Democrats hail election results as breakthrough

The White House and national Democrats were quick to celebrate Wednesday what they saw as a breakthrough in an otherwise bleak political year, with President Obama’s preferred candidate winning a key primary test in Colorado and Republican voters choosing “tea party”-backed insurgents over the GOP’s recruited candidates.

“Last night’s elections … were nothing but good news for the Democratic Party,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said.

Democrats specifically touted the work of Organizing for America, or OFA, the president’s former campaign organization that now works with the Democratic National Committee to support the president’s agenda and the party’s candidates.

After unsuccessful efforts in early races in New Jersey, Virginia and Massachusetts, the organization now is focusing on turning out “surge voters” this November, people who backed Obama in 2008 but had rarely, if ever, voted before.

Tuesday’s results in Colorado, Democratic officials said, show how that approach can help. Data from independent election analysts found that in the Democratic primary between incumbent Sen. Michael Bennet and former state House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, about a third of all ballots were cast by voters who never had participated in a primary.

Republican strategists countered by pointing to polling that shows their candidates continue to be competitive with, if not leading, Democrats in general election surveys. And in Colorado on Tuesday, turnout was higher among Republicans than Democrats.

“If last night was as good for the Democrats as the White House and party strategists would have you believe, then we should all be left to wonder — what constitutes a bad night?” asked Brian Walsh, spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

The Bennet campaign says it had mounted its own sophisticated grass-roots-oriented campaign, and downplayed somewhat the national committee’s involvement. But OFA argued that it contributed to the margin of victory by deploying an army of more than 1,500 volunteers who made 47,000 phone calls and knocked on 14,000 doors to get out the vote.

The true test for the committee remains in November, however, and even party officials acknowledge that in a volatile electoral climate, their efforts are not a panacea for every embattled Democratic candidate.

But they argued that it could make a difference when a strong campaign can be supplemented by the national operation.

“Some of the doomsday predictions about enthusiasm are overblown,” said Jeremy Bird, deputy national director for OFA. “Turning out first-time voters and Democrats who aren’t used to voting in midterm elections could have a potential to swing some elections.”

The White House was eager as well to note Obama’s role in the Colorado race. The president appeared with Bennet for several fundraisers and participated in a town-hall meeting via telephone last week.

Obama is also about to embark on a whirlwind tour campaigning for other Democrats next week, visiting five states in three days and including a primary-day event with Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) in Seattle on Tuesday.

“Obviously Barack Obama is looking for where can he be helpful — where he’s not going to be a drag,” said Hans Kaiser, a pollster for one of Murray’s potential Republican opponents, Dino Rossi. “His numbers are going to be a little better in Washington state than in the country as a whole.”

But in a sign of how Democratic candidates still see political benefit in keeping the White House at arm’s length, even Bennet seemed to downplay Obama’s role within hours of receiving a congratulatory phone call from the president.

“You know, I’m very pleased to have had his support, but I don’t think it made the difference in the primary. It won’t make the difference in the general,” he told NBC’s “Today” show. Asked in another interview for “Good Morning America” whether he would have the president back to campaign in the general election, he said only: “We’ll have to see.”

Democrats also highlighted on Wednesday what they described as a “takeover” of the Republican Party by the tea party movement.

In Colorado, the establishment-backed candidates for both governor and Senate lost to conservative insurgents. These and earlier victories by tea party favorites such as Rand Paul in Kentucky and Sharron Angle in Nevada, Democrats say, have imperiled Republican chances in the fall general election.

“There’s been a lot of talk about energy on the right, and that might be true,” Democratic National Committee spokesman Hari Sevugan said. “[But] what the tea party takeover of the Republican Party has done is produce a slate of deeply flawed candidates.”

The sentiment reflects Democrats’ hope to frame the election as a choice, not a referendum on the president and his party. But in an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released Tuesday, 60% of respondents ranked the Democratic-controlled Congress as one of the worst in history.

“Voters are very unhappy,” Kaiser said, “especially independents who are going to drive the election in November.”

michael.memoli@latimes.com

janet.hook@latimes.com