UPDATE: Udall reverses opposition to offshore drilling

After being battered on the issues of energy for weeks, Democratic Senate candidate Mark Udall announced Wednesday that he was dropping his long-standing opposition to off-shore drilling and embracing an expanded version of an energy compromise worked out recently in the Senate by the so-called "gang of 10."

Democratic Senate candidate Mark Udall missed a critical vote today that might have kept Congress from going into summer recess until it passed an energy bill, breaking a vow he made in a recent debate, reports Michael Riley.

Udall spokeswoman Taylor West said the Boulder County lawmaker was on his way back to Washington at the time and that the vote was called with only 10 minutes' notice.

The energy crisis and high cost of gas continued to dominate the race for Colorado's open Senate seat, reports Michael Riley. Before the Fox 31...

The campaign manager for Democrat Tom Udall had only a couple of words for the candidate's opponent in New Mexico's hotly contested U.S. Senate race: "Wrong guy," according to The Associated Press.

Udall's campaign said Wednesday it wanted to set the record straight after seeing a letter that Republican Rep. Steve Pearce sent to the head of the Independent Petroleum Association of America, criticizing Udall for taking action to cut off access to the nation's untapped domestic energy supplies.

Pearce, who recently won the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate, pointed to language that was included in a spending measure that would have prevented the Bureau of Land Management from completing regulation to allow oil shale leases.

The problem, according to Udall's campaign, is that the New Mexico congressman wasn't responsible for that language. It was his cousin, Democrat Mark Udall of Colorado, campaign spokeswoman Marissa Padilla said.

Blogosphere battle lines are being drawn in response to Denver Post reporter Michael Riley's stories exploring former Congressman and current GOP...

The Colorado and New Mexico Senate races are currently ranked as having a 50/50 chance of flipping to the Democratic Party, according to Marc Ambinder's blog. Here's the analysis:

"NEW MEXICO – Internal polling conducted for Democrat Tom Udall confirms what public polling shows to be a substantial lead over either of the Republicans running for the Republican nomination. (Rep. Steve Pearce won Tuesday night's primary.) Indeed, Udall’s lead troubles Republicans on John McCain’s presidential campaign; it reflects, they believe, a momentum shift in the state toward the Democratic Party. Gov. Bill Richardson (D-NM) remains very popular with Democrats and Independents.

National Journal magazine recently polled Dem and GOP party...

With Colorado's purported shift to the left combined with Rep. Mark Udall's political repositioning, state Dem leaders think he's well suited to win...

Alaska's Mount McKinley, mistakenly used as the backdrop in a Bob Schaffer for Senate ad, is more than a mile higher than Colorado's Pikes Peak (the...

With snow still falling in the mountains, both candidates for Colorado’s open U.S. Senate seat went up with campaign ads Wednesday, an...