DENVER – Robert Blaha, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate and Colorado Springs businessman, said in a radio interview Tuesday he would have voted against the omnibus spending package that averted a government shutdown in 2015.

“It was in my mind one of the most pork-laden, debt-accelerating pieces of legislation ever,” Blaha said in an interview with The Gazette Wednesday. “What it does is it further mortgages all of our families’ and kids’ futures by adding debt.”

Democrats were quick to pick up on the statement Blaha made on the Kelley and Kafer Show on 710KNUS.

Andrew Zucker, spokesman for the Colorado Democratic Party, said Wednesday that Blaha would have shut down the government despite the economic consequences for Coloradans.

“Robert Blaha has already fashioned himself as Colorado’s own Donald Trump and now we know Blaha would have voted to shut down the government, costing Colorado’s economy millions,” Zucker said in an email.

Blaha is one of a dozen Republicans running for U.S. Senate and the chance to challenge U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Denver, in November. Bennet is considered vulnerable by the GOP, in part because Colorado’s other Democratic Senator lost his re-election bid in 2012 to a Republican in a state considered purple.

“Mimicking Donald Trump and Ted Cruz may be sound strategy to stand out among the crowded 13-candidate Republican primary, but it’s clear that the Robert Blaha’s agenda would hurt Colorado and take America backwards,” Zucker said.

Blaha didn’t back down from his statement, but said if he had been in office he would have been working a year in advance of the omnibus vote to put Republicans in a place where there were better options.

“We should have never even got to that place where we were voting on the omnibus bill as it was put forward,” Blaha said. “It was another example in my mind of, frankly, Republicans being out-maneuvered and being put in that crisis situation and having to vote for a bad bill.”

The spending package, which was essentially a budget for fiscal year 2016, was hailed as a major success for House Speaker Paul Ryan, who was able to secure significant Republican support – including that of U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Yuma.

The $1.1 trillion spending bill faced great criticism even from some Democrats, however, it was also the first compromise met in a long time on the nation’s budget.

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Contact Megan Schrader: 286-0644

Twitter @CapitolSchrader

Robert Blaha.