Just past noon today, senatorial candidate Andrew Romanoff will hold a press conference -- and speculation is rampant that he'll announce his withdrawal from the race. As Colorado Pols notes, "Reasonable analysis screams 'he's out,' which would be an intelligent decision at this point..."
Indeed it would be. Very little has gone Romanoff's way of late, and based on my experience, his traction-free campaign has been run in an exceedingly inept manner.
Example: The morning after Bill Ritter announced that he wasn't going to run for governor this year, I reached out to Romanoff spokesman John Schroyer for a comment about whether or not his guy would consider switching his focus from the senate to Ritter's gig. Schroyer pointed me to a comment Romanoff had made at a public event the evening before about still being a candidate for the Senate -- but when I asked followup questions about how his challenge to Michael Bennet was going, Schroyer said someone else from the organization would have to provide answers. I suggested new campaign manager Bill Romjue. Schoryer said he wasn't sure if he could get in touch with Romjue, but he would have someone contact me shortly.
That didn't happen -- and after Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar endorsed Denver mayor John Hickenlooper amid his own announcement that he wasn't going to step in for Ritter, it was clear that Romanoff's window of opportunity had closed.
Nonetheless, I received e-mails from Schroyer later that day, and for several days thereafter, asking if I'd gotten what I needed in terms of an interview. Each time I replied that I had not -- that neither Romjue nor anyone else from the Romanoff campaign had contacted me. But these notes never prompted any action. No call ever came.
After Romanoff's press conference announcement, the Daily Kos' Steve Singiser wrote this:
With the retirement of Governor Bill Ritter last week, there had been a lot of speculation that Romanoff would leap from his Senate primary against Senator Michael Bennet into the gubernatorial campaign. That seemed less likely after popular Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper got into the gov's race at the end of the week. So he could be announcing that he is sticking with his challenge to Bennet or going into the Dem primary against Hickenlooper. For all we know, there could be an "option C", as well.
Those are the possibilities, all right. But our money's on option C.
