Second candidate says White House dangled possible job offer

The Obama White House tried to entice a Democratic Senate candidate to quit in Colorado by suggesting he take a job in the executive branch instead, the candidate said in a statement Wednesday.

Andrew Romanoff’s announcement is the second indication in less than a week that the White House has tried to clear the Democratic field for preferred candidates by dangling federal appointments as inducements.

Last week, the White House conceded that it had used former President Clinton to approach Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa). Clinton, acting at the behest of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, told Sestak that he might win an appointment to a federal board if he stayed in the House and abandoned a primary campaign against the White House-backed incumbent, Sen. Arlen Specter. Sestak refused and went on to defeat Specter, a former Republican.

On Wednesday night, Romanoff’s campaign issued a statement describing a similar overture that it said was made by Jim Messina, who is Emanuel’s deputy.

As with Sestak, the White House wanted Romanoff to drop out of the primary to clear the field for the incumbent, Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.).

President Obama, as president-elect, had considered Bennet for education secretary, but chose Arne Duncan instead.

Romanoff refused the White House offer. The primary is Aug. 10.

Neither Messina nor the White House responded to requests for comment.

Romanoff’s campaign released an e-mail from Messina to Romanoff dated Sept. 11, 2009. The e-mail mentioned three executive branch positions: two in the U.S. Agency for International Development and one at the U.S. Trade and Development Agency.

Romanoff said he got the e-mail after a phone conversation with Messina, who told him that Obama was backing Bennet.

“Mr. Messina also suggested three positions that might be available to me were I not pursuing the Senate race,” Romanoff said in his statement. “He added that he could not guarantee my appointment to any of these positions. At no time was I promised a job, nor did I request Mr. Messina’s assistance in obtaining one.”

Romanoff said that after getting the e-mail, he called Messina and left a message that he would not abandon the race.

The disclosure is an embarrassment for Obama, who was elected partly on a pledge that he would upend Washington’s political culture. Yet in these instances, Obama’s White House employed old-school political tactics that he had seemed to disavow.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista) has already asked the FBI to investigate whether the White House attempted to bribe Sestak.

In a statement Wednesday night, Issa said: “Just how deep does the Obama White House’s effort to invoke Chicago-style politics for the purpose of manipulating elections really go? Clearly, Joe Sestak and Andrew Romanoff aren’t isolated incidents…. Whatever the Obama brand used to stand for has been irrevocably shattered by the activities going on inside Barack Obama’s White House.”

peter.nicholas@latimes.com