Colorado Senate candidate Andrew Romanoff's primary challenge to Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet has caused headaches for the White House -- headaches it hoped to avoid last September.

In the wake of the controversy over whether Pennsylvania Rep. Joe Sestak was offered a job by the administration to stay out of the Senate race, Romanoff said yesterday:

In September 2009, shortly after the news media first reported my plans to run for the Senate, I received a call from Jim Messina, the President's deputy chief of staff. Mr. Messina informed me that the White House would support Sen. Bennet. I informed Mr. Messina that I had made my decision to run. Mr. Messina also suggested three positions that might be available to me were I not pursuing the Senate race. He added that he could not guarantee my appointment to any of these positions. At no time was I promised a job, nor did I request Mr. Messina's assistance in obtaining one.

The jobs the White House mentioned included two jobs within USAID and one needing Senate confirmation, Director of the U.S. Trade and Development Agency.

Press Secretary Robert Gibbs released the following statement early this morning to explain the sequence of events surrounding the Romanoff controversy:

Andrew Romanoff applied for a position at USAID during the Presidential transition. He filed this application through the Transition on-line process. After the new administration took office, he followed up by phone with White House personnel.

Jim Messina called and emailed 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 US Senate. Months earlier, the President had endorsed Senator Michael Bennet for the Colorado seat, and Messina wanted to determine if it was possible to avoid a costly battle between two supporters.

But Romanoff said that he was committed to the Senate race and no longer interested in working for the Administration, and that ended the discussion. As Mr. Romanoff has stated, there was no offer of a job.

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