Democrat Hickenlooper favored to win Colorado Senate primary despite stumbles

[June 30, 2020]  By John Whitesides

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper will try to secure the state's Democratic U.S. Senate nomination on Tuesday after a series of stumbles in a race vital to the party's hopes of recapturing Senate control in November.

Hickenlooper, recruited to run last year by national Democrats after his failed presidential campaign, has been staggered in recent weeks by ethical violations and campaign gaffes. But he remains favored to win against progressive Andrew Romanoff, a former state House speaker.

The winner will face conservative Republican U.S. Senator Cory Gardner, one of the country's most vulnerable incumbents in a state that has drifted left in recent years, in the Nov. 3 election.

Colorado is one of three states, along with Utah and Oklahoma, holding nominating contests on Tuesday. Colorado and Utah primarily vote through mail-in ballots, minimizing potential problems with in-person voting during the coronavirus outbreak.

Hickenlooper has acknowledged he misspoke at a late May debate discussing the "Black Lives Matter" movement when he used the phrase "all lives matter" - a conservative alternative criticized for dismissing racism against Black people. He also apologized after a six-year-old quip surfaced in which he compared a politician's schedule to working on a slave ship.

Hickenlooper defied a subpoena from Colorado's Independent Ethics Commission, eventually testifying only after he was found in contempt. The panel fined him $2,750 on June 12 for violating state ethics laws when he was governor by taking free travel.

Romanoff has argued Hickenlooper's missteps were endangering Democratic efforts to beat Gardner, who is closely aligned with Republican President Donald Trump.

Democratic 2020 U.S. presidential candidate former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper speaks on the first night of the second 2020 Democratic U.S. presidential debate in Detroit, Michigan, July 30, 2019. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo

National Democrats rushed to Hickenlooper's rescue, with outside groups spending more than $2 million on ads in June to shore up his chances. A poll last week showed Hickenlooper with a 30-point lead on Romanoff, easing the worries of some Democrats.

"Hickenlooper was sleepwalking through this campaign so maybe this woke him up," said Floyd Ciruli, a veteran independent pollster in Colorado.

In Utah, former Governor Jon Huntsman, who ran for the White House in 2012 and served as a U.S. ambassador to China and Russia, is making another bid for the governor's office in a crowded Republican primary.

In Oklahoma, voters will consider a ballot measure to expand Medicaid, the government healthcare program for the poor and disabled, despite the Republican governor's arguments the state cannot afford it.

Republicans also will choose challengers to run against U.S. Representatives Kendra Horn of Oklahoma and Ben McAdams of Utah, two endangered Democrats who represent districts that Trump carried in 2016.

(Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Bill Berkrot)

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