Jane Norton may not be doing great in the polls, but she has some friends in good places, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has endorsed the former lieutenant governor’s campaign for U.S. Senate, snubbing Tea Party favorite Ken Buck.

Chamber of Commerce president Tom Donohue calls Norton a fierce advocate for “attacking spending and empowering job creators,” (via Politico).

“What we’re looking for is a horse—excuse me, Jane—that can run in the big race,” he adds.

Though Norton is trailing Buck in a recent poll, Donohue dismisses the numbers in his endorsement, which comes only days after Senator John Cornyn, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, attended a fundraiser with Norton, writes The New York Times.

Norton, whose rhetoric regarding the war on terror recently riled military vets, has also begun airing a roiling commercial on KHOW radio featuring a Denver Post story that reports Buck was “bad-mouthing a felony case to defense lawyers representing Aurora gun dealers” (via Westword).

As for Buck, Politico writes that he’s trying to “walk back” some of the more controversial statements he’s been attributed with during this primary campaign season.