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Late last week, Dick Wadhams, the chairman of Colorado’s Republican Party, made hay over Michael Bennet’s admission to The Hill that he knew about the White House’s job offer to former state House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, Bennet’s opponent in the Democratic primary race for U.S. Senate.
“Now that we know Bennet was aware of the bribe attempt, we now need to know why he didn’t attempt to stop it to begin with,” Wadhams told CW2.
Really, the question of whether there was a true “bribe” remains unanswered. And although a new Fox News poll of 900 registered voters finds that just 12 percent think offers like the one made to Romanoff and Joe Sestak of Pennsylvania are illegal, 54 percent think there should be an investigation, including more than a third of Democrats.
If an investigation is launched, officials might want to speak with Governor Bill Ritter, the man who appointed Bennet to the Senate when Ken Salazar left to become secretary of the Interior Department. Ritter admits he discussed possible federal jobs for Romanoff with the White House, although Ritter portrays the involvement far differently than Wadhams (via The Denver Post).
Ritter says there was never an offer to keep Romanoff from running for office, presumably in order to help Bennet’s campaign. But, Ritter did offer Romanoff some advice on running against Bennet: “I told him I thought that was a bad idea.”