Ritter plays up Obama connection

While Republican candidates play up conservative political ideology over partisan affiliation, Democrat incumbent Gov. Bill Ritter is proudly touting his connections to Pres. Barack Obama.

In a conference call with "hundreds" of supporters last night, Ritter campaign manager David Kenney emphasized the Obama-Ritter connection and the importance of bringing "change to Colorado," invoking the President's ubiquitous campaign slogan.

Ritter called Obama a "partner in Washington DC," and his staff includes a number of veterans of last year's Democrat presidential campaign.

Ritter was on the call to promote a series of "Ritter Retreats" to be held around the state later this month. The two-day seminars "will focus on teaching grassroots organizing skills that are crucial to any organizer in addition to the foundation skill [sic] such as data entry and canvassing," according to a campaign Web site. Jim Carpenter, Ritter's chief of staff, also made remarks on the call, which ran for nearly 20 minutes Wednesday night.

"Republicans want us to be ground zero again," Kenney said of the 2010 election, when the GOP will look to roll back recent gains by Democrats, particularly in the west. "[They] want to take us back to the old days," he said of GOP gubernatorial candidates Scott McInnis and Josh Penry. None of the speakers made any mention of the third announced Republican candidate, Dan Maes.

Kenney said a "grassroots army" of supporters would be employed to re-elect Ritter next year in order to continue the "change and policies" pushed by Ritter and Obama. In addition to traditional efforts such as door-to-door canvassing and phone banks, the Ritter camp also announced plans to attract media attention by organizing community service projects.