Andrew Romanoff is taking the right approach regarding the story that three jobs with the administration were "dangled" in order to persaude him to opt out of the U.S. Senate primary against Michael Bennet.
Getting people a job to get them out of a race is a long-standing tactic. Both parties have done it since the founding of the Republic. Some claim that it is illegal under the law which prohibits the "promise of employment or other benefit for political activity."
"Dangling" a job under someone's nose in order to get them out of a political contest is not quite the same as offering employment as a benefit for political activity, however, and such "dangling" has never been prosecuted. Besides, there are ways to do this legally, and one assumes the administration knows this perfectly well.
The jobs weren't much, it should be noted. Two of the jobs were with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which Washington Post reporter, Al Kamen, calls a "failed state." (Eight months into the new administration, Secretary of State Clinton was griping that the leadership of USAID still wasn't in place.) The other job was with the United States Trade Development Agency, whatever that is.
If the administration really wanted Romanoff out of the race, they would have to do quite a bit better than that. You want somebody out of a race, you make them Governor of the Virgin Islands, or Ambassador to Bora Bora. (Pennsylvania senatorial candidate, Joe Sestak, was reportedly offered a non-paying position on some board. Not only would he not get paid, he'd have had to go to meetings.)
Romanoff is not, as Chris Cillizza says, "making hay" out of the situation. Why do that? It's not much of a story to begin with, and why pick a needless fight with the administration, especially when you want to work with them, if elected?
Besides, the discussion puts Romanoff in a good position. It has placed him in the limelight, in dialog with the administration. Meanwhile, Michael Bennet seems on the outside looking in. Moreover, the discussion plays to Romanoff's strengths and his stated reason for running in the first place, i.e. as a reformer and an "outsider" to the ways of Washington. He's not the administration's lap dog.
"There is a much deeper problem in Washington that has turned Congress into a subsidiary of the industries it is supposed to be regulating," Romanoff said. "I'm running, in part, because I want to change the way the Senate works."
Put somebody in a situation where their position is congruent with who they are and you're doing them a favor.
Comments