AURORA —Hillary Rodham Clinton knows how to fire up a Democrat-friendly crowd. It’s a task made easier when the candidate many attendees most want to support is her.
The former secretary of state, still publicly undecided about running for president, lent her star power Tuesday in an Aurora hotel ballroom to stump for three Colorado Democrats in need of a boost in an unfriendly electoral climate.
She figuratively kept three plates spinning, pivoting from praising U.S. Sen. Mark Udall as a tough workhorse to calling John Hickenlooper a governor who’s “second to none” to singling out congressional hopeful Andrew Romanoff, a former Colorado House speaker, as someone who “knows how to get things done.”
Each of those Democrats, along with U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, got warm welcomes from the hundreds of cheering attendees at the Radisson Denver Southeast hotel.
But they unleashed the big noise for Clinton.
“Colorado is well-known for being an energy state,” Clinton said, “and I think, honestly, there’s enough energy in here to light a small city for a month.”
The rally for volunteers and campaign supporters was the latest installment in Udall’s nearly three-week get-out-the-vote bus tour leading up to the Nov. 4 election, with mail ballots already out. This time, part of the focus was on the 6th Congressional District race, in which Romanoff is challenging three-term Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman in one of the most competitivedistricts in the nation.
Last week, Udall — who has been trailing or deadlocked with Republican Rep. Cory Gardner in several polls — was joined by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who fired up crowds in Englewood and Boulder. On Thursday, first lady Michelle Obama will take part in rallies in Denver and Fort Collins.
Colorado Republicans, who also have been bringing in big names to help them campaign — including New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who Monday appeared at an event with Republican gubernatorial challenger Bob Beauprez — portrayed the Clinton event and others as rescue operations, particularly for Udall.
“Sen. Udall is in trouble, and that’s why he’s calling in as many of his friends from Washington as possible,” state GOP Chairman Ryan Call said in a statement.
Also speaking at Tuesday’s event was Hickenlooper, locked in a close race with Beauprez.
He talked about Colorado’s booming economy and resiliency in the face of repeated natural disasters.
During her 26-minute speech, Clinton plugged the records of all three headlining Democratic candidates and others in down-ticket races. She reserved several minutes to address what she sees as threats to women’s rights in the Republican challengers’ past stands, including on access to abortion and contraception, freedoms that she considers “the canary in the coal mine.”
“With Mark and with John, these are two of the most effective leaders anywhere in the country,” Clinton said. “It appears to me that the campaigns being run against both of them are dependent on the voters of Colorado having a mass case of amnesia.”
Waiting for Clinton in the crowd, Brittany Quintana-Geiger, 34, hoped she would let slip her presidential plans for 2016. Clinton was her main draw.
Quintana-Geiger also showed how independent Colorado voters can be. An unaffiliated voter, she says she generally supports Democrats, with one exception — she plans to vote for independent candidate Mike Dunafon for governor instead of Hickenlooper, because the governor granted an indefinite reprieve from execution to Chuck E. Cheese killer Nathan Dunlap.
But she’s optimistic about Democrats’ chances Nov. 4. “I think it’s going to be very tight,” said Quintana-Geiger, who lives in Castle Pines. But she said she believes Democrats will pull it off.
Jon Murray: 303-954-1405 or jmurray@denverpost.com
