National GOP Pulls Out of Colorado Senate Race

The National Republican Senatorial Committee confirmed today it was pulling it’s support from the Colorado race to replace retiring Republican Sen. Wayne Allard. Rumors of the pullout began circulating last week, but subsided after NRSC chairman Sen. John Ensign said, “We’re going to stay there up until the end,” at a National Press Club breakfast Tuesday and the committee released a new ad attacking “Boulder Liberal” Mark Udall on Thursday.

New ad released before NRSC pulled support

Taking Ensign at his word, apparently this once-competitive race is over, with Udall widening his lead over Republican challenger Bob Schaffer to 8 points in the latest average of polls.

The NRSC will stop running ads next week, and their pullout follows that of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee earlier this week. But while theDSCC move was seen as a sign of confidence that their candidate has a comfortable lead and doesn’t need their help in the last few days of the campaign, the NRSC pullout smells of desperation and not wanting to throw good money after bad.

“The NRSC found out the hard way that not only have their ads backfired and turned off voters, but that Coloradans are standing with Mark Udall,” Udall spokeswoman Tara Trujillo told the Denver Post.

Schaffer campaign manager Dick Wadhams told the Post he thinks the race is still winnable, but didn’t sound happy about the NRSC move. “That’s what they decided and we’ll live with it,” he said.

Democrats are gunning for a filibuster-proof 60-seats in the Senate, and Colorado and New Mexico (where Tom Udall, Mark’s cousin, has a comfortable lead) look like “done deals,” said Washington Post political blogger Chris Cillizza.

Rumors that John McCain was also giving up Colorado were denied by the campaign earlier this week, and the candidate was quickly dispatched to the Mile High State to rally his supporters.

Looking at the current political landscape and demographic shifts, Richard Martin writes in New West that Colorado is turning blue, not purple. “The West is likely to be a bellwether for a dramatic shift toward Democratic principles and candidates, with Colorado on the leading edge. If that happens, it’s possible the Democrats could solidify their ascendancy for a generation.”

Stop Calling Me

Living in California, I’m unlikely to feel the pain of swing staters anytime soon. The calls, the knocks on the door, the endless ads. With early voting underway in Nevada and other swing states, Las Vegas Sun reporter David McGrath Schwartz writes that voters “see the voting booth as an escape hatch from the ever-present election.”

Though the Sun article speaks broadly to the political climate in Nevada, while I was reporting throughout the state last week, it’s the Obama campaign that appears to be the more energized — and thus the bigger nuisance. But it’s unclear if or when the line is crossed that turns off supporters or keeps them from the polls.

In Reno, a young woman registering to vote told me she was annoyed with the Obama campaign’s persistence — “they come [to my door], and they call, and they email,” she said — but she still planned on casting her vote for the Democrat.

In rural Elko, an Obama volunteer and supporter whose dedication extends to housing an out-of-state campaign staffer heading up the local office told me she started taking her orders to make more calls with a grain of salt. “It’s getting to be too much,” she said, noting that some people in her small community would be turned off afterreceiving a third, fourth, or fifth call. And with people from out of state calling Nevada voters, she said her first call was often times the person on the other end’s third contact.

Not one person I spoke to — Democrat, Republican, or undecided — said they were contacted too much by the McCain camp, and many said they hadn’t been contacted by Republicans at all.

Nevada has a “Please Do Not Call” list (since political speech is protected, only campaigns that volunteer to abide by the list will stop calling) and Nevadans can apply for confidential voter status to remove their address and phone number from their voter file.

To stop the hard sell, some early voters are putting up signs to let canvassers know they can keep walking, and Obama spokeswoman Kirsten Searer tells the Sun, “we tease voters sometimes that one way to stop getting phone calls and mail is to vote.”

Candidates Hit Battle For The West States This Weekend

With Obama looking to solidify his leads in Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico, and McCain looking to staunch the bleeding and eke out a win in at least one of the states, both candidates are headed west.

Obama will hit Reno Saturday morning, then Las Vegas, and end his day in Albequerque. On Sunday, the Democratic candidate returns to Denver then heads further north to Fort Collins.

John McCain, flanked by former Broncos Quarterback John Elway, at a rally in Denver Friday (Getty Images)

Friday is Colorado day for McCain. The Republican candidate spoke in Denver this morning, is en route to Colorado Springs as I type, and will end the day with a rally in Durango. The candidate will cross paths with his rival in Albuquerque on Saturday, with an additional stop in Las Cruces. (Curiously missing from his regional itinerary: Nevada. McCain hasn’t shown his face in the state since early August, though Gov. Sarah Palin has made several appearances. Is he ceding the state, where he came in third in the Republican caucuses behind Mitt Romney and Ron Paul?)