Romanoff begins Northeast Colorado tour in Ft. Morgan

02/19/2010 - Ft. Morgan Times - Dan Barker - Coloradans need representatives who will actually do something in Washington, D.C., not just look after their own interests.

There are two kinds of politicians: Those who want to be somebody and those who want to do something, said Andrew Romanoff during a stop at the Country Steak-Out in Fort Morgan on Friday morning.

He is running to become the Colorado Democratic Party’s U.S. Senate candidate.

Too many of those in the nation’s capital spend more time making sure they are re-elected than doing the job they were sent there to do, Romanoff said.

They have been more afraid to take on vested interests while trying to create health care reform, for instance, than concerned to make sure health care is improved,  he said.

Romanoff talked about a man who told him he had just lost his 63-year-old co-worker, who could not pay for the medication and treatment he needed, and he died.

Too many people suffer in the current system, and 75,000 people die in the U.S. each year because they are in similar situations, which makes health reform necessary, Romanoff said.

“This is a matter of life and death,” he said.

However, instead of dealing with these issues, many politicians are cutting deals with insurance and drug companies, or cutting deals with each other — and that includes Democrats, Romanoff said.

It is time for Democrats to act like they are in charge, he said.

If U.S. Senate Republicans threaten to filibuster, the Democratic leadership ought to call their bluff and see how long they can keep talking and how long it will take before they have to take a bathroom break, 
Romanoff said.

Senate Democrats have 59 votes and can overrule the Republicans if they can muster the will, he said.

“We don’t do that,” Romanoff said. “We surrender; we cave.”

Romanoff said he was also disappointed in how both parties handled what is now being called the Great Recession.

Financial institutions like investment banks were not held accountable for the banking practices which sent the nation into recession, he said. Instead, they were rewarded with a bailout, and representatives cave in to banking interests because they receive corporate campaign contributions.

Romanoff said he is the only one who is running for Colorado’s U.S. Senate seat who is rejecting those kinds of donations, depending on individual donations instead.

When he challenged the other candidates to do the same they refused, he said.

Politicians should be elected from main street, not be out trolling for dollars from Wall Street, Romanoff said.

Conventional advice would have him skip trips to places like Fort Morgan and go where the big blocks of votes are, or scoop up campaign money and avoid campaigning altogether, he said.

But that is only a way to lose touch with the people a candidate is supposed to represent, Romanoff said.

If his style of campaigning wins, it will send a shock wave through Washington, D.C., he said.

The U.S. Senate would benefit from some of the rules the Colorado legislature is bound by, he said.

It should not be allowed to attach unrelated provisions to a bill, which is one reason the health bill became so unwieldy, Romanoff said. The Senate should have to stick to a single subject in a bill, put an end to back-room deals — as is required in the Colorado Sunshine Act — and they should not be able to trade votes.

In general, the U.S. Senate should be more transparent, he said.

One woman said she was tired of the same old thing, and it seemed like big money always wins.

“I want to see something different,” she said.

There is no silver bullet for overcoming those with big money, but his grassroots campaign, which already has 2,000 volunteers, is a place to start, Romanoff said.

There seems to be some good news for this approach, he said. In an independent poll, Romanoff was only 7 points behind the Republican candidate, but current U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet is 14 points behind.

“I think I have a better chance to win a general election,” Romanoff said.

Republicans are not necessarily the only enemy the Democrats face, said Morgan County Democratic Party Chairwoman Lesle Bundy.

It was the infighting among Democrats that stymied health care reform while they were trying to keep their unaffiliated voters, she said.

“Our own Democratic Party failed us,” Bundy said.

Romanoff agreed the National Democratic Party needs a wakeup call, but Republicans are also a threat when they say things like they want the health care bill to be President Barack Obama’s Waterloo.

Democrats could actually benefit if they used their power instead of backing down, he said.

When he was a leader in the Colorado legislature, the Democratic Party inherited a mess, but it strengthened itself when it started solving problems, Romanoff said.

Democrats have to be willing to take a risk and stand up for what they believe, he said.

Romanoff said he was disappointed that Obama and the national party have automatically stepped behind Bennet in this primary race.

At times, it seems like the party is running an incumbent protection racket, but people do not want Washington, D.C., to tell them what to do, he said.

Voters should have a say in who their senator is, not have the senator appointed by the party as Bennet was, Romanoff said.

A Colorado Springs woman wrote him a check for $10 and sent a letter with it saying she wished it could be more, but she lost her job when the company she worked for closed, Romanoff said.

She begged him to remember people like her if he is elected, he said.

She should have the ear of a representative as much as anyone, Romanoff said. Basic worth as a human being should be valued more than someone’s net worth, and Democrats need to remember that.

Unfortunately, the U.S. Supreme Court recently gave corporations the right to spend as much money as they want on political advertisements, Romanoff said.

“That is a disaster for democracy,” he said. “It will send a chill down the spine of every Congressman who still has one.”

A corporation could presumably spend $1 billion to defeat a candidate it did not agree with, Romanoff said.

Politicians need to lead by example and turn down corporate cash, but it is also possible to overturn the decision with an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, he said.

It is important to make it clear that corporations are not people, Romanoff said.

People can help him in his campaign by showing up at the caucuses scheduled for March 16, he said.

Bundy said the Morgan County Democratic caucuses will be held at 7 p.m. that day at the Morgan County Rural Electric Association building, Thomson Elementary School in Brush and the Wiggins Senior Center.

Of course, he can use monetary donations, too, Romanoff said.

“We’re not the richest campaign,” he said, which means it takes a lot of little donations to equal big-money donations.

Romanoff served four terms in the Colorado legislature, and was speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives from 2005-09. He earned a B.A. at Yale University, an M.A. at Harvard University and a law degree at the University of Denver.

Romanoff’s appearance was part of a tour of Northeast Colorado on Friday and Saturday.