July 27, 2010

CO’s Romanoff Bets the House—Literally

Flickr/<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/denverjeffrey/4722786208/">Jeffrey Beall</a>

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You’ve got to hand it to US Senate hopeful Andrew Romanoff out in Colorado: The man’s got chutzpah. So much chutzpah, in fact, that he recently sold his $360,000 bungalow to boost his campaign’s coffers in his effort to unseat Democratic incumbent Michael Bennet. Soon after his house sold, Real Clear Politics reports, Romanoff, the former Colorado house speaker, made a $325,000 donation to his campaign with two weeks to go before his August 10 primary bout against Bennet. 

Judging by somewhat recent polls, Romanoff’s hefty donation is a last-ditch bid to salvage his Senate run. In a mid-June Denver Post/Survey USA poll, for instance, Bennet led Romanoff by 16 percentage points. Despite winning the endorsement of Bill Clinton, Romanoff has struggled to compete with Bennet throughout the spring and summer, both in the polls and in the fundraising battle. While Bennet, the former Denver education chief, raised $7.5 million the second quarter of this year and had $2.5 million in cash on hand, Romanoff paled in comparison, with $1.6 million raised and $464,000 on hand.

Romanoff justified the sale of his bungalow with a one-liner to the Denver Post: “I’m never home anyway.”

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We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

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