Robert Blaha speaks at a GOP event in his losing 2012 campaign for Congress.
Republican Robert Blaha officially announced his U.S. Senate bid Thursday with a pledge: “If I am not able to reduce illegal immigration by 50 percent, drastically cut the deficit, and help fix this horrific tax system, I’ll voluntarily leave after one term.”
“We actually making what we call a product guarantee and we are calling the Robert Blaha Product Guarantee,” the Colorado Springs businessman said in an interview with The Denver Post minutes before his official announcement on Fox News radio 600 KCOL. “We are asking to be held accountable and we are laying some very specific criteria up there. You either perform or you leave.”
The candidate is one of five prominent candidates vying for the Republican nomination and the chance to challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet. He is the first putting big money into the race, buying $47,000 in TV ads that will air on Fox News in the next two weeks in Denver, Colorado Springs and Grand Junction. Another $9,000, as The Post earlier this month, bought a minute-long ad that will air after the Denver Broncos playoff game Sunday.
The TV spots “are intended to get people’s attention,” he said. Fred Davis, the TV ad maker is working for the campaign. Blaha self-funded an earlier failed congressional bid but he refused to discuss how much he would put into this race.
Democrats greeted with amusement. “Robert Blaha is the third candidate to officially get into the Colorado Senate race in barely a week and a half, and the crowded GOP primary is sure to become even messier and more divisive,” said Andrew Zucker, a Democratic Party spokesman.
Blaha calls himself a “change expert,” as the head of , a business organization consulting firm. And he said maintains voters need to send “a different kind of person, someone who has a totally different background, to DC — someone with the ability to change things.”
The 61-year-old confident that he can push a deal where others have failed, though he didn’t outline any specific immigration policies he supports on , just the pledge. “I think there’s been a lot of work done in a lot of these areas, there’s tremendous plans out there that have been developed, the problem is on the execution side,” he said.
His team includes campaign manager Katey Price and , who worked on the 2008 Republican presidential campaign and for his work with a direct mail firm. The pollster is with Public ap Strategies. The communications director is Rachel Keane.
“I’m looking at this as a mission that I’m on and I’m not concerned and i’m not focused on re-election,” Blaha said. “If I earn the right by performing then I should consider possibly running for re-election, if not I should step down.”
