Udall defeats Schaffer in a bitter ‘climb’ to Senate

By The Associated Press

DENVER — Democrat Mark Udall, a strong environmental advocate, defeated Republican Bob Schaffer of Fort Collins, a former congressman aligned with his party’s conservative wing, in their battle for Colorado’s open Senate seat, one of only five nationwide.

The 58-year-old Udall succeeds two-term Republican Sen. Wayne Allard of Loveland, who is retiring.

“I confess to you, this is the toughest climb I’ve ever taken,” Udall, an avid mountaineer, told supporters in Denver.

Schaffer lost Larimer County by about 8 points.

Schaffer called to congratulate his opponent. “He ran a great campaign, he ran a strong campaign, he’s going to make a great United States senator, and we all owe him our support,” he later told a crowd at a GOP party.

But the ferocity of the fight was broadcast in hard-hitting TV and radio ads financed by combined campaign spending of more than $17 million.
Udall’s win gave Colorado two Democratic senators for the first time since the mid-1970s, when Gary Hart and Floyd Haskell served together.

Udall drew his strength from moderates, according to an Associated Press poll of voters over the past week. Schaffer drew support from evangelical Christians, and his strongest base of support was in eastern Colorado, an area he represented when he was in Congress.
Udall has represented Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District for 10 years. A member of one of the West’s most prominent political families, Udall stressed his roots in a region where Democrats have had to play more to the center to get elected.

Schaffer, who represented Colorado’s 4th Congressional District from 1997 to 2003, lost a U.S. Senate primary in 2004 after GOP leaders worried that he was too conservative to win statewide.

He insisted that his principles of small government and low taxes are centrist and that the country needed the kind of balance a senator like himself would provide.

The race between Udall, 58, and Schaffer, 46, was watched nationally because it provided Democrats another chance to build their majority in the Senate. Their debates were heated, with the more low-key Udall and the more hard-charging Schaffer struggling to talk over each other at times.

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