From: Carin Dessauer/CNN
In: Washington
Posted 6-24-97

Subject: Romer Won't Run For Senate In Colorado

Colorado Democratic Gov. Roy Romer has decided not to run for the Senate, CNN has learned.

Democratic officials close to Romer, the Democratic National Committee's (DNC) general chairman, say that Romer will announce as early as Wednesday in Colorado that he will not run against incumbent Republican Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell in 1998.

Campbell was elected to the House and Senate as a Democrat, but switched to the Republican party in March 1995. Campbell's 1998 re-election race will be the first time he appears as a Republican on the ballot.

Speculation has flown through Washington for several months that Romer was frustrated with dealing with the Democrats' continuing money woes, and was ready to ditch the party post for the Senate.

Romer was first elected governor in 1986 and has served three consecutive terms. He is ineligible to run for a fourth term in 1999 because of a new two-term limit that takes effect. Romer was the Democratic nominee for a U.S. Senate seat in Colorado in 1966.