DemNotesBlog for Colorado Democrats by State Party First Vice Chair Dan Slater

I was just forwarded the list of candidates “on” the ballot by the Secretary of State’s office. Something pretty amazing is clear from a quick review of the House races:

This state is shifting blue.

Don’t believe me? Take a look at the list of Republicans and the list of Democrats for each seat. What you’ll find is that Democrats are UNCHALLENGED by a single Republican in 11 of Colorado’s 65 House Districts. Meanwhile, Democrats have candidates in 63 of the 65 House districts (I’ve heard that in at least one of the two remaining seats, there was to be a vacancy committee meeting to select a Democratic candidate — the deadline for that was today). As far as I know, that kind of imbalance in favor of the Democrats is simply unheard of.

So, let me be the first to congratulate the first members of the next session of the General Assembly: Reps. Cerbo, McGihon, Judd, Terrance Carroll, Madden, Weissman, Jahn, Soper, Peniston, and Curry. Kathleen Curry’s place on this list is even more impressive, because that seat was held only two years ago by a Republican, and was highly targeted in 2004. House District 61 is a swing seat, and it shows the amazing job that Rep. Curry has been doing in a rural district. Don’t let anybody tell you that Democrats can’t win in rural Colorado!

Also, congrats to the Democratic voters in HD 13. They will get to select the next State Representative for that district, as well. Claire Levy and Jim Rettew both made the primary ballot — but no Republicans bothered to run! I met and heard both at the Gilpin County Assembly in April, and I can tell you that the folks in HD 13 will be very well represented no matter who they choose.

Things are a little more contested in the State Senate, but we already hold a 2-1

12-8

advantage there, as of today. Congrats to Senators Abel Tapia and Paula Sandoval. Both have no Republican opposition. Again, in 2002, Tapia’s SD3 seat was hotly contested, with hundreds of thousands of dollars being spent by both sides on that race. In Grand Junction’s SD7, the Republicans have a primary, but no Democrat has signed up for that seat.

The list shows that Democrats are united, as well. It looks like the Republicans will have 15 primaries among all of the State House and State Senate districts (this includes SD9, where a primary candidate’s petition has not yet been certified). The Democrats? About half that number: 8 primaries — 3 in the State Senate and 5 in the State House. The Republican Party in Colorado is falling apart at the seams.

A few more notes:

– Congrats to Congresswoman Diana Degette and 2nd CD Board of Education member Evie Hudak. Both have no Republican opposition.
– The 5th CD? The knives are out in the Republican Party, where SIX, count ‘em, SIX people made the primary ballot. They will duke it out to determine which of the six will suffer an historic defeat to Jay Fawcett in November.
– There will, apparently, be a three-way Democratic primary in the most highly-targeted Congressional seat in America. Peggy Lamm and Herb Rubenstein join Ed Perlmutter on the ballot in the 7th Congressional District.
– There has still been no word on whether Marc Holtzman will qualify for the primary ballot in the Governor’s race or not on the Republican side.

All in all, this is a good slate card for November for the Democrats. Now, comes the hard part: electing this great group of folks!

CORRECTION 6/1 7:06 pm:

When listing the make-up of the State Senate, I forgot about the other half — only half of the Senate is up for election this year. Of the seats currently up, Republicans have a 10-8 advantage, meaning that Democrats have a 10-7 advantage among those seats not up. When you take that into account, the Democratic advantage in the State Senate is now at 12 to 8. That means, of the remaining 15 seats up for election this year, Democrats only need to win 6 of those 15 to keep a majority in the State Senate. Only 6. Wow.