Republicans
Incumbent Doug Lamborn in the 5th CD, and Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman in the 6th CD have won their respective primaries. Given that both seats are safe Republican seats, this means that Democratic Governor Bill Ritter is likely to have the opportunity to appoint a Democrat to replace Mike Coffman as Secretary of State.
George Lily will have the hopeless task of facing incumbent Democrat Diana DeGette in the general election.
Incumbent State Representative Doug Bruce appears to have lost his primary contest against Mark Waller. No Representative in Colorado history has disgraced himself so much in a single legislative session for his boorish conduct.
Joshua Sharf is the winner in HD 6 (Washington Park et al.). Kit Roupe is winning in an open race in HD 17. Carole Murray is winning in HD 45. Incumbent Glenn Vaad has narrowly won the primary in HD 48. Randy Baumgardner is winning in an open race in HD 57.
Mark Scheffel has won the primary in SD 4, an open seat. Lauri Clapp has won the primary in SD 26, an open seat.
Controversial Republican District Attorney Carol Chambers, the incumbent, in a judicial district that includes Arapahoe County appears to have successfully fended off a primary challenge. Incumbent El Paso County District Attorney John Newsome, who made headlines for his alcoholism, appears to have been defeated in the primary by Dan May.
Democrats
In the safe Democratic Second Congressional District (with a weak Republican nominee this election cycle), Jared Polis has 43% of the vote, Joan Fitz-Gerald has 39% of the vote, and Will Shafroth has 18% of the vote with 20% of the vote counted. Polis leads but a come from behind victory is not impossible for Fitz-Gerald at this point.
UPDATE: Fitz-Gerald has reportedly conceded. Jared Polis wins.
Incumbent Mark Ferrandino has easily won his primary in HD 2. Lois Court is on track to win the Democratic primary to replace Andrew Romanoff in HD 6. Beth McCann is the runaway winner in HD 8, a race several leading local Democrats had declared too close to call. The three way race is currently split 51-31-18. Joe Miklosi appears to be the winner in HD 9.
Camille Ryckman has won in HD 22 over disgraced school board member Vince Chowdhury who had abandoned his campaign after getting onto the ballot. Shelly Tokerud has won the privilege of taking on incumbent Republican Mike May in HD 44. Edward Vigil is winning in an open race in HD 62.
Joyce Foster has won the primary in SD 35.
Democratic primaries in HD 24, HD 30 and in SD 18 are too close to call at this point.
UPDATE: Rollie Heath appears to have won in SD 18. HD 24 and HD 30 remain too close to call.
Ballot Issues
Denver voters are on track to pass both Ballot Issue 100, an anti-immigrant measure that requires police to impound cars of people suspected of being illegal immigrants, likely in part due to a deceptive title, and Referendum 1A, which eliminates the City Council's role in the city initiative process.
Deceptive title? Nothing in the ballot text itself even hinted at the anti-immigration provision. I had to search for the full text of the ballot issue on the web in order to find the anti-immigration component of this issue.
ReplyDeleteHow can such an important change be hidden behind such bland language? Travesty.
Precisely, which is why I didn't like 1A. It took the City Council out of the loop, without putting in a municipal equivalent of the state title board or the requirement that pamphlets better explaining the measures be distributed to voters.
ReplyDeleteThe City should have the power to demand that city initiatives have a single subject, have an accurate title, and give each voter the full text of the measure with fiscal impacts and pros and cons spelled out before they vote. I doubt that this measure would have passed if subject to the same requirements that apply to state ballot issues.