Colorado Race – Close and Could Decide Senate Contest

Charlie Cook believes the Colorado senate race may be one of three that decides control of the U.S. Senate. And, he rates it a toss-up. Colorado joins Alaska and Iowa as three too-close-to-call states and Republicans need at least one to get to six seats necessary for control.

Colorado U.S. Senate candidates go hard at each other in Denver Post debate, John Frank and Joey Bunch, October 7, 2014.

Status of senate race:

The tone also echoes the roughly $40 million the two campaigns have spent in TV ads, most of them dominated by attacks and shaded truths. Polls show the race remains unsettled.

“There’s no big issue, and we are not entirely attentive, and massive amounts of advertising are washing over folks in bundles,” said Floyd Ciruli, a Denver-based independent pollster and political analyst. “I think it explains the volatility you see. It’s hard to say what the state of the race is.”

What can we expect:

The heightened rhetoric is likely to remain in the final weeks of the campaign, experts suggest, as Republicans keep the focus on Obama and Democrats keep highlighting social issues. “It’s the ‘puppet’ versus the ‘extremist,’” Ciruli said of Udall and Gardner. “And I cannot see it moving around much.”