It’s finally over, so we can have our lives back. To say I am disappointed with much of the Colorado state outcome, however, would be an understatement. Outside money helped to paint untrue and distorted pictures of candidates the likes of which have never been seen before, which heavily tainted an already left-leaning state. How much money? One example: House district 6 was flipped – after $10.4M flowed in from outside PACs. The redrawing of its district lines a few years ago (2011) made this somewhat inevitable as it seriously changed/skewed the demographics in that district in favor of Democrats, but ultimately, the “R” congressman was targeted from the outside. But look at the deep billionaire pockets that went into the “D” side campaign funds: George Soros: $120M from his pocket. Michael Bloomberg: $100M from his pocket. Tom Steyer: $120M from his pocket. In many places it didn’t work, but in Colorado that district was targeted, and money poured in from those funds.
Much of the nation produced a more balanced result – splitting power, as we all should. As Colorado historically has as well. But this year Colorado stands out as the extreme exception nationwide.
Blue. The new Colorado norm
The Governor’s race – I’m not at all surprised that Jared Polis won; he plowed in $23M out of his own pocket, as prior to this he has been the richest person in the US Congress. And frankly the Republican candidate was not strong at all. But more disappointingly, much of Colorado cast a vote strictly to make a blind statement against the President, without really doing their research. Why do I say this? Simple: Colorado, for the first time in 70 years, swept blue across every major state office, and flipped both state houses, yet we rejected every state-wide democrat-backed tax hike and bond issue. We protected Oil and Gas. We rejected dangerous edits to property valuation claims. Overall, Colorado blindly voted for people with a “D” and yet we consistently defeated more liberal-originating measures. But here’s the rub: By blindly voting “D” we elected an Attorney General that is a college professor who clerked for a couple Supreme Court justices. Which means he did a lot of research. But have we actually looked at the role of an AG? What they do for their job? If they need to sue the Federal Gov’t to protect our interests in Colorado, shouldn’t they have at least once, just once, tried a case? The AG-elect has only defended a handful of cases on court (usually court-appointed counsel), and have never prosecuted a single thing. Not one case. His opponent was a highly experienced DA and former military JAG with a massive record of success, who was endorsed by every major entity in the state. But, he was painted as Trump’s boy, mostly with outside money. And he had an “R”.
Law enforcement blue smackdown
But the “D” wave didn’t stop there. Arapahoe County elected a “D” sheriff for the first time in decades… This one deserves serious attention – the sheriff-elect has just a handful of years of law-enforcement experience, and those were tainted with resignations prior to probable dismissal, and work as a security guard and then employment in one of the smallest, most controversial law enforcement agencies in the metroplex. He’s never supervised a soul. But he had a “D” by his name. He defeated an incumbent with a 100% unblemished record, endorsed by the FOP and every major entity in the region, extremely highly educated, very well-respected, engaged locally and nationally in many boards and committees, all focused on improving public safety. But he had an “R”. The largest city in this county, Aurora has swung very “D” in the last few years; couple that with a suburban dislike for the President, and you end up with a lot of people that voted one column of their ballot without actually doing the research.
While I respect all of us who voted, I quickly lose respect for those that vote to make statements against national figures by ignorantly voting against state and local candidate who really are actually the best suited for the roles they run for. Simply because they carry a party designation the un-researching voter decides they must hate. Arapahoe County, including the Cities of Centennial, Aurora, Littleton, and Greenwood Village (by the way – where most of the money is in the state, due to strong business growth – guess why?), have now put themselves into unnecessary risk, because they were programmed to hate everything that is associated with “R”.
