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Thursday, November 9, 2006
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Steve Ludwig (via SquareState.net): "Stephen C. Ludwig (your's truly), Democratic candidate for the Univeristy of Colorado Board of Regents, at-large, isn't done yet."
Mr. Ludwig is waiting until all absentee ballots are counted with the hope that they'll put him over the top.
Category: Denver November 2006 Election
6:08:37 PM 
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Congratulations to new state Secretary of State, Mike Coffman. Here's a short article about the candidate from the Denver Post. From the article, "With his victory Tuesday in the secretary of state contest, Mike Coffman's long winning streak continued at the expense of a longtime political foil. Coffman, the Republican two-term state treasurer, claimed a statewide victory over Senate Majority Leader Ken Gordon. 'I actually think he ran a better campaign than I did,' Coffman said of Gordon, who broke into the state legislature with him in 1992. 'He did things that were very innovative, very creative.' Gordon held a fundraising advantage despite continuing his tradition of not accepting money from political-action committees, and kept the positive campaign close through a pair of humorous television ads. But Coffman gained the win through a statewide GOP voter advantage and his compelling personal story as a Marine who came out of military retirement earlier this year to help conduct elections in Iraq."
Category: Denver November 2006 Election
7:07:29 AM
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Congratulations to Treasurer-elect Cary Kennedy. Here's an article about Kennedy from today's Denver Post. From the article, "Democratic candidate Cary Kennedy narrowly won the state treasurer's race. Almost complete returns Wednesday showed her at just over 50 percent of the vote, defeating Republican Mark Hillman. 'I know that this was a close vote,' Kennedy said. 'I am very respectful that half the voters supported my opponent. My commitment is to represent all the people of Colorado.' A co-author of the school-financing Amendment 23, Kennedy said she thought her support for public education resonated with voters. She also credits her advantage to her campaign promise to increase clarity in reporting the state's finances, and with the overall success of Democrats. 'I think this was a reflection of the strength of Bill Ritter's candidacy, and also of the voters of Colorado wanting to elect candidates with experience in solving the state's problems and making government more transparent and accountable.' Kennedy and Hillman were known for running civil and policy-oriented campaigns. Both candidates kept fundraising to well below $500,000."
Category: Denver November 2006 Election
7:04:18 AM
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Amendment 42 passed easily on Tuesday, according to the Rocky Mountain News. From the article, "The proponents of Amendment 42 overcame heavy spending by the state's restaurant industry to make Colorado one of 28 states that have set a higher minimum wage than the federal government. Starting Jan. 1, businesses in the state will have to pay workers at least $6.85 an hour, up from $5.15. Restaurant servers will have a base of $3.83, up from $2.13. The wage will increase each year by the Denver- Boulder-Greeley Consumer Price Index. Colorado joined five other states where voters Tuesday boosted their states' minimums. 'The opposition outspent us 3 to 1, but in spite of that, we were able to convince voters Amendment 42 was the right proposal to increase the minimum wage,' said Linda Meric, the national executive director of 9to5 National Association of Working Women. The prospect of seeing a portion of payroll rise 80 percent prompted the state's restaurants to provide the bulk of the funding for opposition group Respect Colorado's Constitution. Spokeswoman Jan Rigg estimates it raised and spent $1.68 million during the campaign. But a collection of unions and left-leaning community groups such as 9to5, ACORN and the Colorado Progressive Coalition conducted an intense grass-roots campaign that targeted urban, lower-income unlikely voters. Their efforts rescued a measure that polled at 74 percent approval in September but was too close to call late on election night. After many of Denver's precincts were counted Wednesday, Colorado voters had approved the measure 53 percent to 47 percent."
Category: Denver November 2006 Election
6:55:33 AM
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According to the Rocky Mountain News two races are still up in the air in Denver County due to a failure of the machine used to count absentee ballots. From the article, "Many Denver voters had to wait hours to cast their ballots Tuesday, but the wait to learn the final results is taking days. Two races - whether to add a 0.12 percent sales tax to help Denver parents pay for preschool, and the race for University of Colorado regent-at-large - hang on the count, which may be completed today but could take until Friday. That's because one of two machines used to count 65,000 absentee ballots broke down. The supplier of the optical-scanning devices that tabulate the four-page paper ballots was scheduled to deliver a loaner machine Wednesday afternoon and it is expected to go into operation today, said Alton Dillard, Denver Election Commission spokesman."
Here's the link to the Rocky results page.
Category: Denver November 2006 Election
6:49:52 AM
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Congratulations to state Attorney General John Suthers for his win Tuesday over Fern O'Brien. CBS4Denver reports, "Republican John Suthers will continue to serve as Colorado's attorney general, winning the election Tuesday night to the office Governor Owens nominated him for almost two years ago. With 46 percent of the expected vote counted, Suthers led Democrat Fern O'Brien 55 percent to 41 percent. Libertarian candidate Dwight Harding had 4 percent. Suthers is a former U.S. attorney who'd promised to continue much of the work Ken Salazar started before he won election to the United States Senate in 2004."
