The Denver Post has a number of reactions to Sen. Campbell's announcement. Most of them, even from Democrats who ran against Campbell for one office or another, or were planning to run this fall, are measured, tempered, the sort of civilized stuff you like to see from elected officials. Rutt Bridges, who wanted Campbell's job when he thought he'd be running against Campbell, had this to say:

Senator Campbell has been a faithful public servant to the people of Colorado for 22 years and he should be proud of his distinguished career. Now is the time for Colorado to have a fresh face in Washington and I intend to be the next United States Senator from Colorado. I was ready to challenge Senator Campbell and I remain eager to challenge the Republican candidate, whomever that may be. I intend to run a strong, fair and clean campaign about the issues that matter to Colorado families.

Makes you like the guy, even you suspect you'll disagree with him about everything from gay marriage to where the sun sets in the evening. Rep. Mark Udall, who also thought about running for the Senate said:

We have been friends since I came to Congress in 1999 and have worked together on a number of projects for the people of the State of Colorado.
I thank Ben for his service and his friendship, and I look forward to talking to him about his plans for when he returns to Colorado.

Again, civil, decent, even human. Then there's this, from the State Party Chairman, Chris Gates:

It’s a beautiful day. I firmly believed this was a possible scenario. We absolutely presume the Republican candidate will be Bill Owens. We relish the thought of a campaign against Bill Owens.

Gee, thanks Chris for those heartfelt sentiments. You can hardly see Terry McAwful's lips move. This is exactly the kind of poison, the inability to think of anything outside of partisan political terms, then seeps down from above, when people like McAuliffe and the Clintons run the national party. I never intended to vote Democrat, and the state almost certainly isn't competitive at the presidential level. But now I've got a campaign to work on during August, before the Fall quarter starts.