Even in an election year in which Democrats in swing states are
losing re-election by wide margins, Colorado U.S. Senator Michael
Bennet would seem to be a shoo-in for a full term. Since his
appointment
last year by Gov. Bill Ritter to replace now-U.S. Secretary of the
Interior Ken Salazar, the freshmen has built something of a
reputation as a bland moderate thanks to his professed opposition
to parts of the Employee Free Choice Act (Card Check) and President
Barack Obama’s plans for a third round of stimulus spending.
A former Denver schools superintendent, Bennet is
particular favorite of the centrist Democrats who now hold sway
over President Barack Obama’s education policy agenda thanks to his
successful battle with the National Education Association to
subject Denver teachers to private sector-style performance
management. Although the rest of Bennet’s record is a little light
on bold initiatives (and despite his unwillingness to say if he
supports or opposes
charter schools), he has still won plaudits from advocates such
as Whitney Tilson, a teacher-turned-hedge fund manager who is one
of the movement’s most-prominent financiers.
Declares Tilson: “I’d strongly support him even if he weren’t
an innovative leader in education reform — which he
is.”
But these days, Bennet is having as much trouble keeping
office as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. After surviving a
rough primary battle against a former state house speaker, Bennet
trails another veteran politician, Weld County District Attorney
Ken Buck by two points (according to Rasmussen Reports). Bennet has
gotten so desperate that he is now depending on help from the NEA,
which is spending $1.4 million of its massive war chest on his
behalf.
Meanwhile conservatives and progressives alike have taken
Bennet to task for studiously avoiding positions on any issue. The
senator’s latest clarification of his stance on Card Check garnered
a Bronx cheer from Huffington Post contributor (and
longtime Bennet critic) David Sirota, who
notes that Bennet’s been “trying to dance away from answering
any questions on the issue.” The
headline on Denver Post writer David Harsanyi’s column
about the senator summed things up more succinctly: “Where’s
Michael Bennet on Health Care? Anywhere He Needs to Be.”
As with fellow moderate Evan Bayh (whose milquetoast
reputation has cost him a third term in the Senate), Bennet’s
woes are a reminder that wishy-washy politicians will pay dearly
for playing both sides of the fence far too often. This is
especially true for someone like Bennet, who, unlike Bayh, has no
previous experience running for office and thus, little mastery of
the art of dancing the political Texas Two-Step. Save for rare
exceptions such as former federal budget director-turned-Indiana
governor Mitch Daniels and legendary U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick
Moynihan (a former diplomat and policy wonk), most mandarins
haven’t successfully transitioned from bureaucrat gamesmanship into
political office.
School reformers, who are backing Bennet so fervently,
also have lessons to learn. They have won over reform-minded
politicians and such filmmakers as An Inconvenient Truth
director Davis Guggenheim (whose documentary on America’s woeful
public schools, Waiting for Superman, is
far more entertaining). But they haven’t mastered the brutal art of
election politics, in which hard-hitting campaign ads and
mobilizing bodies on the ground matter more than arcane policy
discussions. As a result, they are often bested by teachers unions,
who have what politicians care for most: Vast campaign war chests
and armies of teachers ready to work the polls. School reformers
won’t
succeed in politics until they learn how to play the game —
including developing and picking stronger candidates.
THE SON OF A DIPLOMAT WHO RAN the U.S. Agency for
International Development under Jimmy Carter (and grandson of a
former adviser to FDR), Bennet parlayed his Democratic Party ties
into stints with Ohio governor Richard Celeste and the Clinton
Administration before spending six years in the private sector
helping billionaire Philip Anschutz put together a string of
mergers that formed movie theater giant Regal Cinemas.
By 2003, Bennet found himself another powerful patron in
Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, who first made him his chief of
staff, then helped him become superintendent of Denver’s woeful
public school system two years later. Save for some small moves and
for forcing the NEA’s Denver local to go along with ProComp, one of
the first efforts to replace traditional degree- and
seniority-based pay scales with one based on improving student
achievement, Bennet’s tenure was marked by studious poses and what
one local education writer charitably called a “visionary,
if vague, reform plan.”
Despite the sparse credentials, Bennet was briefly
considered by Obama for Secretary of Education in 2008 before he
picked the more successful Arne Duncan. A month later, Bennet beat
out more experienced politicians (including former boss
Hickenlooper) for an even bigger job: Appointment to fill Salazar’s
remaining term in the U.S. Senate. But his dearth of experience,
lack of support among party activists, awkward efforts at fitting
in with fellow Coloradans (including donning western boots and
poses in the outdoors), and penchant for mealy-mouthed positioning
put him in the cross-hairs.
Early on, Bennet was pilloried by progressives and
conservatives alike for his waffling on the public option element
of Obama’s healthcare reform plan (he eventually signed a letter
asking Reid to include it in Senate legislation). Bennet angered
progressives even more when he voted against an Obama plan that
would have allowed bankruptcy judges to force banks to rewrite the
terms of defaulted mortgages and stop foreclosures.
By March, Bennet found himself staving off a primary
battle against Andrew Romanoff, a former speaker of Colorado’s
lower house, who managed to obscure his own centrist (and pro-death
penalty) leanings and transform himself into a champion for the
hard-left elements of the Democratic Party. Despite efforts by
Bennet’s patrons and the Obama Administration to snuff out the bid
with threats and offers of patronage jobs, Romanoff managed to best
Bennet in a Democratic Party straw poll by a two-to-one
margin.
Thanks to the efforts of his longtime patrons (and
Romanoff’s lack of cash), Bennet eventually beat Romanoff back. But
now he must tangle with Buck, who won the GOP senatorial nod (and
beat the state’s lieutenant governor) by rallying support from Tea
Party activists. Bennet still isn’t doing such a hot job on the
campaign trail. An appearance last week with New York Jets
linebacker Jason Taylor — on the day the team was playing against
the hometown Denver Broncos — didn’t exactly do Bennet any favors.
A confrontation with one aging voter, who demanded to know why the
healthcare reform plan didn’t require coverage of the impotence
drug Viagra, was even less impressive. Wrote
Slate columnist David Weigel: “[Bennet’s] answer
sounded like his answer to almost everything: Isn’t it a shame that
people can’t get along?”
Meanwhile Bennet has said little, if anything, about
school reform. When it comes to education, Bennet has done little
more than run ads attacking Buck for allegedly wanting the
abolishment of the U.S. Department of Education. This isn’t exactly
surprising. School reform outfits such as Education Reform Now have
ponied up some donations to Bennet’s campaign and even bought a few
small ads; the prominent group Democrats for Education Reform put
in $11,000 into Bennet’s campaign. But their sums are paltry
compared to that being spent by the NEA on the senator’s behalf for
the last few weeks of the election season alone. Expect the
teachers union to get a little more of Bennet’s attention next year
(if he manages to overcome Buck’s lead).
Whether Bennet wins or not, his campaign offers some
object lessons for wishy-washy moderates and school reformers
alike.
