The election results in Colorado were surprising given the success of the Republican Party throughout American. Coloradans elected a Democrat Gubernatorial candidate and a Democrat Senatorial candidate in the state’s most high-profile races this year, which were major victories for the Democrat Party. A majority of Coloradans, however, supported freedom instead of the Left. The Left only won in safe districts, on multiparty ballots or with misleading negative advertisements that were produced with massive infusions of money from outside interests.
An analysis of the financial resources spent on the Senate race reveals that Colorado was the primary focus for the Left. Colorado is a battleground state so the Left launched a disingenuous negative advertising campaign to capture what it could. Republicans didn’t do much to help their cause either.
Numerous media sources reported that the Colorado Senate race was the most expensive Senate race in the country in terms of outside interest spending. The Sunlight Foundation, which is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization dedicated to making government transparent,reported that outside organizations spent $11,283,243.08 opposing Republican Senate candidate Ken Buck. On the other hand, outside organizations spent $3,285,536.99 supporting Buck. An additional $2,465,944.00 was spent on electioneering communications, the overwhelming majority of which opposed Buck. The Federal Election Commission defineselectioneering communications as any broadcast, cable or satellite communication that fulfills each of the following conditions:
1. The communication refers to a clearly identified candidate for federal office;
2. The communication is publicly distributed shortly before an election for the office that candidate is seeking; and
3. The communication is targeted to the relevant electorate (U.S. House and Senate candidates only).
Outside interests and the Democrat Senatorial candidate Michael Bennet’s campaign each produced misleading negative advertisements that ultimately cost Buck the election. The top two outside contributors opposing Buck were the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which spent $7,944,782.48, and the National Education Association Advocacy Fund, which, spent $1,897,000.00. Fact checking sources from local media to Factcheck.org noted that the negative attack advertisements opposing Buck in the weeks leading up to November 2 were misleading. The Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee only contributed a paltry $912,000.00 to support Buck, whose advertisements against Bennet stuck to the facts and primarily discussed Bennet’s voting record. Buck could not respond to the negative ads in time to stall Bennet’s momentum.
Conservatives shot themselves in the foot in Colorado’s gubernatorial race when Republicans narrowly elected Dan Maes in the primary election. Prior to the primary election, Scott McInnis was the frontrunner to challenge Democrat candidate and Denver mayor John Hickenlooper. But, McInnis lost the support of many Republicans after allegations surfaced that he plagiarized portions of an essay authored by now Colorado Supreme Court Justice Gregory Hobbs. The alleged plagiarism occurred in an essay that McInnins wrote on water rights for the Hasan Foundation. Maes quickly lost support shortly after the primary when ethics charges, campaign finance issues, bankruptcy and misrepresentations of his success in business surfaced. After the primary, polls showed that Maes had no shot to beat Hickenlooper.
Amid the turmoil facing the Republican Party and gubernatorial candidate Maes, former Republican US Representative Tom Tancredo entered the gubernatorial race claiming that he had better odds to beat Hickenlooper as a third party candidate than Maes had as a major party candidate. The chaos among Conservatives and the multiparty ballot gave Hickenlooper an easy victory. In the end, KDVR reported that Hickenlooper won 51%, Tancredo won 37% Maes won 11% and Libertarian candidate Jaimes Brown won 1% of the vote. Liberty-principled candidates won 49% of the vote, which was a decent result given the turmoil in the Colorado GOP.
In other races, however, Republicans and freedom fared well in Colorado. Republicans picked up two US House seats, recaptured the majority in the State House and picked up at least one State Senate seat. When one views all candidates in each election, one finds that Coloradans supported freedom over the Left. Liberty-minded candidates lost in some elections, though, because there were multiple candidates of freedom-oriented principles on the ballot.
Republicans won statewide races for Attorney General, Secretary of State and State Treasurer. Additionally, Republicans ousted two incumbent Democrat US Representatives. Republican Scott Tipton beat Democrat incumbent John Salazar in Congressional District 3 and Republican Cory Gardner defeated Democrat incumbent Betsy Markey in Congressional District 4.
Republicans did well in the Colorado General Assembly winning the majority in the State House and picking up at least one seat in the State Senate. As of November 9, KDVR and the Denver Post have not called three senate races. Official results will post to the Secretary of State’s website on November 26. Republicans have picked up at least one seat in the State Senate as of November 9.
What does this all mean for Colorado politics?
Colorado is a quirky political state that generally mirrors national politics. Nationally, Democrats will control the executive branch and the Senate while Republicans will control the House. The same results happened in Colorado. Freedom is advancing in Colorado and the Colorado GOP must take advantage of the situation and build effective ground, grassroots and get-out-the-vote campaigns for the 2012 elections. The Colorado GOP and freedom-minded voters need to vet their candidates more thoroughly next election and elect a candidate that can win in the general election. The Republican National Committees will have to direct more financial resources to Colorado as it will be a battleground state in 2012. Finally, groups that back freedom principles will need to channel more money into Colorado in 2012 as Left-leaning organizations will continue to contribute enormous financial resources to oppose freedom-minded candidates.
Freedom can win in Colorado if Conservatives, Libertarians and other freedom-principled individuals unify behind electable candidates. Multiparty tickets tend to hurt Conservatives and liberty-minded candidates more than Liberals in Colorado. There will not be a Senate race in 2012 so that year will be a fight for the Presidency and the State General assembly. Freedom must begin to mobilize and unify now.
