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November 03, 2010 4:25 am MST

Colorado Election Results Open Thread

  • 258 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE (11:25): The big Denver paper and many of the other big TV stations have some major problems with their reporting. The Denver Post, for example, had Buck ahead of Bennet 48-46, on the strength of a 52-45 advantage in Boulder. A quick check of the Boulder Clerk and Recorder’s website has Bennet leading Buck 67-29. There are a lot of somebodies who should have caught this immediately — there’s no way Boulder County would go solid red for any Republican.

We recommend sticking with the results from Fox 31, which not only has a page that seems to actually load correctly, but isn’t making any obvious errors that we can see.

—–

UPDATE (11:16): It looks like we may be headed for at least one state legislative recount. In HD-29, Democratic Rep. Debbie Benefield trails Republican Robert Ramirez by 148 votes (50.34% to 49.66%).

—–

UPDATE (11:12): That didn’t last long. With 56% of ballots counted, Bennet and Buck are now tied at 47-47.

—–

UPDATE (11:00): Buck has pulled ahead of Bennet for the first time tonight, leading 49-46 with 49% of precincts reporting.

—–

UPDATE (9:50): It’s looking like the race that will have the biggest impact from an ACP candidate will not be the one anybody expected. The Secretary of State race is neck-and-neck, but the ACP candidate is already pulling 6% of the vote. Buescher may well win this seat by virtue of the American Constitution Party.

—–

UPDATE (9:44): The percentage of precincts reporting continues to rise, and Michael Bennet continues to hold a 50-45 lead over Ken Buck. This is not good news for Buck, because early returns should have favored him (Republicans voted in higher numbers than Democrats in early and absentee voting). Given Buck’s numerous gaffes in the last two weeks of the campaign, it’s not likely that late voters are going to choose him over Bennet, so it’s hard to see how Buck is going to make up 5 points with 27% of the vote already tallied.

—–

UPDATE (9:08): It’s always fun to see those really early returns that show absurd numbers. In HD-22, Democrat Christine Radeff is pummeling Republican incumbent Ken Summers 7,875 to 12. Yes, 12. For a few more minutes, anyway.

—–

UPDATE (9:05): Republican Cory Gardner is being declared the winner in CD-4.

—–

UPDATE (9:03): The Secretary of State race is coming down to the wire, and may be decided by the number of votes pulled in by the American Constitution Party candidate. Meanwhile, the race for Attorney General seems to be widening in favor of incumbent John Suthers.

—–

UPDATE (9:00): Democratic Rep. Ed Perlmutter has been declared the winner in CD-7.

—–

UPDATE (8:38): The old adage that Jefferson County decides statewide elections is largely holding form. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, unofficially, are doing better in Jefferson County, as is John Suthers. Cary Kennedy and Walker Stapleton are neck-and-neck in Jeffco, while Scott Gessler leads Bernie Buescher in the large west Denver suburb.

—–

UPDATE (8:35): Ladies and gentlemen, your next Governor…John Hickenlooper! The race has been called for Hick. Now the excitement turns to whether or not Dan Maes can cross the 10% threshold. From a Hickenlooper press release:

Colorado voters on Tuesday elected John Hickenlooper, a brewpub pioneer turned Mayor of Denver, as the 42nd Governor of Colorado.

“I am humbled and honored by the decision Colorado’s voters have made, and I accept the challenge you have entrusted to me to lead our state as Governor,” Hickenlooper said. “This is not the end of our journey. This is the beginning. And it starts with bringing people together.”

—–

UPDATE (8:20): Here’s a couple of developing stories to watch. All of this can change, of course, but as of right now…

  • Bennet maintaining early lead on Buck

  • Hickenlooper holding early lead for Governor

  • Tipton well ahead of Salazar in CD-3

  • Kennedy surprisingly strong in Treasurer race

  • Buescher may be saved by ACP candidate for SOS

  • Third party turnout not yet playing role in CD-4

  • Attorney General race staying close

  • Every major ballot measure getting crushed

  • Both Rep. Diana DeGette (CD1) and Jared Polis (CD2) have been declared winners already

    • —–

    We’ll update results as we can. In the meantime, please keep them updated, with links, in the comments below.

    *NOTE: Candidates in bold and italics have been declared the winner by at least one local news outlet.

