CO-Gov: Source Tells Political Wire That Ritter Will Drop Out (Update: It’s Happening)

Taegan:

A source tells Political Wire that Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter (D) is ending his re-election campaign. A fundraiser scheduled for tonight was canceled and all campaign staff was sent home in the middle of the day.

If this does indeed turn out to be the case, this news is much more on the “John Cherry” end of the drop-out scale than it is on the Byron Dorgan side. While Ritter is the incumbent, his poll numbers have been flaccid all year, and he hasn’t done himself any favors with the Democratic rank-and-file over the past four years with his borderline-hostile relationship with organized labor in the state. This could give Democrats the opportunity to start fresh and tap Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper for the race. If nothing else, a Hickenlooper candidacy would likely do more to excite the base than a Bill Ritter/Michael Bennet top-of-the-ticket pairing would accomplish.

UPDATE: Just a thought: the longer the Ritter campaign lets this story go unanswered, the greater the likelihood that it’s true. Taegan updates that the Ritter campaign is not responding to emails, which is a pretty telling sign. And just now, Ambinder is apparently hearing the same news.

LATER UPDATE: A campaign source is telling the same thing to Hotline On Call.

LATE LOCAL UPDATE: A local ABC affiliate also confirms the news.

EVEN LATER UPDATE (David): Jennifer Duffy of the Cook Political Report tweets that her sources are saying that Andrew Romanoff, presently challenging Sen. Michael Bennet in a primary, is weighing a switch. Personally, I’d much rather have Hickenlooper.

RaceTracker Wiki: CO-Gov

54 thoughts on “CO-Gov: Source Tells Political Wire That Ritter Will Drop Out (Update: It’s Happening)”

  1. Given that I though Hickenlooper should have been tapped for Senate, I think that this great news for Colorado Democrats. I’m not sure how Colorado redistricts, but I do recall that Perlmutter’s district was redrawn by court after Dems and Repubs couldn’t agree on a plan; therefore, I’m concluding that it’s done by legislature. I think Hickenlooper will excite the base, and I think he will win.

  3. but I blame the Colorado Democrats for not finding a better Democrat in 2006.  There were several other Democrats who were both much better in policy and much better in politics who could have run (Hickenlooper, Fitzgerald, Romanoff, etc) for Governor in 2006 rather than a anti-choice, anti-labor conservative Democrat who is also an awful politician.  

    And then we would not have gotten a weak appointment as Bennet either. I don’t have too many gripes with Bennet as a senator, he seems to be a thoughtful guy, even if a bit too conservative for me.  But he sucks as a politician.

  4. Alot has been said about Hickenloopers strength but anyone in the area know how well he would do against McInnis, the likely GOP nominee. McInnis used to represent CO-05, a GOP leaning district that John Salazar now hold, while Hickenlooper is the mayor of strongly Democratic Denvor. Who would have the advantage in such a match-up?

  6. This would sort of have the same effect that replacing Dodd with Blumenthal would have. PPP polled former popular governor Bill Owens vs. Hickenlooper and this was the result

    54% Hickenlooper

    40% Owens

    Meaning the Hickenlooper would crush Jane Norton and save the DSCC a lot of money.

  7. Dorgan is bad for sure, but Cherry and Ritter are excellent dropouts (too bad Boswell didn’t too).

    Hickenlooper is immensely popular, but had no place to go, now he does, and the mountain west could have a popular, very good national Democratic voice.

    This would move CO Gov to one of the most important races in the country in 2010 (and help Bennet too).

  8. Sabato tweeted “Now Political Wire saying Gov. Bill Ritter (D-CO) won’t run for 2nd term. Another big GOP opening. Ritter, Dorgan, Cherry all out in one day” while PoliticsNation (AKA Reed Wilson) tweeted “CO Gov. Ritter (D) won’t run for a second term. http://is.gd/5Ns2N Wow, this turned into a really bad day for Dems”

    Obviously Dorgan was a huge blow but how is replacing Cherry and Ritter, who are trailing in the polls, with a much better candidate a bad thing?  Yes, it would have been better if they had done this much sooner but in both states we have plenty of quality candidates.  It would be like arguing in 2008 that the GOP would have been in so much better shape if Bush could run for a third term and did.

  9. Maybe we can get other crappy and/or corrupt and/or baseless candidates to drop out and save ourselves some headaches.  That means Dodd, possibly some Reids, Lincoln, etc.  Although he doesn’t fit into any of those categories (maybe the baseless one), I’d like to see Thurbert Baker drop out, too, and run for Lt. Governor or something.

  11. Bad short-term, because this, coupled with the Dorgan annoucement, probably won’t portray Dems in the strongest light over the coming days. Good long-term, because Ritter would’ve been a supremely-mediocre nominee.

  12. Virg Bernero will hopefully run and get the nomination.

    If Pete Hoekstra wins the GOP primary (which looks more and more likely) this race is lean D

    56% Bernero

    42% Hoekstra

    If Mike Cox wins the primary, the race is a tossup but Bernero will barely pull it out because usually the tightest of races in Michigan have gone for dems even in the most neutral or GOP leaning years (Granholm in 2002 and Stabenow in 2000).

    50% Bernero

    48% Cox

    If anyone else wins the GOP primary (unlikely) Likely D

    58% Bernero

    40% Generic Dem

    Go Virg!

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