The negative tone of the neck-and-neck Colorado Democratic U.S. Senate primary so far culminated this weekend in “Greed,” a TV ad put out by the Romanoff campaign attacking Sen. Michael Bennet. The ad raises the suggestive speculation of past ads to new heights, arguing that for years Bennet worked as a high-finance dealmaker who worked to wreck companies for the sake of profit, portraying Bennet as a sort of stealth Gordon Gecko, the iconic billionaire character played by Michael Douglas in Oliver Stone’s 1980’s film Wall Street.
The Denver Post editorial board ripped the ad as over the top, and on the stump this weekend Bennet answered its charges, in part by waving an old-school rolled up newspaper copy of the Post editorial in his hand.
In the ad, Romanoff accuses Bennet of working with billionaire Phil Anschutz to break up movie theater companies in Colorado, throwing people out of work. Bennet says he worked with Anschutz to buy up the failing businesses and turn them around.
“There is nothing about the story that’s told in this television advertisement that’s true,” said Bennet. “The attack in this ad is completely false. On no planet is anything in it true. In fact, the reverse is true…. We saved thousands of jobs,” he said to a crowd of Bennet and Romanoff supporters.
He then makes his pitch, focusing on jobs in the distinct nonflashy style Bennet, who has never run for office previously, seems to have perfected over this first year in office.
My job is not to worry about [the attacks.] My job is to worry about representing the people of Colorado. My job is not to worry about my job. My job is to worry about the jobs of the people in Colorado, the jobs they have and the jobs they don’t have, the jobs they lost and the jobs they need to get back– that’s my job. And as for his attacks on my integrity, all I need as my guide is to go home at night, tuck my three little girls in and be able to say to them they can be proud of what their dad did. That’s all–
The Romanoff ad:
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