    U.S. SENATE

    Michael Bennet (D): 47%

    Ken Buck (R): 47%

    56% reporting

    GOVERNOR

    John Hickenlooper (D): 51%

    Tom Tancredo (ACP): 37%

    Dan Maes (R): 11%

    48% reporting

    STATE TREASURER

    Cary Kennedy (D): 51%

    Walker Stapleton (R): 49%

    44% reporting

    ATTORNEY GENERAL

    John Suthers (R): 57%

    Stan Garnett (D): 43%

    44% reporting

    SECRETARY OF STATE

    Bernie Buescher (D): 44%

    Scott Gessler (R): 50%

    Amanda Campbell (ACP): 6%

    44% reporting

    CD-3

    John Salazar (D): 45%

    Scott Tipton (R): 50%

    63% reporting

    CD-4

    Betsy Markey (D): 41%

    Cory Gardner (R): 53%

    Doug Aden (ACP): 5%

    Ken “Wasko” (I): 1%

    69% reporting

    CD-7

    Ed Perlmutter (D): 53%

    Ryan Frazier (R): 42%

    16% reporting

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    258 thoughts on “Colorado Election Results Open Thread”

      1. Maybe it’s too early to say, but he seemed to sleep through this one.  He had big bank but where did he spend it?  I saw almost nothing from him.  

        1. Salazar seems to be in big trouble. I can’t comprehend how he could have been this surprised, we’ve been talking about the tsunami wave for the past year. Unbelievable

        2. when the very early returns had him leading. He was crowing that liberal Democrats were going to lose, and moderates like himself would win. So much for that.

        1. What’s your goal here? A thousand? Guess you’re off the hook for buying everybody beer tomorrow which is great because you can put all that cash towards your ongoing therapy, which I imagine is quite costly and nowhere near completion.

        1. Then again, I live in this district and your analysis of whom is seen as more moderate is completely inaccurate. I’ve been phonebanking for weeks and have had Dems as well as Unaffiliateds telling me they are voting for Bennet but not Markey.

          Get out of Denver once in awhile, Andy, and get some perspective on what’s really going on in the rest of the state.  

              1. so normally, one would expect him to do less well in a conservative district like CO-4.

                But, Buck is off the deep end crazy, while Gardner is a moderate Republican by comparison.  

                My inference is that Bennet is doing better not because Bennet is more liberal, but because Gardner is less frightening.

                1. Buck is scary right wing fringe and Bennet is not, which is why he is hanging on to his lead.

                  Democrats are seriously pissed off at Markey for voting no on the first pass at health care. She eroded her own support with that vote and it has come back to haunt her. Dems have told me in droves that she’ll be lucky to get their vote but not an ounce of their time or dime and they gave it to Bennet instead. GOTV matters in a race this tight and when you lose part of your base, you’re fucked.

                  She’s fucked.

        1. But perhaps true. Denver, Jefferson, Arapahoe, Larimer, Adams, and to a lesser extent, Douglas, are the counties that matter in a statewide election. If you’re not close in those counties, then you’re dead. None of the rural counties have enough votes to make up the difference if you’re behind.

      1. Hick promised to run a positive campaign – and did. Maes was skewered by that goon Tancredo and his vicious commercials.

        Even with all his faults, had it been Hick versus Maes alone, this race would have been closer.

        1. But I agree that if everyone would’ve stuck with Maes we wouldn’t have this kind of margin.

          I’d go so far to say that we wouldn’t have a called race yet.  Oh well.  Thanks, Tanc!

    15. or is Shill-man remarkably quiet tonight? Must be working GOT… oh, wait, the polls are closed…

      I warned him about that salty beer, although I am starting to be really disappointed by the results for Markey and Salazar so far…

      3. I think it was just Tancredo’s presence.  Vote ACP, vote it again.

        But he only had the conservatives’ best interests at heart, right?  Oh, I guess so.  🙂

          1. That are on my lists anyway.  CD 1 and 2 wouldn’t have a huge showing if they’d been passing out gold coins, but CD2 and 5 did pull 3%.  4% in CD 4.

    19. If you look at the raw numbers, about 700k votes have been tallied in statewide races. In 2008, about 2.2 million votes were cast. If past mid-term turnout holds, then we’re getting close to 50% of votes, not 10%, right?

      So, things are looking better and better for those presently holding a lead.

        1. opportunity for Lieberman to fuck the Democratic party yet once again.

