Democrats eager to engineer an easier re-election for Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., spent millions of dollars during the Republican primary to brand Joe O’Dea as a Joe Biden-loving liberal while establishing the far-right candidate as the unquestionable conservative.
The strategy failed. Come November, it could backfire completely.
O’Dea won the GOP nomination and continues to present himself as a moderate, an image that meddling Democrats helped enhance in a state that has become increasingly difficult for Republicans. As GOP candidates struggle in battlegrounds like Georgia and Pennsylvania, O’Dea is stirring talk of an upset in Colorado. Cook Political Report last week shifted its rating of the Senate race from “likely Democratic” to “lean Democratic.”
Now Democrats are scrambling to redefine O’Dea, a political novice who rose from carpenter to construction company…
