From the La Junta Tribune: "Romanoff well received in La Junta"

Full story at LaJuntaTribuneDemocrat.com
Posted Feb 22, 2010 @ 02:28 PM

La Junta, Colo. —

Andrew Romanoff has been one of Colorado’s most popular politicians since he rose to prominence as Speaker of the House and on a cold, blustery Saturday night in La Junta, he proved it once again, drawing more than 50 people from both sides of the political aisle to the Koshare Kiva to hear him speak about his candidacy for the U.S. Senate.

Romanoff faces a major challenge trying to unseat incumbent Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet, the former Denver Public Schools superintendent. Bennet was appointed last year by Gov. Bill Ritter to replace former Sen. Ken Salazar, who was tapped by President Barack Obama as U.S. Secretary of the Interior.

Then, last week, Obama appeared in Colorado to campaign for Bennet, a move that left many Democrats crying foul over the fact that Obama “was throwing his weight around” even before Romanoff and Bennet could square off in an Aug. 10 primary election. Both candidates will face the challenge of earning a place on the ballot when Democrats meet for their state assembly this summer. Each needs to earn at least 30 percent of delegate votes to qualify for a place on the primary ballot.

Romanoff acknowledged he’s a “burr under the state’s saddle” currently, challenging an incumbent in a state that turned blue (indicating Democratic Party dominance) during the last General Election. But with a solid record of service at the Statehouse, in-depth knowledge of the state and solid name recognition, he believes
he is ready for the challenge of taking on Bennet, then the status quo in Washington, D.C.

About Congress he said adamantly that it is “so broken and so dysfunctional that something has to be done” to straighten it out. He also said he believes people in Colorado think this is a time of “so much peril and discord” they’ve lost their trust, even as they’ve lost their homes, jobs and even their lives” fighting in wars halfway around the globe.



On the home front, Romanoff said he’s the “only guy in this race who’s standing up to the big guys to block health care reform” as it has been presented in Congress. “Others have lost touch with those who sent them to Washington.”

Romanoff said the support he received from former Gov. Bill Owens in getting Referendum C approved by Colorado voters, which gave the state legislature a five-year time out from the constraints of the Taxpayers Bill of Rights, showed he can take heat and win a tough fight.

“We need the same kind of leadership in Washington,” he said. Unfortunately such leadership has been absent in holding Wall Street bankers responsible for the greed that drove America into its worst economic recession since the Great Depression. Instead of holding the bankers and brokerage houses responsible and making them pay for the damage they created, most have been rewarded.

“The word bribery comes to mind,” he said, “and both parties are responsible. There have been no jobs bills, no real protection against home foreclosures and no firm accountability to the people who elected the members
of Congress.”

Unlike Colorado, where state law requires each amendment to a piece of legislation be directly related to the issues contain in proposed bill, in Washington, D.C., it’s anything goes. Legislation gets loaded down with spending measures unrelated to the original legislation.

As a result, Romanoff said there are legions of examples of Congress “putting democracy up for sale.”  His motto, though, is the “reduce the power of money and increase the power of the people.”  “I you agree with that, I hope you will join us,” he said, “because we know we’ll be outspent 10 to 1 and my opponent had an eight-month head start.”

But some recent polls have shown Romanoff is leading Bennet, a fact he said proves that “people aren’t entitled
to serve in Congress. They have to earn a place in the Senate.” Locally, one of the issues that has rankled both Democrats and Republicans alike is the refusal of either U.S. senator (Bennet and Mark Udall) to attempt to take expansion of Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site off the table permanently for the U.S. Army.

Romanoff said he would support such a ban because he believes there are much better ways for the federal
government to spend its money, just as there are better places for the Army to consider expansion of training
sites if that’s what it really needs.

He credited State Rep. Wes McKinley (D-Walsh) with leading the fight at the Statehouse to keep the Army’s
plans at bay. McKinley and State Sen. Ken Kester succeeded in the last legislation session to establish a ban
on either leasing or selling state school lands to the Army. In Congress, the Colorado delegation accomplished
getting a moratorium on spending money for PCMS expansion for another year.

Referring to Bennet and Udall refusing to ban expansion permanently, Romanoff said it reminded him of an old family saying: If you spend all your time on the fence, you’re bound to get splinters.”

In the same vein, he said the federal government does not know better than the individual states on how to spend money on such issues.” While many people look at military service as one solution to counteracting the growing ranks of unemployment, Romanoff said he disagrees wholeheartedly. “Our best jobs program by far is K-12 education, not just preparing kids to graduate from high school, but helping them make post-secondary education work for them, too.”

Romanoff also explained some of his strong feelings about national defense. Acknowledging there are people in the world who mean to harm Americans through terrorism, Romanoff said emphatically that such people need to be hunted down and punished with the advanced resources at the government’s disposal.

But when it comes to transforming Afghanistan into a modern democracy, he expressed his doubts, calling the possibilities for that “limited,” mostly because of cultural and geographic obstacles faced. There are several things that can be done by the U.S. to help Afghanistan progress, including helping to get a new government firmly established, educating Afghanis to the possibilities for prosperity in the future, continuing to lift up women in their fight for freedom, including education and service in a new government, and, perhaps most importantly, helping other countries in the region follow the examples we’ve set, not in terms of military power alone,” but more in terms of what can be accomplished through peaceful coexistence and economic cooperation.”

In the end, Romanoff said he believes the youngest Americans have figured out what the nation faces if Congress doesn’t change the way it does business.  “Kids have it figured out. They know if we in our generation do things we aren’t willing to pay for, they will have to – and they don’t like that,” he said. Health care reform is a perfect example of this. Today’s younger generation knows America spends twice as much on health care as any other nation and twice as much as we did 10 years ago.”

McKinley stood up near the end of the session to assure people his colleague wasn’t touring Eastern Colorado to buy votes.  “He works for your votes, and we can elect him – if we work together,” he said.