQ Politics, which rates the race a “toss-up.”