U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet and his leading Republican challengers took sharply different positions as the battle intensified this week over replacing Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in his sleep while visiting a Texas ranch resort Saturday.

Bennet, a Democrat, sided with President Barack Obama, who said this week he intends to send a nomination to the Senate for confirmation, while some of the GOP primary candidates hoping to challenge Bennet this election backed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s position. McConnell said Saturday the nomination should wait until next year when a new president and Senate will be in office.

Other Colorado Republican Senate candidates didn’t weigh in on the timing of a nomination but demanded that the Senate only approve a justice in the mold of Scalia, a leading conservative on the bench for three decades. A candidate who formally entered the race this week split the difference, saying Obama should make a nomination but that the Republican-controlled Senate ought to reject anyone who doesn’t share Scalia’s interpretation of the Constitution.

The unexpected Supreme Court vacancy has raised the stakes for control of the Senate, strategists on both sides of the partisan divide have said, potentially turning a contest that had been framed by national security issues into one that could hinge on the high court’s balance of power.

“This is an important responsibility,” Bennet said in a statement Monday. “The Senate should fulfill its constitutional obligation without letting partisan politics intervene. When the president nominates someone, that person should get a full and fair review.”

Obama pressed the point Tuesday, pushing back against McConnell’s swift declaration that the Senate won’t consider a nomination this year. “The Constitution is pretty clear about what is supposed to happen now,” Obama said at a news conference. “There’s no unwritten law that says that it can only be done in off years,” he continued. “That’s not in the constitutional text.”

“Justice Scalia’s replacement should live up to his legacy as a strict constitutionalist and should be nominated by the next president of the United States,” said former state Rep. Jon Keyser, R-Morrison, one of the 13 declared Republican candidate’s for Bennet’s seat, in a statement.

“As a United States senator, I will vote for justices who have an established judicial record, are strict constitutionalists and who will not legislate from the bench,” Keyser added.

Colorado Springs business consultant Robert Blaha was even more pointed: “There’s no way this lame-duck president should have the opportunity to extend his far-left, liberal agenda on the Supreme Court for decades to come,” the Senate candidate told The Colorado Statesman Tuesday.

Soon after news of Scalia’s death broke Saturday, Blaha said, “We need to make this decision post-election, and whoever we look at would have to be a constitutional constructionalist, original-intent, Scalia-type conservative.”

State Sen. Tim Neville, R-Littleton, declined to wade into the dispute over whether Obama should make a nomination but was clear that the Senate gets the last word.

“As far as the schedule is concerned,” Neville told The Statesman, “the U.S. Senate is going to have the final say on who gets approved. So whether it happens now or after the next election, the Republican Senate majority needs to stand strong and only confirm a nominee that will stand firm in defense of the Constitution.”

Former Aurora Councilman Ryan Frazier had high praise for Scalia, calling him “colorful, controversial at times, but (someone who) always sought to uphold our Constitution in interpreting the law as the Founders of our great nation would have intended.”

Asked about the schedule to name a replacement, Frazier responded, “Let’s allow his family, friends and supporters (time) to grieve and begin to heal before we begin the rigorous process of naming and confirming the next high court justice.”

Former CSU athletic director Jack Graham, who filed for the Senate run late last month but only began making public appearances this week, said it was up to Obama to make a nomination but the GOP majority in the Senate will determine who sits on the bench.

“I do think if President Obama can nominate someone to fill Justice Scalia’s chair, he ought to do that, but he needs to understand that the Senate is controlled by the Republican Party, and we are pretty united in the idea that someone very similar to Justice Scalia and his conservative interpretation of the constitution is critical to us,” Graham told The Statesman.

“If President Obama understands that — and he does understand that — and puts forward a nominee who reflects those values,” Graham continued, “he should put him forward, and the Senate can vote on him and take him through the appropriate due diligence to make sure he or she is qualified. And, similarly, if he decides to go down a different path and put up someone who doesn’t reflect those values, the Senate has an obligation to debate it and think about it and say, ‘No, that doesn’t work for us.’”

Graham shook his head when asked about the controversy raging over the vacancy.

“I just don’t see any value in not engaging President Obama in the process,” Graham said. “President Obama gets to choose whether he’s going to put up a credible nominee or not.”

Bennet’s Republican colleague, U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, said in a statement to The Denver Post Tuesday that he agreed with McConnell that voters should “play a role in the selection process when they cast their ballots in November.”

The state GOP said it supports Gardner’s position.

“The Colorado Republican Party stands behind Sen. Cory Gardner and Senate Republicans working to ensure the American people have a say in the next Supreme Court justice,” said Colorado Republican Party chair Steve House. He added, “There is very little precedent for a Supreme Court confirmation under divided government during a presidential election year. Confirming a partisan Supreme Court nomination under these circumstances would be a departure from our American tradition and rob voters of their right to speak on the issue.”

Taking aim at several of the Republican candidates, Colorado Democratic Party spokesman Andrew Zucker called it “no surprise” that Keyser and Blaha “think the U.S. Senate should ignore its constitutional obligations and refuse to consider or confirm a Supreme Court nominee.” He called on other candidates to say whether they “would join in the obstruction of a nominee to fill the Supreme Court vacancy.”

— ernest@coloradostatesman.com