Denver November 2004 Election
Young voters, targeted by both presidential campaigns, and numerous other get out the votes efforts, have responded and registered in huge numbers, according to the Rocky Mountain News [October 23, 2004, "The youth factor"]. From the article, "A Rocky Mountain News analysis shows that more than one-third of the state's new voters - those who registered after the Aug. 10 primary election - are between 18 and 24. And while the majority are unaffiliated, Republicans outnumber Democrats. In the two-month window between the primary and the end of voter registration Oct. 4, Colorado saw 133,450 voters sign up for the Nov. 2 election. Of those, 52,290, or 39 percent, were between 18 and 24, the analysis found. Colorado, like many battleground states, was descended upon by voter registration drives aimed at youth, such as Rock the Vote and the New Voter Project. As a result, the 18-24 age voter group in the state was boosted by about 20 percent in the past two months. More than half of these new voters, 30,111, registered as unaffiliated, showing many are issue-oriented. However, among those who did choose a political party, 11,075 registered as Republican and 10,813 as Democrat - a difference of 262."
Buffalo Springfield: "Young people speaking their minds!"
Here's another article on voter registration efforts for you numbers junkies, from the Rocky [October 23, 2004, "Hunting for hidden voters"]. From the article, "The New Voters Project had set up in Colorado in late winter, and workers logged 25,000 hours registering young people before the Oct. 4 deadline. They snagged 71,339 registrations. Nancy Bauer, the founder of the nonpartisan WomenMatter, dropped by Boulder in June when Colorado was first emerging as a swing state. She was drumming up support for her organization, one of several that hopes to inspire many of the 36 million eligible women who didn't vote four years ago. Several dozen groups have combined to add at least 60,000 Hispanics to the state's voter rolls since summer."
According to the Rocky Mountain News Colorado's U.S. Senate race is news outside the U.S. [October 23, 2004, "Coors-Salazar race in global spotlight"]. From the article, The Colorado race is one of the most closely watched in the nation, in part because it could determine which party controls the U.S. Senate and in part because of the candidates themselves. Coors, at 6-foot-5 and with a silver shock of hair, is the made- for-TV guy whose years of pitching his family's beer have made him a natural in front of the cameras. Salazar, who grew up on the New Mexico border without electricity or a telephone, epitomizes a success story that's right out of a made-for-TV movie. Add in their campaign commercials - Coors standing near Colorado's streams and mountains, Salazar riding the range on a horse - and you have the recipe for constant calls from assignment desks and producers wanting one-on-one time with the candidates."
Mike Littwin looks at Ken Salazar and Pete Coors in his column in today's Rocky [October 23, 2004, "Littwin: Many questions, few answers about Coors"]. He writes, "If you trust Republican campaign ads, you'd think Salazar's tenure as attorney general has consisted mostly of releasing sex offenders early from prison. (Salazar wins the negative ad award, however, by bringing the Osama bin Laden commercial to Colorado. Maybe he's hiding out in our mountains.)"
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