The 2010 United States Senate election in Colorado took place on November 2, 2010, alongside other elections to the United States Senate in other states as well as elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections. In December 2008, President-elect Barack Obama nominated incumbent U.S. Senator

Ken Salazar Kenneth Lee Salazar (born March 2, 1955) is an American lawyer, politician, and diplomat who is the United States ambassador to Mexico. He previously served as the 50th United States Secretary of the Interior in the administration of President Ba ...

Secretary of the Interior Secretary of the Interior may refer to: * Secretary of the Interior (Mexico) * Interior Secretary of Pakistan * Secretary of the Interior and Local Government (Philippines) * United States Secretary of the Interior See also

*Interior ministry ...

. After Salazar resigned from his seat, Democratic governor

Bill Ritter August William Ritter Jr. (born September 6, 1956) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 41st Governor of Colorado from 2007 to 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the district attorney for Denver before his ele ...

appointed Denver Public Schools Superintendent

Michael Bennet Michael Farrand Bennet (born November 28, 1964) is an American attorney, businessman, and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Colorado, a seat he has held since 2009. A member of the Democratic Party, he was appointed t ...

to fill the seat. Bennet won a full term, defeating former state House speaker

Andrew Romanoff Harlan Andrew Romanoff (born August 24, 1966) is an American politician, attorney, and academic. A Democrat, he was a member of the Colorado House of Representatives from 2001 to 2009, serving as Speaker from 2005 to 2009. He was a candidate for ...

in the Democratic primary, and Republican nominee Ken Buck in the general election. With a margin of 1.7%, this election was the second closest race of the 2010 Senate election cycle after the concurrent one in Illinois.

Democratic primary

Candidates

Declared

, incumbent U.S. Senator *

, former speaker of the

Colorado House of Representatives The Colorado House of Representatives is the lower house of the Colorado General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Colorado. The House is composed of 65 members from an equal number of constituent districts, with each distr ...

Endorsements

;Bennet * President Barack Obama * U.S. Senator Russ Feingold * Congresswoman Diana DeGette * Congressman

Ed Perlmutter Edwin George Perlmutter (born May 1, 1953) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the U.S. representative for . A member of the Democratic Party, his district is located in the northern and western suburbs of the Denver metropolitan area ...

* Congresswoman Betsy Markey * U.S. Senator Mark Udall * Congressman Jared Polis * Congressman

John Salazar John Tony Salazar (born July 21, 1953) is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for from 2005 until 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, he was appointed Commissioner of the Colorado Department of Agriculture in the C ...

* Former U.S. Senator

Gary Hart Gary Warren Hart (''né'' Hartpence; born November 28, 1936) is an American politician, diplomat, and lawyer. He was the front-runner for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination until he dropped out amid revelations of extramarital affairs. ...

* Governor

;Romanoff * Former president Bill Clinton

Polling

Results

Republican primary

Candidates

Declared

* Ken Buck, Weld County

District Attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or state attorney is the chief prosecutor and/or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a l ...

Jane Norton Jane Ellen Norton (born Jane Ellen Bergman, October 12, 1954) is an American politician who was the 46th Lieutenant Governor of Colorado and an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination to challenge U.S. Senator Michael Bennet in t ...

, former

Lieutenant Governor of Colorado The lieutenant governor of Colorado is the second-highest-ranking member of the executive department of the Government of Colorado, United States, below the governor of Colorado. The lieutenant governor of Colorado, who acts as governor of Colorad ...

Declined

* Bob Beauprez, former U.S. Representative for Colorado's 7th congressional district *

Troy Eid Troy A. Eid (born 1963) is an American attorney who served as United States Attorney for the District of Colorado from 2006 to 2009. He is also an adjunct professor of law at the University of Colorado Law School and University of Denver Coll ...

U.S. Attorney United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal c ...

for

United States District Court for the District of Colorado The United States District Court for the District of Colorado (in case citations, D. Colo. or D. Col.) is a federal court in the Tenth Circuit (except for patent claims and claims against the U.S. government under the Tucker Act, which are ap ...

