Romanoff needs to be discussed more

I find it curious that fivethirtyeight.com and others are focusing on John Salazar as Hickenlooper's main alternative to Ken Salazar's open senate seat.

Fact is John Salazar has way more power in the House than in the Senate. He's on appropriations which is way more powerful than being a freshman senator.

Additionally, there are not too many Democrats that can win in Colorado's 3rd congressional district. Trust me I used to live there. If you don't agree with me just ask the new Secretary of State Bernie Buescher who got ousted in the last election even though he was tagged to be Speaker of the House. Not to mention downtown Grand Junction is probably one of the more left-leaning areas in the 3rd.

Congressman Perlmutter also lives in a conservative district which he can hold as long as he wants. Being a former intern for the Congressman I can tell you very few Democrats are capable of winning the 7th. Its even harder to find a Democrat that will win as easily as Perlmutter has. Part of Perlmutter's appeal is his strong constituent response which will be hard to keep in a state has large as Colorado, especially his "Government at the Grocery" program/strategy. Therefore, he is best kept where he is.

This leads me to Romanoff. The former speaker lacks the name recognition that Hickenlooper has. Hickenlooper also has Colorado's Democrats version of Karl Rove, Mike Dino. Would Hickenlooper be a superior campaigner to Romanoff. The answer is yes.

However, Romanoff is probably a more effective legislator. Romanoff is well liked by Republicans at least on personal level. His staff is by far the best in the state of Colorado and he is term limited. Hickenlooper will be around in Denver for at least a couple of years while Romanoff needs a job. He's ambitious enough to be a Senator while he has more experience in dealing with Republicans than Hickenlooper. The city of Denver is almost unanimously Democrat and has been that way for awhile.

I am not saying Hickenlooper would be a bad choice. He might even be the favorite but Hickenlooper has a lot of work ahead of him while Romanoff is a free agent at this point. All the talk around Diana DeGette and John Salazar is misplaced because those names are better known but DeGette and John Salazar are better off where they are now than in the senate more polling should be done on Romanoff.

However, being a senator for two years may give him the name recognition needed for him to retain his seat.

Lastly on DeGette, she would be more controversial state wide than she would in the 1st. For reasons like this: