John Hickenlooper (D) won handily over Tom Tancredo (ACP) and Dan Maes (R) to be the next governor of the state. That’s … a good thing. On the other hand, the GOP seems to have taken back one, if not both, houses of the state legislature, and many of the other state offices also look like they are going GOP. Hick may be feeling pretty lonely this term, after the euphoria wears off.
Michael Bennet (D) is still running neck-and-neck with Ken Buck (R) to keep his Senate seat. Latest numbers I see have him at 47.4% vs 47.0% for Buck. I’m not a huge fan of Bennet, but Buck is a nut (and, of course, would be another Republican in the Senate). Many of the uncounted ballots are from Denver and Boulder, so they might trend toward Bennet. We’ll see.
Amendments 60 and 61, and Prop 101, were soundly defeated by the voters of Colorado, with decisive (70-75%) margins. That doesn’t solve the state’s fiscal crisis, by any means, but it keeps it from getting much, much worse.
On the other Colorado ballot measures:
Amendment 62: Personhood: Rejected (again) soundly (again) by over 70% of the voters. Will they keep trying?
Amendment 63: No Obamacare: Rejected by just over 50%. It was meaningless, but symbolic.
Amendment P: Who Runs Games of Chance?: This would have shifted around some of the state responsibilities in a more rational manner. Rejected by over 60%, perhaps because there was no case that anything was really broken. This was my one “loss” on the ballot measures, but hardly anything I’ll lose sleep over.
Amendment Q: Moving the seat of government in a disaster: Won by almost 60%. I voted for it, but it was mostly just kind of common sense, not a huge battle of principle.
Amendment R: Exempting lesser use of public lands from property taxes: Lost by over 60%. The voters didn’t seem gung-ho on any anti-tax measures this year. Interesting.
Prop 102: Restricting bail and bond criteria: Despite heavy lobbying by the state bail bondsmen, the voters have rejected this by over 60%.
Littleton Prop 3A: Property tax levy increase: A critical stopgap measure for school funding in face of ongoing state budget cuts. Passed (thank heavens) by 57%.
Remarkably enough, of the ten ballot measures I voted on, I “won” on 9 of them. Don’t think that’s ever happened before. Small comfort, perhaps, but a comfort nonetheless.
RE: Amendment 62, Dave: “Will they keep trying?”
Yes. They will be back again and again. I honestly expect them — or their kin — to outlast my life span.
By the way, thank you for an useful election round up!
You are quite welcome.
And, yes, they’ve already announced they will keep trying.
Whenever I look at that number of “yes” votes on the Personhood amendment, it just chills me to think that more than 1 of every 4 voters (and thus, most of the adults I know) think that they have the right to control my body because of the gender I was born.
Well said, Fierce!
There are definitely some who feel that way. Others, I will grant, really do feel that a fetus deserves the full rights and protections of a born child, regardless of how that might infringe on a woman’s body, and certainly needs to be protected from being killed. It’s not a position I share, but I can understand it.