One of the two truly vulnerable Democratic Senate seats up for grabs in the 2016 election doesn’t have a Republican contender yet, but the party plans an aggressive campaign to unseat incumbent Michael Bennet in Colorado.
“I think Republicans basically have two targets, Nevada and Colorado,” Jennifer Duffy, senior editor for the Cook Political Report, told the Washington Examiner. “So they are going to try as long as it takes to get somebody to run” against Bennet.
Nevada is considered a toss-up in part because Minority Leader Harry Reid, the Democrat who has held the seat for five terms, is retiring. Colorado is in safer territory for Democrats, but not by much, and the GOP is eager to pounce.
But they are still scouring for a candidate after Rep. Mike Coffman, their number-one pick to run against Bennet, decided in June he would instead run for re-election in the House. Colorado Democrats celebrated Coffman’s decision and said it would guarantee a crowded Republican primary, which political conventional wisdom suggests can weaken the party’s chances in the general election.
Names on the list include Darryl Glenn, a county commissioner, and Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler, who prosecuted Aurora movie theater shooter James Holmes.
The Cook report ranks the seat one notch safer for Democrats than a toss-up race, but that could change if Republicans are able to field a strong candidate to challenge Bennet. National Republican officials say that will happen.
“Senator Bennet is the most vulnerable senator in the country,” Andrea Bozek, a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told the Examiner. “Yes, we will have a robust challenge to Bennet.”
Bennet won his first full term in office in 2010 by fewer than 30,000 votes, defeating GOP challenger Ken Buck, who last year won a seat in the House.
Bennet, who is seeking a second full term, has operated this year like a Democrat who is expecting a tough challenge, even though none currently exists. Colorado’s swing-state tendencies make it ripe for a GOP victory, but Bennet hasn’t been letting his guard down and has aggressively built up his campaign war chest, raising more than $2 million in the second quarter this year.
He’s also attached his name to bipartisan bills sponsored by his GOP colleague, Sen. Cory Gardner, who won his seat in 2014 by defeating Democratic incumbent Mark Udall.
Among the bills the two have co-authored is a proposal that would require senators to remain in the Senate chamber if any part of the government is forced to close due to an impasse in Congress over spending.
“The two senators have done a great deal together in the interest of the state and have got some of that good old-fashioned bipartisanship going,” Colorado Democratic strategist Mark Stratton told the Examiner. “That benefits Bennet to a great extent because Colorado is, and always has been, a purple state, a swing state.”
The race will be closely watched because Colorado is a key presidential battleground state, although Obama won the past two presidential contests there. A strong Democratic or Republican presidential candidate could provide the coattails either party’s candidate would need to prevail in a close race.
“There is going to be a serious effort made on behalf of the ticket,” Stratton said.
Bozek said Republicans are confident they’ll be able to challenge Bennet, pointing out that Gardner, who beat Democrat Udall, didn’t announce his candidacy until March 2014, just eight months before the election.
Duffy agreed that the GOP has time to find a challenger and can easily wait until the end of the year.
“To me, Colorado is very much a moving target,” Duffy said.
