Romney to return next Monday, Obama Tuesday

   Politics are heating up and the main candidates are sweating it out in the East today, and they are already planning their return to cooler climes. Perhaps they need to beat the heat, maybe they want to acclimatize themselves to the elevation before next week's big day, but both candidates will be spending time in Colorado early next week.  The GOP candidate will return to the capital next Monday, holding a rally in Denver two days before DU holds its first-ever presidential debate, the first of the season. Governor Romney will speak at Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum, but the focus of his speech hasn't yet been released.  President Obama will catch up Tuesday at CSU in Fort Collins where he's expected to talk about what his administration has done to make college more affordable. Today, both candidates were in VA.

Craig Romney greeting voters earlier this month

   As Romney and Obama circle each other today in Virginia, Romney's veep pick Paul Ryan and son Craig Romney were in the state today making the case for their candidate. The junior Romney was speaking at the Adams County Victory Center to Hispanic voters, focusing on his father's economic policy which he contends will work better for them than the previous four years of Obama. Of course, the Hispanic vote in Colorado is growing and Romney hopes to peel away some of this socially conservative bloc from their tendency to vote the Democrat; perhaps the GOP senses that with unemployment riding high among Hispanics, now is the time to go for it.  Ryan is in Fort Collins today, where he spoke this afternoon to an audience at America the Beautiful Park. "And these defense cuts that [Obama] is promising, these devastating defense cuts that he is promising not only undermine our peace, not only undermine our security, they compromise jobs right here.” 

   The debate is next Wednesday, October the 3rd, at the University of Denver's Magness Arena. The location doesn't really matter, because you can't get in. But it sounded professional so I put it there anyway, in case you want to stand outside or something.

Romney's Latest visit to the Centennial State

   As previously mentioned (belatedly, I'll admit), Romney spent the past couple of days on the campaign trail in Denver and Pueblo, before heading back to NY to address Clinton's Global Initiative (by the way, here is a fun video of the former president introducing the candidate this evening, fun to watch these two so close to the election. Obama also spoke to the conference today.) On Sunday, his rally at D'Evelyn Junior/High School in Lakewood, in Jefferson County, hit the basics of his position while criticizing the Obama campaign (with it's 3-1 spending edge in the state) for mis-characterizing his positions on issues such as abortion. Described as "slightly hoarse," the candidate seems to be trying to make an extra connection with area voters before the first of the presidential debates takes place at the University of Colorado in Denver on Oct. 3rd; at the same time positioning himself to appeal to more moderate voters.

Romney at D'Evelyn High Sunday, Photo coutesy of AP/Charles Dharapak.

  On Monday, Romney stopped for a rally in Pueblo where he focused on building jobs and touted his energy plan, but ran into a little bad press when the president of Colorado Conservation Voters called his visit the "height of irony."  The GOP candidate's opposition to the renewal of a tax credit for wind power begun by George H.W. Bush in the 90's.  Funding for this once bi-partisan effort was cut earlier this year when senate republicans pulled it from a routine business tax-exemption bill, presumably in solidarity with their candidate's policies.  The town of Pueblo lost 100 jobs last week at a wind tower factory, ostensibly due to decreased demand for their product in a market where prices are higher.  Romney's oil- and coal-heavy energy policy did not resonate strongly with some voters, and in a state like Colorado, even in Pueblo County, every vote will matter.

Colorado: A recent political history

 Colorado has been a relatively busy place for the last couple of weeks in the campaigns of the Dems and the GOP.

 First, the Obama campaign flew the president to this swing state for another in a long string of events on Thursday the 13th, stopping at Golden and Denver.  The president enjoyed an eight-point victory in '08 over McCain in Colorado, and cognizant of a difficult race this year has been working since 2011 to hold onto an edge here.

 As a result of the Democrats' efforts, Colorado Republicans have been feeling an acute deficit in face-time with their candidate.  Romney heard your pain, conservative Coloradans, and (in spite of one or two plane-related distractions) answered with some campaign stops in the Denver area and Pueblo.  The campaign's stop in Pueblo, an area where few if any analysts expect the Republicans to make much headway this season, raised one or two eyebrows, but Romney's campaign felt strongly that the area will respond positively to their message, "This is an area that the Obama economy has hit particularly hard." More on the outcome of his rallies later.

New Polls!

There were two majors polls that came out today showing Obama holding onto a lead over Romney in Colorado. The polls were from Public Policy Polling (PPP) and Purple Strategies. Embeded to the right is the aggregate RCP poll dating back to May. You can clearly see Obama's lead of 6.5 shrink to 2.1. Obama is holding on to a 3 point lead in the purple strategies poll which is the same margin he had in last years poll. Even though both of these polls show Obama with the lead they are after all only polls.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2012/president/co/colorado_romney_vs_obama-2023.html

The Battleground of Colorado

It's that time of the American political season again. Leaves are falling and the weather is cooling, but the race for American Public Office is getting about as hot as it can be. Money is being spent at record rates, ads are becoming increasingly omnipresent, and the balance of the world as we know it, some would have us beleive, hangs in the balance. And it all comes down to this.

They tell us that eight to ten states hold all of this election's deciding power: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Virginia, Wisconsin, and perhapsNorth Carolina, Michigan and Pennsylvania too. Some say that it's worse than that; they tell us that the key to 1600 Penn could be held in a handful of counties scattered across the nation. Usually included in these lists are Arapahoe, Panellas, Hillsborough, Orange, Hamilton, Stark, Franklin, Clark, and Prince William Counties.

Coloradans (and Coloradoans) should perk up at the news, it means that every political operative in the country is watching you this autumn, especially you, Arapahoe county. You look like you may get to decide the election, or blamed for it. We will be watching too, providing coverage of polls, rallies, visits, ad buys, and analysis of the great state of Colorado as this election season draws to its already long-overdue conclusion.

Background Image

I would like to thank David Shankbone for releasing our gorgeous background image under a GNU Free Documentation Licence. It is a photograph of the Garden of the Gods Cathedral Valley near Colorado Springs, we only cropped it a little bit for the blog. More information about the photo and its maker can be found in the links above.