{"id":39348,"date":"2022-07-21T12:45:24","date_gmt":"2022-07-21T18:45:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/michael-bennet-launches-first-tv-ad-in-u-s-senate-race\/"},"modified":"2022-07-21T18:45:24","modified_gmt":"2022-07-21T18:45:24","slug":"michael-bennet-launches-first-tv-ad-in-u-s-senate-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/michael-bennet-launches-first-tv-ad-in-u-s-senate-race\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Bennet launches first TV ad in U.S. Senate race"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=c055548a-5022-52f6-813f-a9abdaa54270&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" alt=\"Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., center, flanked by Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., left, and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., the House Appropriations Committee chairwoman, speak about the tax credit during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington on Feb. 8. (J. Scott Applewhite\/Associated Press file)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., center, flanked by Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., left, and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., the House Appropriations Committee chairwoman, speak about the tax credit during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington on Feb. 8. (J. Scott Applewhite\/Associated Press file)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet began campaigning for re-election in earnest Thursday with the launch of his first 2022 television ad, a reintroduction to Colorado voters touting his work to get big money out of politics.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWashington could learn a lot from Colorado,\u201d Bennet says in the ad, which highlights the Democrat\u2019s efforts to ban members of Congress from becoming lobbyists and from making personal stock trades while in office.<\/p>\n<p>The ad also points out that Bennet\u2019s campaign isn\u2019t taking money directly from corporate political action committees.<\/p>\n<p>But while the ad, powered by $600,000 in spending over two weeks, may not jump off the screen \u2013 it features Bennet hiking alone in the mountains \u2013 it comes as Colorado becomes a growing focus for national Republicans hoping to win a congressional majority in November.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video wp-block-embed-youtube naviga-video-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GprvxjVx620\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The GOP\u2019s chances of unseating Senate Democrats in other states, namely Georgia and Arizona, don\u2019t appear to be as solid as they once were, mainly because of the GOP\u2019s slate of candidates in those places.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThose are races that the Republicans this year should be in a good position to flip,\u201d said J. Miles Coleman, associate editor at Sabato\u2019s Crystal Ball, a nonpartisan election prognosticator at the University of Virginia Center for Politics. \u201cBut they\u2019ve nominated very risky candidates.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That means it\u2019s possible more Republican money and effort is placed on trying to oust Bennet, who has been in office since 2009.<\/p>\n<p>Bennet this year faces Republican Joe O\u2019Dea, a wealthy first-time candidate who owns a Denver construction company and is trying to position himself as a moderate.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=c4ec8b75-0956-4a87-bf78-903ff0ddf7c9&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" alt=\"Joe O\u2019Dea, Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Michael Bennet, speaks during a primary election night watch party late June 28 in Denver. (David Zalubowski\/Associated Press file)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Joe O\u2019Dea, Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Michael Bennet, speaks during a primary election night watch party late June 28 in Denver. (David Zalubowski\/Associated Press file)<\/span><span class=\"credit\">onset<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>Democrats spent millions of dollars in the GOP primary trying to boost O\u2019Dea\u2019s opponent, state Rep. Ron Hanks, an election denier and hard-line conservative, in an unsuccessful effort to prevent Bennet from facing O\u2019Dea in November.<\/p>\n<p>While Sabato\u2019s Crystal Ball and other election analysts still think Bennet\u2019s seat is likely to remain in Democrats\u2019 hands \u2013 and O\u2019Dea has dramatically less money in his campaign account compared with Bennet \u2013 they say in an election year that\u2019s shaping up to be rough for Democrats it\u2019s possible Bennet could be at risk.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it goes back to you really can\u2019t catch a wave without a surfboard,\u201d Coleman said, explaining that Washington is another Democratic state where the GOP is making a concerted effort to win a Senate seat. \u201cIf you want to win these races you have to have good candidates.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, tossed his full support behind O\u2019Dea on Tuesday night at a fundraiser in Washington, D.C., according to Axios, vowing to be \u201call in in Colorado.\u201d While McConnell\u2019s embrace of a GOP candidate certainly isn\u2019t surprising, his commitment to help O\u2019Dea in a state whose voters backed Joe Biden over Donald Trump by 13 percentage points in 2020 is notable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe think we can win this race,\u201d McConnell said, Axios reported, citing an unnamed person who attended the event.<\/p>\n<p>National Republicans, however, have yet to commit resources into the Colorado Senate race. And Democrats are now attacking O\u2019Dea\u2019s close link to McConnell as an indication that he\u2019s not actually moderate.<\/p>\n<p>Bennet is starting his TV advertising much later than Colorado\u2019s Senate incumbents, including himself, have in past years.<\/p>\n<p>Bennet started airing TV ads in April during his 2016 re-election campaign, ultimately spending $9 million on TV. That included about $602,000 worth of ads in July.<\/p>\n<p>Restoration PAC aired $609,000 worth of ads in July 2016 supporting Republican Darryl Glenn, who lost to Bennet in 2016. That PAC spent $1.3 million supporting Glenn that year.<\/p>\n<p>Incumbent Colorado Sens. Mark Udall, a Democrat, and Cory Gardner, a Republican, began airing TV ads in their failed re-election bids in spring of 2014 and 2020, respectively.<\/p>\n<p>Outside groups also advertised earlier in past election cycles. Nonprofit groups that don\u2019t report their donors began airing ads critical of Gardner in fall 2019. Similar groups on the Republican side aired ads critical of former Gov. John Hickenlooper starting in March 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Hickenlooper spent more than $16 million on TV advertising in 2020, while Gardner spent $12 million. Outside groups spent nearly $36 million on TV ads that year.<\/p>\n<p>While Bennet\u2019s campaign isn\u2019t taking money from companies with their own political action committees, it does take money from PACs operated by business associations, including the National Association of Realtors, the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers, and the Wine and Beer Wholesalers of America.<\/p>\n<p>Union PACs representing teachers, public employees, postal workers and construction trades have also donated to Bennet\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, the campaign has received nearly $900,000 from PACs, including from leadership PACs, which are run by other lawmakers and that take money from corporate PACs.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/coloradosun.com\/\" id=\"link-da9f050d50d05807883e745ba1328656\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em id=\"emphasis-a07b294f98d0971e641d56454a89e625\">The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Majority Leader Mitch McConnell indicates Republicans plan to commit resources Colorado election<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[120,233,266,28,25,1566],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-39348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado","tag-coloradosun-com","tag-election","tag-headlines","tag-u-s-sen-michael-bennet","tag-u-s-senate"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39348"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=39348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}