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In a move that Republicans say is ominous for Democratic challenger Andrew Romanoff, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee no longer plans to spend $1.4 million on ad time it reserved on Denver TV stations for the campaign’s final two weeks.

Instead, the DCCC is focusing its money on Democratic incumbents newly under attack by outside Republican groups, which sunk $4.2 million on new ad buys Thursday. But the DCCC still is supporting Romanoff’s challenge of U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman next week by paying to expand the campaign’s own ad buy, the DCCC and Romanoff’s campaign say.

The DCCC says it still views the race as winnable for Romanoff — a rare Democratic challenger with an opportunity to flip a Republican seat — and already has spent a lot to support him. But the obvious upshot of its decisions is that he’s now lower on the DCCC’s priority list.

“National Democrats have clearly given up on Andrew Romanoff,” suggested Tyler Q. Houlton, a spokesman for the DCCC’s counterpart, the National Republican Congressional Committeee.

DCCC spokeswoman Emily Bittner countered: “This is still a very winnable race, and Romanoff is well-funded and in a competitive position to bring it across the finish line.” In fundraising announcements this week, Romanoff , besting Coffman’s $855,000 in contributions.

But Coffman had $1.7 million in his account heading into the final five weeks before the Nov. 4 election. That’s $1 million more than Romanoff.

Politico, which reported the Friday afternoon, said based on its sources that “private polling from both parties has consistently shown Coffman maintaining a lead in the race.” There’s been no public polling in the race.

Colorado’s 6th Congressional District race in Denver’s suburbs has caught national attention this year as a tossup, but more recently, national pundits as failing to catch fire.

Romanoff spokeswoman Denise Baron said the campaign is confident. “This news is probably most disappointing to Mike Coffman, who was hoping to run against Nancy Pelosi,” she said. “It looks like he’ll have to run against Andrew Romanoff after all.”

Here’s more about what happened: The DCCC in May reserved $1.4 million in ad time for late October/early November. But since Colorado’s voters overwhelmingly vote by mail, and ballots go out to them next week, the DCCC also sunk $1.8 million in the past couple weeks .

Now, the group is moving the original $1.4 million committed to ad reservations in the Coffman/Romanoff race to rescue Democratic incumbents elsewhere.

Coffman campaign manager Tyler Sandberg says volunteers plan to knowck on 20,000 doors this weekend.

“They’ve been behind for months,” Sandberg said of Romanoff’s campaign, and he tried to twist what he sees as the DCCC’s spin. “They’re right — this race is winnable, but that’s because Mike has a remarkable record of bipartisan leadership, and this is the hardest-working campaign anywhere.”