•Sen. Michael Bennet and Ken Buck are profiled by the Denver Post.
•The Wall Street Journal lists Bennet’s seat as one of the “absolute, no-kidding, gotta-have-’em races” for Democrats hoping to hold onto the Senate, but sees the Senator’s chances of election “slipping” away.
•Bennet and Buck spar over extending tax cuts:
On Friday, the GOP Senate hopeful, called on his opponent, Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet, to pledge not to raise taxes on any American during the lame-duck session between the election and the next session of Congress that starts in January.
“It looks like they are not going to extend the tax cuts and they don’t want to tell the American people that until the election’s over,” Buck said during an interview at his home.
But many Democrats in Congress, including Bennet, have already staked out their position against extending the tax cuts for all Americans ahead of Reid’s announcement to delay a vote.
“Michael’s first priority is to make sure that we extend tax cuts for the middle class and working families,” his spokesman, Trevor Kincaid, reiterated Friday.
•Are both Bennet AND Buck dodging debates? Yes–says the producer of the Channel 12/CBS 4 “Colorado Decides” debates:
Every major candidate of the highest profile races of the season has agreed to participate in our both of our debates for as long as the series has existed, until now.
This year, both the Ken Buck and Michael Bennet campaigns declined our invitation to debate in the Colorado Public Television studios.
As the series producer, I was beginning to take the denial personally until I began to notice that we were not alone. Bennet and Buck have treated invitations to debate as if they were invitations to get a root canal.
For one candidate in a race to see debates as root canals is not surprising. But to see both candidates avoid opportunities is shocking.
It’s not like we are talking about two wallflowers, in Buck and Bennet. We have a current District Attorney and a current U.S. Senator. Talking and defending their points of view in public should be a fairly natural instinct. [emphasis added]
But beyond the feelings I have as a debate producer, as a voter, I’m getting very offended at the lack of non-commercial exposure of the Senate candidates.
•Bennet “avoiding the issues”?
Multimedia
•Buck appeared on the CBS show “Face the Nation” Sunday with Bob Schieffer, rejecting the “extremist” label and discussing the Tea Party, extending tax cuts, deficits and balanced budget amendments, and his positions on abortion and contraception:
•The Buck campaign has another video from its BennetvsBennet video channel:
•9NEWS does a “truth test” of Buck’s first campaign ad: