Romanoff touts trade proposals in Springs visit

Tom Neppl hosted presidential candidate John McCain at his Colorado Springs metal working plant.

He’s had GOP senators from as far away as North Carolina and top local Republican lawmakers take the tour and listen to his concerns about U.S. businesses moving offshore and foreign powers, especially China, cheating America in trade deals.

On Wednesday, Neppl hosted Colorado senate hopeful Andrew Romanoff, who is trying to unseat appointed incumbent Sen. Michael Bennet in the Democratic primary.

“The Republicans weren’t listening,” Neppl said after showing Romanoff through the Springs Fabrication Inc. plant off Powers Boulevard.

Romanoff joins a growing group of Democrats and Republicans who are wary of the continued trade imbalance with China.

With the top spot on the Democratic primary ballot nearly sealed after successes in March precinct caucuses and the party’s county assemblies, Romanoff said he’ll address Neppl’s trade worries. Romanoff’s plans include changing tax policies and imposing duties on cheap Chinese imports.

“We’re exporting opportunity and importing unemployment,” Romanoff said.

The trade talk shows how Romanoff is adept at courting moderates while appealing to liberals in his own party.

Bennet has been using a similar tactic, meeting with business leaders around the state to talk about economic growth.

By targeting foreign imports during a period of prolonged high unemployment, Romanoff is burnishing his populist credentials while appealing to Democrats with a theme that has been a hot topic for the Obama administration.

That’s important for Romanoff, who despite a strong showing with the party’s foot soldiers still enters the primary election as an underdog.

Bennet, who entered 2010 with a campaign war chest of more than $3 million, raised more than $1.4 million more through March, according to his campaign. That has translated into a television advertising campaign unmatched by the Romanoff camp.

Romanoff said he’ll announce the best fundraising total of his campaign so far on Thursday, but that total is unlikely to near the millions raised by his primary foe.

So Romanoff is hitting the road, vying for votes with handshakes.

“This Senate seat can’t be bought,” he said.

Romanoff listened as Neppl talked about the trade issue as workers on the factory floor welded and machined metal parts used in mining, industrial and military applications.

The 23-year-old firm employs 130 people, said Neppl, president and CEO.

“Large companies are following low-cost labor,” Neppl said. “The problem is these jobs just aren’t going to come back.”

Romanoff said he’ll work with the Obama administration to eliminate tax loopholes that entice firms to move jobs overseas and would label China as “a currency manipulator” and seek trade penalties as long as the yuan is devalued.

“It is cataclysmic for us to force our workers to do battle on these terms,” Romanoff said.

The Democratic state assembly set for May will decide ballot spots for Bennet and Romanoff, likely sending both on to the August primary.

The GOP will also have a primary battle for the Senate seat, with Weld County Prosecutor Ken Buck facing former lieutenant governor Jane Norton and former Douglas County lawmaker Tom Wiens.

Buck has momentum, with Weins and Norton pledging to claw their way onto the August primary ballot with petition drives.