Early Poll Shows Norton and Romanoff Change Senate Race

Former Lt. Governor Jane Norton, who entered the Republican primary the third week of September, became the Republican Party’s frontrunner, and in head-to-head comparisons with Democratic Senator Michael Bennet, she leads Bennet by 9 points. Former Democratic Speaker of the Colorado State House, Andrew Romanoff, who entered the race in mid-September, loses to Norton by 8 points.


Norton’s lead is primarily based on a 30-point advantage among unaffiliated voters, which can only be based on a preference for a Republican and some advantage of the well-known name of Norton in Colorado politics (including former Colorado Attorney General and Secretary of the Interior Gail Norton and former gubernatorial candidate and Transportation Department Director Tom Norton. There are several other Nortons known in Colorado political circles).
Norton and Romanoff’s entry in the race launches the 2010 election, and makes Colorado a battleground.

The Hill.com says, “Independent Colorado pollster Floyd Ciruli said Bennet is in a different race than he was seven days ago. ‘Prior to this, Bennet was seen as the favored frontrunner largely based on his money potential, a good-to-neutral political environment and a weak Republican field,’ Ciruli said. ‘In all three of those cases, this has become a much more dead-even race.’”

(Also see Denver Post article)