Category: Denver November 2006 Election
6:41:06 AM
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The Brighton Standard Blade brings us up to date on farmers struggling to stay in business in northeastern Colorado. From the article, "Farmers and officials alike agree that drought and growth are the two biggest reasons northern Colorado farms are struggling to get by. Cech said drought is responsible for a 'large amount' of the problem. From 1980 to 2000 were the wettest years recorded for Colorado. But 2002 was the driest year in the last 300 years, Cech said, and the last six years have been considered a drought. David Petrocco Sr., a Central Water Conservancy District board member and a Brighton area farmer, said he thinks drought is the bigger contributor to farm failure on the Front Range."
Category: Colorado Water
6:28:15 AM
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Will the Democratic victories out here in the West be enough to get a national focus on the region? Here's a article that looks at the prospects from the Denver Post. They write, "Tuesday's election results suggest that Democrats might want to stop sipping sweet tea and start donning cowboy hats if they want to keep winning national elections. 'The West has replaced the South' as a key region for the party to seek support, said Mike Stratton, a Denver-based Democratic strategist and adviser to New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. 'It's an incremental thing. The trend is moving west.' That means Democrats likely will pay more attention to Western issues such as water, planning, environment and energy, he said. The Democratic Party already is giving the West more clout by slipping a Nevada presidential primary between Iowa and New Hampshire. And Denver is vying with New York to host the party's 2008 national convention. Democrats historically looked to the South, a region they dominated for a century after the Civil War, to put them over the top in national elections. Over the past 42 years, every Democrat elected president has been a Southerner. But Stratton pointed to Western Democrats' solid showing Tuesday as proof that the mesas and buttes of the West are more fertile soil for Democratic hopes. National Democratic chairman Howard Dean argued Wednesday that Republicans overplayed their hand on social issues in seeking Western votes. The West, he said, is 'not really Republican. It's more libertarian. But Republicans began to believe they had the right to tell everybody what to do in their private lives.' Former Democratic Montana Congressman Pat Williams said Westerners have a populist streak and are more worried about protecting their landscape than national leaders have realized."
Category: 2008 Presidential Election
6:20:21 AM
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Here's a short report from the Denver Post detailing Bill Ritter's coming struggle to please business interests in Colorado. From the article, "Among the issues business groups will be watching closely: A state-based health-care plan to address the needs of 770,000 residents without health insurance; Business groups favor a market-based approach; Ritter has previously raised the prospect of mandates; Additional environmental regulations that could follow Ritter's promise to protect Colorado's air and water quality; Business groups say the state is already in compliance with existing environmental standards; Any concessions made to labor groups that reduce employer flexibility; Added regulations would hurt efforts to retain and attract new jobs to the state, business groups argue."
Meanwhile the Rocky Mountain News focuses on energy development in Colorado under Ritter and the Dems. From the article, "Colorado's energy industry is divided in its reaction to Bill Ritter's victory in the governor's race. Oil and gas companies are unsure of Ritter's next move. During his campaign, Ritter said he's open to raising severance taxes that companies pay on production - leading to concern among the industry players. Their more immediate concern is the top appointments Ritter will make at state regulatory agencies...
"Unlike the oil and gas industry, the renewable energy sector is excited about Ritter's commitment to its progress. Even in his victory speech Tuesday in Denver, Ritter said his administration would push for more wind and solar energy as well as biofuels. 'This is an exciting time,' said Mike Bowman, a farmer from Yuma, where a new ethanol plant is under construction and another one is in the permitting process. 'Ritter has talked about a new energy economy in Colorado a lot, and that means rural Colorado will be a significant player in developing this new energy economy.' The renewable industry will mainly benefit from Ritter's leadership on the issue, said Craig Cox of the Interwest Energy Alliance, which lobbies for the wind and solar energy industries."
Category: Denver November 2006 Election
6:08:21 AM
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Here's some of the reaction to Colorado's passing of Amendment 43 and rejection of Referendum I, from the Denver Post. From the article, "As late-arriving returns Wednesday confirmed the previous night's trend, supporters of an amendment to effectively ban gay marriage celebrated a double-barreled victory. Not only did Amendment 43, which defines marriage in the state constitution as only between one man and one woman, pass by a double-digit margin, but a measure that would have created domestic partnerships for same-sex couples suffered a sound defeat."
Category: Denver November 2006 Election
5:59:48 AM
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© Copyright 2006 John Orr.
Last update: 12/2/06; 8:01:45 AM.
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