          Can you imagine what the Republicans would be willing to promise him in return for his switching caucus if it winds up 49-49-2?

      2. but more likely I think is that the Senate races were where a lot of us put in the effort to GOTV, feeling like it was easier to keep a relatively strong presence in the Senate by working a few big races than to work so many different vulnerable House districts. In some ways it’s easier to win a Senate election than a House election: most states have only one really big media market, which has to be shared among a bunch of House candidates but only one Senate candidate, for example. Plus it’s easier to run up the Senate numbers with a big turnout in Boulder, for example.

        1. That’ exactly what I did this year–abandoned my House candidate and put all my time and dime into the Senate candidate.  Ironic that David sees the House being punished for doing a “poor job” when they have really been far more effective in passing legistlation that is still sittig in the Senate. Not a very astute analysis of what is actually happening on the ground here.

            1. is even remotely accurate for why the results are going the way they are. I’d venture to say that sxp has a much better grasp of the dynanics here than you do.

                  1. Is that when people went in to vote, they wanted some Democrat to pay. 1 House member can’t do much damage. 1 Senator can insure nothing too awful passes. Voters do understand that the Senate is where bad legislation is supposed to die.

                    And this all came when it was time to mark the ballot, when the people who were on the fence split their vote.

              2. voters are punishing Dems in as much as they are for what they didn’t accomplish as for what they did. And it isn’t HCR, or stimulus, or TARP or deficits or anything else. It is jobs. And the numbers have not gotten good enough fats enough to make any positive impact on the election tonight.

      1. Other than Szabo’s remarkable showing, there’s not much going on.  Most of the races still don’t have any returns.

        For the record; Kagan is looking safe.  I know some were worried on a personal level, as opposed to only for control.

        1. are they working for Danial?

          He’s a good man. We shared a flight back from New Jersey several months back and had a great conversation. I liked him and hope he wins (and not JUST because of the D behind his name…)

          1. There are just more than a few HD-3 people on here.

            Some people worry about national politics, some of us nerd out to local.  You just get involved, you know?

            Like even if we keep the House without him, I want Rice to win.  I don’t live in his district, I just think as a state we’re better off with Joe, not just any D, but JOE in the House.  Anyway, Kagan is one of those for a couple of people.

            That’s it, nothing dramatic.  🙂

      4. I’m sure this won’t hold, but it’s been like this for a half hour or more:

        Christina Radeff [D] 7,875 100%

        Ken Summers [R] 12 0%

        I wonder who the 7875 people are.  That’s crazy.  Like a gigantic family or something.

      5. Totally called that.  Sad to see her go though.

        Also HD 47 will switch.  That was McFadyen’s seat.

        HD 50, Reisberg will hold, comfortably.  That’s good news.  For DINO’s everywhere!  (Half kidding, I dig him, but he does piss people off sometimes.)

        1. and moving much further to the right…

          STATE HOUSE – DISTRICT 59  — 31 of 44 precincts reporting (70%)

          J. Paul Brown [R] 10,579 53%

          Brian O’Donnell [D] 9,351 47%

        1. Wait no never mind, it’s just like every other time. The only difference here is that it’s not in the form of a question this time.

          “Is El Paso County still voting? Inquiring minds want to know.”

        1. Nobody gives a shit about the AG.  Folks who aren’t used to voting D got the yips after voting for Hickenlooper and Bennet, and fled to the safety of R down ballot.

          I was glad to see Suthers acknowledge that the people in his office do a good job and are responsible for returning him to office, and he was absolutely correct when he talked about the Dems putting a target on his back when he joined that stupid lawsuit against health care reform.  That’s entirely on his shoulders, and his staff had nothing to do with that.

          And speaking of “Obamacare”: I’m glad to see Initiative 63 going down in flames.  Maybe now those morons I work with who keep saying, “Obama went against the people’s wishes when he pushed health care reform” will kindly STFU.

      2. campaign staff, with experience running a statewide campaign.  Suthers was vulnerable; and if Garnett was raising as much money as he supposedly did, that money could have funded a more effective effort.  

        If a candidate is running for statewide office for the first time, he needs experienced and seasoned veterans of statewide campaigns to run his campaign–and probably professional consultants/media people as well–from early on.  

        Hopefully this isn’t the last we will see of Garnett, who is a principled, talented, dedicated public servant.

