A report by Colorado Public Radio (CPR) Thursday evening that Andrew Romanoff would have voted against the Wall Street reform package that just passed the Senate caused a stir in the Democratic primary race for incumbent Michael Bennet’s U.S. Senate seat.
Politicos across the Democratic spectrum jumped on the report, noting the positive aspects of the bill that potentially would have been extinguished had the former Colorado Speaker of the House voted against it. However, Romanoff told the Colorado Independent Friday that CPR got it wrong, explaining that he would have voted for the bill but thought it could have gone a lot further. CPR said that there was a miscommunication with the Romanoff camp and added they were wrong in their assertion he would not have voted for the bill.
Romanoff said he never stated he would have voted against the bill but did say it would not have been an easy sell given the concessions that were made to pass it.
“What Colorado Public Radio asked me last week was, ‘Do you believe Congress has done enough to reform the practices that got us into this mess?’ and I said, ‘No.'”
Friday he said he’s been consistent throughout the debate on Wall Street reform.
“I believe we ought to restore the Glass-Steagall Wall, the separation between commercial and investment banking activity. I believe that we ought to impose limits on the amount of leverage banks can incur so they don’t become too big to fail, and force them to help us out. I have been consistent in calling for those reforms and that is exactly what I told CPR.”
Roy Teicher, manager for Romanoff’s campaign, said that when he was contacted by CPR to confirm Romanoff would have voted against the bill, he said that any statements would have to be confirmed with the candidate.
CPR’s deputy news director, Sadie Babits, released this statement today:
“Yesterday [Thursday], Colorado Public Radio news reported that Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet voted to approve the financial reform package passed by the U.S. Senate. Bennet is a candidate in the state’s August primary and we mistakenly reported that his democratic challenger, Andrew Romanoff, would have voted against the bill. Romanoff clarified his position today [Friday] saying that while there’s more to be done on financial reform, he would have supported the legislation.”
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