The potential U.S. Senate candidacy of a Durango lawmaker could pose a problem for U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet in 2016 — if she can survive her own party’s primary, according to a veteran political analyst.

And if Republican state Sen. Ellen Roberts does jump in the race, it’s already become apparent that she’ll have to deal with abortion politics from both sides of the political divide.

Roberts is considering a run against Bennet, the Democrat incumbent, next year. And independent political analyst Eric Sondermann thinks she would pose a difficult match-up for Bennet in a general election.

“She’s probably the last candidate Michael Bennet would want to run against,” Sondermann said.

But can Roberts — who is pro-choice and was one of just a handful of Republicans to vote in favor of civil unions legislation two years ago — convince conservative voters to give her that opportunity?

“I cannot believe that this Republican Party would give the nomination to a pro-choice female without one heck of a fight,” Sondermann said.And Roberts learned recently that her challenges won’t just come from the far right over her positions on social issues polices.

Not long after a May 11 Durango Herald story broke the news that Roberts was considering a U.S. Senate run, a pro-choice group blasted Roberts’ record on women’s reproductive rights issues — specifically for Roberts’ recent support of a failed fetal homicide bill.

Cathy Alderman of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains said the bill, which sought to create criminal protections for the unborn, would have defined a fetus as a person, something that Coloradans have continually rejected.

“You cannot support fetal personhood issues and be pro-choice,” Alderman told the Herald.

This week, Roberts told The Statesman that she considers Planned Parenthood’s response to be “gratuitous.”

She now finds herself in an unfamiliar battle on social issues.

“This is not why I go to the Capitol,” Roberts said. “In nine years, I’ve never viewed myself as being there for social issues. And to find myself in the middle of this controversy is something I didn’t plan for. But we can’t keep averting our eyes to the fact that we do have a gap in our criminal code.”

Abortion politics remains in focus

The fetal homicide bill would have allowed prosecutors to file charges that include murder in cases where pregnant women are attacked and the fetus killed. The bill was a response to the gruesome March 18 attack on Michelle Wilkins of Longmont, who’s 7-month-old fetus died after being cut from her womb.

In 2013, the Legislature created the Crimes Against Pregnant Women Act, which put in place serious penalties for criminals who harm an unborn child — a bill that Roberts supported. But Roberts strongly advocated for the fetal homicide bill because she believes there are gaps in the current law that make it impossible for prosecutors to file the appropriate charges when a fetus is lost during an attack.

Roberts insists that the bill has nothing to do with limiting a woman’s right to choose — a right she supports.

“There’s nothing in that bill that went against Roe v. Wade,” Roberts said. “It’s a complete mischaracterization to keep saying it’s personhood. It seemed no matter how many times you walked people through why the word person was in the bill — and that it’s in fetal homicide bills across the country — it became a talking point to call it a personhood bill.”

But Alderman isn’t buying that argument. She believes that defining a fetus as a person anywhere in statute is a threat to abortion rights.“We believe that is against the values of Coloradans and they’ve demonstrated that at the ballot box,” Alderman said of voters having overwhelming rejected multiple efforts to create a personhood law.

Alderman believes that a fetal homicide law would be a step toward defining a fetus as a person in all categories of law, putting women’s reproductive rights in jeopardy while restricting access to abortion doctors.

“Whenever you open that door and create that slippery slope, that means you are not supporting policies that actually help women have access to health care services they need,” Alderman said. “And, in fact, you are potentially creating restrictions on that access.”

“So, from that point of view, if you agree that those restrictions are appropriate, we don’t consider your position to be pro-choice.”

But Sondermann thinks pro-choice groups like Planned Parenthood might want to do a better job of picking their battles.

“I’m not sure it’s a fight Planned Parenthood wanted to pick,” he said. “Pro-choice allies are tough enough to find on the Republican side of the aisle. I question the wisdom of dumping on those few allies you have.”

“It is indicative of almost a reflexive reaction on the Democrats’ side, when a Republican is even a potential candidate for Senate or Congress, to immediately react and play the ‘war on women’ card, whether the shoe fits or not.”

Abortion politics has played heavily into the last two Senate races. In 2010, Bennet won his first full term in the Senate after Republican candidate Ken Buck stumbled badly on women’s issues in the campaign.

Last year, former Democratic Sen. Mark Udall’s aggressive campaign to woo women was panned to the point that his efforts earned the nickname “Mark Uterus.” Women’s reproductive rights issues dominated that campaign, but Udall, who lost to current Republican Sen. Cory Gardner, did not have Bennet’s success in energizing women voters.

But if Roberts runs and earns the GOP nomination, Democrats would have to contend with a pro-choice, female candidate.

“I know a number of Republicans who would describe themselves similarly to me,” Roberts said. “We don’t want abortion illegal because we don’t see that solving the problem. Women will continue to have abortions regardless of whether they are legal. And it’s not really the role of government to get in the middle of that.”

“It’s an extremely personal, private issue that women face.”

But it’s that kind of talk that makes Sondermann wonder whether Roberts stands a chance in a Republican Senate primary, where candidates often are required to run to the right of their opponents in hopes of wooing a conservative pool of voters.

“Ellen Roberts is almost the opposite of the typical Republican Senate candidate,” he said. “You often look at three or four aspiring Republican candidates and say they appeal in a primary, but their appeal in a general election is limited. Ellen Roberts is the opposite. But she has a tough gauntlet to walk to get the nomination.”

Roberts is fully aware that her outspoken positions on reproductive rights and fetal homicide legislation make her a target for the left and the right.

“For anybody who said this was about politics and trying to advance my own cause, I mean give me a break,” Roberts said. “It’s just a reminder to people on either end of the spectrum that I don’t fit in their category.”

Roberts said she will take the summer to decide whether to run. If she does, she believes she can energize younger Republican voters who are searching for a “different kind of candidate.”

“I feel like, being from the party of limited government, that there is a personal sphere where government doesn’t need to go as long as other people aren’t being hurt,” she said. “That personal responsibility is a big component of what I believe in. That resonates a lot with younger voters.

— Twitter: @VicVela1