* Ryan Frazier, Aurora city councilman

Withdrew

* Tom Wiens, former

state senator A state senator is a member of a state's senate in the bicameral legislature of 49 U.S. states, or a member of the unicameral Nebraska Legislature. Description A state senator is a member of an upper house in the bicameral legislatures of 49 U ...

Other

Three other candidates were defeated at the Republican state convention and were not on the primary ballot: * Cleve Tidwell, businessman * Robert Greenheck * Steve Barton

Endorsements

Polling

Results

Libertarian primary

Candidates

* John Finger * Mac Stringer

Results

General election

Candidates

Major

(D), incumbent U.S. Senator * Ken Buck (R), Weld County DA

Minor

* Bob Kinsey (G)
campaign site, archived November 4, 2010PVS
* Charley Miller (I)
campaign sitePVS
* J. Moromisato (I)
campaign sitePVS
* Jason Napolitano (I)
PVS
* Mac Stringer (L)
campaign sitePVS
* Bruce E. Lohmiller (G) (Write-in)
Congress.org
* Michele M. Newman (I) (Write-in)

* Robert Rank (R) (Write-in)

campaign site,

YouTube campaign video Source
Official Candidate List

Campaign

This was one of the most expensive elections in the nation, as more than $30 million was spent by outside organizations. Conservative third party groups hammered Bennet for voting 92% of the time with the Democratic leadership, including voting for healthcare reform and the stimulus package. Liberal third party groups called Buck extremist. Bennet focused on attacking Buck's views on abortion, which he believed should be banned including those of cases of rape and incest. He was also attacked for wanting to eliminate the 17th Amendment and refusing to prosecute an alleged rapist as Weld County district attorney.

Planned Parenthood The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. (PPFA), or simply Planned Parenthood, is a nonprofit organization that provides reproductive health care in the United States and globally. It is a tax-exempt corporation under Internal Reve ...

mounted a mail campaign, targeting women voters with the warning that "Colorado women can't trust Ken Buck." Bennet won the women vote by 17 points according to exit polls. After the election, Buck conceded to the Denver Post that the main reason why he lost is because of social issues.

Debates

* September 12: Sponsored by Club 20 in Grand Junction

Predictions

Polling

Fundraising

These totals reflect the campaign accounts of the candidates themselves, and do not include independent expenditures by other groups.

Results

References

External links

Colorado Secretary of State - Elections Center

U.S. Congress candidates for Colorado
at Project Vote Smart
Colorado U.S. Senate 2010
from OurCampaigns.com
Campaign contributions
from

Open Secrets ''Open Secrets'' () is a book of short story, short stories by Alice Munro published by McClelland and Stewart in 1994 in literature, 1994. It was nominated for the 1994 Governor General's Awards, 1994 Governor General's Award for English Fiction ...

2010 Colorado Senate General Election: All Head-to-Head Matchups
graph of multiple polls from ''Pollster.com''
Election 2010: Colorado Senate
from Rasmussen Reports
2010 Colorado Senate Race
from Real Clear Politics
2010 Colorado Senate Race
from

CQ Politics Congressional Quarterly, Inc., or CQ, is part of a privately owned publishing company called CQ Roll Call that produces a number of publications reporting primarily on the United States Congress. CQ was acquired by the Economist Group and combined ...

Race profile
from The New York Times
Collected news and commentary
at ''Election 2010'' at The Denver Post ;Debate
Colorado Senate Republican Primary Debate
on

C-SPAN Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American cable and satellite television network that was created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a nonprofit public service. It televises many proceedings of the United States ...

, July 23, 2010
Colorado Senate Debate
on

, September 11, 2010 ;Official campaign websites (Archived)
Steven Barton for U.S. Senate

Michael Bennet for U.S. Senate
incumbent
Ken Buck for U.S. Senate

Gary Kennedy for U.S. Senate

Bob Kinsey for U.S. Senate

Vincent Martinez for U.S. Senate

Jane Norton for U.S. Senate

Andrew Romanoff for U.S. Senate

Cleve Tidwell for U.S. Senate

Tom Wiens for U.S. Senate

Michele M. Newman for U.S. Senate
{{United States elections, 2010 2010 Colorado elections Colorado

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

Michael Bennet