WATCH: Caldara to Romanoff: Really, why should Democrats vote for you?

The libertarian GOP-supporting Independence Institute‘s Jon Caldara interviewed Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Andrew Romanoff for this week’s edition of Caldara’s politics talk show “Independent Thinking.” Romanoff admits he wanted the Senate appointment that went to Michael Bennet in 2008. He says it’s water under the bridge. Still he struggles to make a compelling case on the issues for why voters should toss out Bennet and support Romanoff, dwelling as he has done and as he is forced to do in some respects in the feathery light world of hypotheticals. “The Senate needs leadership… It would have taken just a single member of the Senate to stand in the way of the Senate leadership when they cut those backroom deals… I would have opposed the Nebraska deal and demanded they take the pork out of that bill.” Of course he would have done!

On the under-reported reasoning behind Ritter’s appointment of Bennet to the Senate seat, the Colorado Independent talked to State Sen. Able Tapia, D-Pueblo, in December. Tapia acknowledged he had been concerned with Ritter’s appointment of Bennet to Ken Salazar’s seat. That was a lost opportunity for the Latino community here, he said, where Salazar was out and in his place there was now a mainstream wealthy white guy. But Tapia said he sat down with Ritter, who explained that the reasoning behind the choice of Bennet was practical.

“He said that looking at the new Obama administration and its focus on education, the governor saw Michael Bennet as the best fit to help bring federal education dollars to the state and to work well generally with the new administration.”

Caldara does a good job probing Romanoff to elaborate his positions. Watch all three parts of the interview.

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