            1. but it’s not like anyone thought Suthers was remotely vulnerable until the whole health care law suit thing. Thus, no one bothered running until really late…

              1. I know of two people who work for separate national consulting firms, who were tasked with finding a Democratic candidate to run against Suthers.  These firms, which may have been wrong, seemed to think he was vulnerable based on his lackluster performance against sacrificial lamb Fern O’Brien in the last race.  It’s just not a very attractive job, and it doesn’t pay well.

                That being said, Suthers comes across as very cordial and pleasant in his public appearances–temperamentally, the opposite of the typical Teabagger.

    26. In Illinois and Pennsylvania, Democrats may not win their Senate races but have clearly outperformed their polling. (Bennet also seems to be performing above his polls.) Based on my theory above that Senate races in these states have gotten more focused campaigns, I think big Democratic urban centers like Philly, Chicago, and Denver turned out in higher numbers than pollsters were predicting. Many of these voters were considered “unlikely” by pollsters. I could be wrong, but that’s how it looks to me. The Democratic base was big and motivated.

              1. now he’s free to primary Obama in ’12.  At least that’s what I took from the concession speech.

                “It’s on to the next fight, it’s on to the next battle, it’s on to 2012 and it is on to our next adventure, forward.

                2. it’s more likely that he runs for the other Senate seat in ’12.  Herb Kohl will be 77 and despite being reelected fairly easily each cycle, he’s never been that popular.  Wouldn’t be surprised if he retired.

      1. Bennet probably picked up support from Boyles’ disgraceful “interview” of him.

        Bennet showed remarkable poise in maintaining his cool, while Boyles showed what a partisan hack job nut job he is.

        I only wish Bennet had taken a dig at Boyles for continuing to be a “birther.”

        1. even if he does pronounce it Bay-ner…

          🙂

          you should hear my Boehner impression. It’s not half bad (unfortunately, it’s not half good either). In fact, it just like Boehner in that regard…

    36. I think it will be due to his decision to not protect Colorado companies from fraudsters. He focused on trying to justify a lack of security – and there are a ton of small businesses in Colorado who were all left wondering if they would be hit next.

      1. It will be because nobody knows what the Secretary of State does. Downballot races are always the most vulnerable to any sort of “wave” because voters aren’t familiar with either the candidates or the office. Hell, there’s probably a bunch of Colorado voters who think the Colorado Secretary of State is responsible for keeping us out of war with Kansas.

        1. I’m sure there were at least 4, maybe even 5 whole people who voted against Bernie for not protecting fraudsters from small business security something something, as Dave said…  🙂

      2. … or to put it differently:

        #Coloradans concerned about SOS online business security

        =

        #Coloradans really really concerned about Hawaiian politics.

      3. I talked to many business owners about the database problem.  No one even knew about it (which in itself is an indication that it was poorly handled, but it still doesn’t matter to Real People).

        Buescher lost because of straight-ticket voting at the bottom of the ticket.  Nobody is going to split a ticket to vote for SoS or Treasurer.

        Occam’s razor, my friend.

    39. Surprise!  Rassy overestimated the Tanc vote due to inherent intensity of the crazy-minded.  

      A fun twist that will keep giving is that the GOP has been relegated to where it belongs on future ballots…

      …The race has been called for Mayor John Hickenlooper of Denver, who leads by 17 points. That margin is relatively consistent with traditional, live-operator surveys, which are less prone to these sorts of problems, but automated polls like Rasmussen Reports had suggested that Mr. Tancredo might finish within 3-5 points.

      Adding insult to injury for Republicans, their official nominee, Dan Maes, is tracking just under 10 percent of the vote, which means that Republicans could be demoted to minor-party status in 2012.

      http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.n…

    46. In Denver, JeffCo, etc.  Denver is at 120k total with a net 60k to Bennet.  El Paso is at 115k with a net 30k to Buck.  Can we extrapolate final numbers?

    47. Arapahoe County results aren’t in yet, thanks to our wonderfully efficient Republican political machine that dominates the county.

      And we know what that means… Once Arapahoe finally gets its act together, Buck will vault ahead. Damn it.  

          2. @10:30

            KEN BUCK – REP 24,185 29.22%

            MICHAEL F. BENNET – DEM 55,106 66.57%

            Looks like somebody mistyped a 6 instead of a 2.

