Colorado Senate Race Pegged as Close, Crucial

A high-stakes Senate race that could tip the balance of power in Washington is underway here, pitting Colorado Atty. Gen. Ken Salazar, a Democrat, against Republican brewing magnate Pete Coors.

Both men breezed to easy victories in last week’s state primaries and wasted no time positioning themselves for the battle ahead. Salazar, a veteran politician, immediately declared himself the underdog fighting a multimillionaire with deep pockets.

Coors called such talk baloney and painted himself as a fresh face, untainted by politics, with real world experience in job creation and business.

Political analysts predict an expensive, nasty fight.

“It’s going to be a big-money race. I think it will easily top $20 or $30 million,” said Kenneth Bickers, a political science professor at the University of Colorado. “There is national interest in the outcome.”

That interest is fueled by the fight for the Senate where Republicans hold a two-seat majority. The GOP is expected to gain seats in some Southern Senate races but Democrats hope to take control of the chamber by winning a handful of Republican-held seats in Colorado and elsewhere.

Coors and Salazar are political moderates with high name recognition in this mostly conservative state. Coors has the numerical advantage -- there are 193,000 more registered Republicans than registered Democrats in Colorado. But 33% of voters list themselves as unaffiliated and have in the past helped elect Democratic senators, including Gary Hart, Tim Wirth and Ben Nighthorse Campbell.

Campbell, who later became a Republican, announced this year that he would not seek reelection, touching off the current race.

“Colorado has the independent spirit of the West,” said Salazar, who is in his second term as attorney general. “I think it will vote for the person and not the party affiliation.”

Salazar’s family has a long history in the American Southwest. His ancestors left Spain and settled in what is now Santa Fe, N.M., in 1598. They moved to southern Colorado’s San Luis Valley in the mid-1800s where they have ranched for five generations.

Salazar campaigns with a decidedly folksy style. Wearing his trademark white cowboy hat and blue jeans, he visited each of the state’s 64 counties in his green pickup truck before the primary.

If he wins, 49-year-old Salazar would be the first Hispanic to become a U.S. senator in 28 years and the first Hispanic senator from Colorado.

“Ken is absolutely one of our top candidates,” said Cara Morris, spokeswoman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. “In Colorado, we knew a traditional national party Democrat could not run a credible campaign. Ken will not toe the party line and will be independent. Colorado needs someone who will get Republican votes and Ken is that guy.”

Coors, 57, chief executive of Adolph Coors Co. and Coors Brewing Co. in Golden, has no political experience but everyone seems to know the Coors name. Denver even has a baseball stadium named after his family. Coors has made jobs, tax cuts and the economy the centerpiece of his campaign.

On the campaign trail, he is often treated like a celebrity with hordes of people asking him to autograph their Pete Coors for Senate placards.

“I grew a company as an international business, I created jobs. I have 5,000 employees,” Coors said. “I have a wealth of experience. Pete Coors has not been sitting behind his desk with his feet up all these years smoking fat cigars.”

But he is a political neophyte. In a debate during the primary with his Republican opponent Bob Schaffer, Coors didn’t know the name of the Canadian prime minister.

Democrats pounced, declaring Coors “not ready for prime time.”

His campaign says it only proves Coors is a newcomer, not a career politician like Salazar.

“He isn’t slick, which is refreshing,” said Cinamon Watson, Coors’ spokeswoman. “It was his first debate. Was it a blunder? Sure. It’s a matter of him getting used to the campaign trail.”

Coors is not a Republican in the mold of his late father Joseph Coors, a close friend of President Reagan who helped create and fund the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

Coors is more moderate on the environment and social issues. He is against gay marriage, as is Salazar, but his company was one of the first in the nation to give benefits to partners of gay and lesbian employees.

Still, he sees clear differences between himself and his opponent.

“[Salazar] paints himself as a good old boy with his pickup truck,” Coors said. “But in Washington he would vote right along with the other Democrats.”

The attorney general calls himself nonpartisan but his views closely mirror those of Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John F. Kerry. Salazar accuses President Bush of mishandling the Iraq war, of botching domestic security and of creating two Americas -- one for the rich and one for everyone else.

“If Coors is elected and President Bush is reelected, the Senate will become a rubber-stamp body for the extreme right-wing agenda,” he said.

A day after winning the primary, Salazar asked his opponent to keep outside political interest groups from launching negative ads inside Colorado.

Coors dismissed the idea. “How can we know what independent groups are doing until after it happens?”

Political observers say that given how close a contest it is likely to be, a negative campaign is almost a certainty.

“The Coors folks are going to hammer Salazar as Hillary Clinton in trousers and a cowboy hat,” said Katy Atkinson, an independent GOP consultant in Denver.

Democrats, meanwhile, portray Coors as inexperienced and running only because Republicans couldn’t find anyone else with a chance of defeating Salazar.

In the end, most analysts agree that Coors has an edge because of his name, money and the numbers of Republicans in the state. But it’s no lock, they say.

“If I were betting I would give slight odds to Coors but not big odds,” said Bickers of the University of Colorado. “It will depend on how they position themselves around the state. I think this race will be driven by the presidential election.”