Romanoff campaign dissing Mesa County Dems?

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet's campaign is accusing the Andrew Romanoff campaign of not caring about the Western Slope, Mesa County in particular.

In an interview on the political news Web site, Politico.com, Romanoff spokesman Dean Toda is quoted as saying of Mesa and El Paso counties:

"These locations are not going to help anyone very much in a Democratic primary," Toda said in the article, available at www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/34657.html.

While former Colorado House speaker Romanoff won more than 50 percent of the preference polls during Tuesday's caucuses, Bennet won in Mesa county by nearly 3 to 1.

Bennet campaign manager Craig Hughes said El Paso County as more than 80,000 Democrats and Mesa, 20,000, so "writing them off" isn't something they plan to do.

“It is baffling to me why Speaker Romanoff’s campaign would go out of their way to insult the over 100,000 Democrats in El Paso and Mesa County,” Hughes said.  “Clearly, he lost those counties Tuesday night, but that’s no reason to write them off.  Our campaign plans to place a high priority on winning votes across the State, including Mesa and El Paso counties, in order to win both the primary and general election campaigns,” continued Hughes.  "In fact, the growth of the Democratic vote in these formerly deep red areas represents a big part of any winning statewide strategy."