            The clerk had expected 120k voters in all, total now is 83k.

          3. Apparently nobody bothered to stop and think for a second about whether that was likely to be true. All you have to do is check the Boulder Clerk’s website to see that Bennet actually leads 67-29 in Boulder.

            Sloppy. Inexcusably sloppy.

            1. …and I’m a complere f’ing idiot for relying on local tv news, the dying journalism institution that makes city newspapers look professional….  seriously, thx – I was in borderline depression when I thought Bennet was toast b/c all the Denver votes were in.

              1. They’re saying half the precincts have been counted, but most people are saying all of Denver has been counted. I’m thinking the latter is correct.  

    48. I voted Nancy Doty for Arapahoe County Clerk, because I thought her Democratic opponent was a rank amateur.

      But in this case, even the rankest of amateurs could hardly do worse. A black-letter day for Arapahoe County’s election officials.

    49. That makes me nauseous.  Does the Bush/Walker/Stapleton clan have a pact with the devil?  How many incompetents in that family that are going to get elected?

            1. Just saw on 7 news that Bennet leads in Larimer, Jefferson, and Arapahoe.  Buck is only taking 59% in El Paso and Bennet is at 71% in Denver.  Something is off here.

              1. UNITED STATES SENATOR Votes   Percent

                KEN BUCK – REP 24,620 29.23%

                MICHAEL F. BENNET – DEM 56,043 66.53%

                BOB KINSEY – GRN 1,786 2.12%

                MACLYN “MAC” STRINGER – LBR 912 1.08%

        2. Arapahoe County has to be ordered by the judges to print up provisional ballots … No election results in nearly 4 hours after the polls close … The Republican dirty tricks machine is in full force.

          And after Bush v. Gore, don’t tell me I’m being paranoid. The GOP will do ANYTHING to win and “get their country back.” For them, the ends justify the means.

      1. “Some votes disappeared” and “votes were taken away!”

        Turns out winning a spot on the Hottest Anchor list doesn’t automatically make you bright.

          1. 161K votes. 2006 was 171K. If you look at the county site, they list almost everything as 0 districts reporting for what look like pretty complete results.  

            2. JeffCo is reporting that 0 of 323 precincts have completely responded which makes it appear that there are a lot of uncounted votes.

              However, they are also reporting total votes counted = 205,065 of 210,520 cast (97%).

              So, counting is nearly complete despite the “0.3% Reporting” being reported on Politico through 11:50pm.

              (Update, by the time I posted this, Politico was indicating “47.8% Reporting” at 11:58pm.)

      1. I’m seeing 125,000 votes tallied in Denver.  What should the final number look like?  For what it’s worth, the same site (NY Times) shows Jeffco at 195,000 votes.  I’m thinking quite a few more are coming in from Denver.

        1. According to KDVR, that’s only half the Denver precincts. Although it could be a glitch since KDVR also says none of the JeffCo precincts are counted…

      2. Lots of early votes were already counted.

        We’re at about 1.28 million votes in the Senate race. In 2006 there were about 1.4 million votes total. 2.2 million in 2008.

    58. With Jahn and Morse both holding seats, no GOP takeover of the state senate.

      I don’t see the six HD pickups that the GOP needs to take the state house either.

      Looks to me like Dems will control all rings of state politics for redistricting.

          1. 70% Reporting

            705.6k – Buck (47.6%)

            696.0k – Bennet (47.0%)

            El Paso & Weld – 100%

            Denver – 54%

            Boulder – 63%

            Gonna be close.

            (Last Update in this thread. Moving to new Late Night Thread)

    62. Fox site reporting total votes in the Governor’s race of 1,481,211.

      Total votes cast in the senate race 1,482,712.

      Undervoting in the senate race appears to be negligible to non-existant.

      Buck up by 9332.  (Charley Miller has received 9,440 votes.)

    63. Suthers and Gessler seem to have it tied up as well.

      There’s enough late motion in the Bennet-Buck race not to call it yet.  Kennedy seems to be doing pretty well, however.

    64. I don’t post here much these days, but would just like to point out that Gessler is the LAST person we should want in the SoS office. He is a pure partisan that will twist any and all legal arguments to see his position prevail. Fair and equal elections lose with him in charge. You active folks on here need to keep a close eye on this guy for the next four years lest he hand elections to the GOP.

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