Although Democrats held on to the Colorado governor’s office and a U.S. Senate seat in this year’s election , that may have been more of a fluke than a validation at the polls.
The first fluke was the gubernatorial race . On the Republican side, early favorite Scott McInnis (former state legislator and six-term congressman) stepped into a plagiarism scandal before the August primary. Thus Tea Party favorite Dan Maes, a political novice, eked out a narrow GOP primary win before stepping into various minefields — e.g., the UN bicycle plot, his violations of campaign finance laws, or his claimed service as an undercover police officer in Kansas.
In stepped former Republican congressman Tom Tancredo, known for his zealous opposition to illegal immigration, as the nominee of the American Constitution Party.
With Republicans divided and in disarray on the gubernatorial contest, Democrat John Hickenlooper, the mayor of Denver, pretty well coasted to election with 51 percent of the vote, to 37 for Tancredo and 11 for Maes.
The U.S. Senate race was more of a nail-biter. The seat was won in 2004 by Ken Salazar, who had been state attorney general. He resigned in early 2009 to become Secretary of the Interior. Gov. Bill Ritter — a Democrat who did not seek re-election — appointed political novice Michael Bennet to fill out Salazar’s term. Bennet had been superintendent of Denver’s schools, and before that was Hickenlooper’s chief of staff.
Bennet defeated a primary challenge from Andrew Romanoff, former speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives.
The Republicans had a primary, too. The establishment candidate was Jane Norton, former lieutenant governor. The Tea Party challenger was Ken Buck, district attorney in Weld County, north of Greeley. Although Buck said some silly things in the primary — such as people should vote for him because he didn’t wear high heels — he defeated Norton.
But he continued to run into trouble. He was accused of failing to prosecute a rape case. He was on record as opposing abortion even in pregnancies resulting from rape or incest. He at one point supported the repeal of the 17th Amendment, which allows for direct election of U.S. senators. Bennet was anything but a natural campaigner, but he started to look downright eloquent next to Buck.
And so Democrat Bennet pulled out a narrow win, about 10,000 votes, over Republican Buck.
But if you look elsewhere on the ballot, it wasn’t a good Election Day for Democrats. Republicans gained control of the state house of representatives. Democrats kept the state senate, but only by the narrowest of margins — had only 2,504 votes changed in four districts, Republicans would have gained the state senate.
Colorado’s seven-seat congressional delegation was 5-2 Democratic going into the election. It emerged 4-3 Republican, with Democrats Betsy Markey and John Salazar (Ken’s older brother) losing their seats.
And in the down-ticket statewide races, Republican Scott Gessler defeated Democratic incumbent Bernie Buesher for secretary of state. That wasn’t a major surprise, for Republican Mike Coffman had won it in 2006, then resigned to run successfully for Congress in 2008. Buescher had been appointed to fill out the term.
But most surprising, to me at least, was the state treasurer’s race. Democrat Cary Kennedy was elected in 2006. I read nothing but praise for her performance in office during difficult economic times, and she was out campaigning in October.
Even so, she was defeated by Republican Walker Stapleton, a cousin of George W. Bush. And the only reason I can see for it is the R after his name. It appears that a lot of Coloradans were ready to vote Republican, but couldn’t abide the top of the GOP ticket.
So on the races for governor and U.S. Senator, it might be more accurate to say the Republicans lost than that the Democrats won. In general, on Nov. 2 Colorado seemed to trending red.
Ed Quillen is a freelance writer in Salida, Colorado.
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