White House: 'There was no offer of a job' to Romanoff

The White House maintained on Thursday that it never explicitly offered Andrew Romanoff (D) a job to drop out of the Colorado Senate race.

The administration denied any quid pro quo for Romanoff, a former state House Speaker, in exchange for his agreement to drop a primary challenge to Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.).

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina reached out to Romanoff last September to talk about the race, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs acknowledged Thursday morning, but only to gauge whether Romanoff had continuing interest in a job for which he had applied early in the Obama administration.

Gibbs said Romanoff had applied for a position at USAID early in the transition, and had followed up with the White House.

"Jim Messina called and e-mailed Romanoff last September to see if he was still interested in a position at USAID, or if, as had been reported, he was running for the U.S. Senate," Gibbs said in a statement. "Months earlier, the president had endorsed Sen. Michael Bennet for the Colorado seat, and Messina wanted to determine if it was possible to avoid a costly battle between two supporters."

Romanoff admitted late on Wednesday night that he had had conversations with Messina about the Senate race, suggesting that three jobs might have been available if he were to drop his challenge to Bennet. Messina made clear, though, Romanoff said, that he could not guarantee an appointment, and didn't offer his assistance in ensuring one.

Gibbs echoed the Colorado Democrat's claim that there was no formal offer of a job.

"[R]omanoff said that he was committed to the Senate race and no longer interested in working for the administration, and that ended the discussion," Gibbs said. "As Mr. Romanoff has stated, there was no offer of a job."

Republicans seized quickly overnight on Romanoff's admission, saying that President Barack Obama and other candidates should be more forthcoming in detailing their contact with each other in regard to their political contact.

"The fact of the matter is this White House has lost all credibility and the American people can no longer rely on the word of the White House when it tried to deflect and deny allegations of questionable and potentially illegal conduct," said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee who has also led inquiries into the administration's contact with Rep. Joe Sestak (D) in the Pennsylvania Senate race.

The White House said last week that it had asked former President Bill Clinton to reach out to Sestak about his challenge to Sen. Arlen Specter (D). But the administraion maintained that Clinton had only discussed the possibility of an appointment to an unpaid position, and that no guarantee or formal offer was ever made or had been authorized.

"These incidents underscore the need for some independent agent, whether it is a special prosecutor or the FBI, to launch an investigation and determine once and for all the extent of the White House’s efforts to manipulate elections and if those actions resulted in the violations of any laws," Issa said.

Republicans' Senate campaign committee said that it was up to federal authorities to determine whether or not a formal investigation was warranted, but called for candidates like Romanoff and Sestak — as well as Arkansas Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, who's waging a primary challenge to Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D) — to disclose what, if any, conversations they had with the White House about jobs in exchange for dropping out of their races.

"President Obama, his aides and Congressman Sestak owe an immediate and specific explanation to the American people. It’s time for all of the parties involved in this sordid affair to come clean to the American people," the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) said in a statement.