TPMDC

Romanoff Ad Ties ‘Opponent’ Bennet To Wall Street Bailouts

Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) and former state House Speaker Andrew Romanoff (D-CO)

Brian Beutler July 7, 2010, 3:51 PM

He doesn’t name names, but Andrew Romanoff, who’s challenging incumbent Michael Bennet in the Colorado Democratic Senate primary, is attempting to tie his opponent to bailouts and saddle him with anti-Washington voter sentiment.

In a new 30-second spot running statewide, Romanoff implicitly hangs bailouts, and indeed “corruption,” around Bennet’s neck.

“Washington takes special interest money, Wall Street gambles with our economy. And then Washington bails Wall Street out,” Romanoff declares. “The special interests in Washington have more power than the people. And that’s just not wrong, it’s corrupt. The difference is, I don’t take a dime of their money. I stand with you,” he says.

Bennet was not in Congress when the 2008 bailout bill passed, but Romanoff is talking about Bennet’s vote against amendments to the Wall Street reform bill that would have broken up “too big to fail” financial firms. You can see this on YouTube, where the Romanoff team goes further:

“Andrew Romanoff is the only candidate in the race who does not accept contributions from special interests,” the video description reads. “His opponent is a leading recipient of Wall Street and Big Oil contributions who voted to keep banks Too Big To Fail and to preserve $35billion in tax breaks for big oil instead of investing in renewable energy and paying down the deficit.”

Not exactly in the tit-for-tat spirit, Bennet has an ad up of his own, highlighting his struggle with dyslexia, his success in college, and his marriage.

Late update: This post has been updated.

Brian Beutler

Brian Beutler is TPM's senior congressional reporter. Since 2009, he's led coverage of health care reform, Wall Street reform, taxes, the GOP budget, the government shutdown fight, and the debt limit fight. He can be reached at brian@talkingpointsmemo.com.