Wellington Webb

DENVER – As unlikely as it sounds, the former Mayor of Denver has raised a campaign issue in the New Jersey U.S. Senate race.

After praising Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s (D-Cliffside Park) help in securing funding to build the Denver International Airport in the 1990s in a speech to the New Jersey delegation yesterday morning, former Mayor Wellington Webb joked that a wing of the facility should be named after him.

That brought a harsh response yesterday from former U.S. Rep. Dick Zimmer, who called him “Colorado’s third Senator.” Zimmer has made his anti-pork credentials central to his Senate candidacy against Lautenberg.

Frank Lautenberg may have had to settle for having a train station named after him instead of Newark Airport, but former Denver Mayor Wellington Web joked today that he may yet get his name on part of an airport – just not one in New Jersey. 

Webb addressed the New Jersey delegation at their breakfast this morning. 

“We decided to build a new airport and didn’t have the money to do it.  We found a great advocate for us in Senator Frank Lautenberg,” said Webb, the first and only African-American Mayor of Denver.  “As a matter of fact, a wing of that airport should be named after Frank Lautenberg.”

Florida in 2000. Ohio in 2004. Colorado in 2008?

U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Denver) thinks so.

"We're there," Salazar said at a news conference Monday evening. "Colorado is ground-zero in terms of who's going to be the next president of the United States."

And Salazar's not the only one who thinks so. He joined Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb, former Denver Mayor and Clinton cabinet member Federico Pena, and Lt. Gov. Barbara O'Brien in stressing how important Colorado will be in the 2008 presidential race.

The press conference followed a top-level strategy session at the Governor's Mansion about voter identification and turnout efforts in Colorado for Barack Obama's presidential campaign.