← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · AntiZOGNewEnglander
Thread ID: 15523 | Posts: 2 | Started: 2004-11-02
2004-11-02 07:08 | User Profile
Surging voter registrations, attack ads and hefty financing have added to the frenzy in Coloradoââ¬â¢s campaigns.
[color=black]By Monte Whaley and Chris Frates [/color][color=black]Denver Post Staff Writers[/color]
On the eve of Tuesday's election, Colorado is awash with political money, new voters, campaign excitement and nastiness - and lawyers ready to sue over any perceived misstep at the polls.
Some voters are wondering if the state can take much more of Election 2004.
"We have all these silly little debates that don't mean anything and tons of negative ads that don't tell the truth half the time," 64-year-old Thomas Dean Mitchell said last week. "I just don't know anymore. You get turned off after a while."
But campaigns from the statehouse to the presidency are working down to the wire with legions of fired-up volunteers who are excited about their candidates and issues.
The prize is an unprecedented cache of voters, with registration exceeding 3 million.
Colorado, because of its status as a swing state, was targeted for massive voter-registration drives that led to Republican voter rolls growing by 72,280 people since January - an increase of 6.9 percent - while Democrats added 83,586 voters - a 9.8 percent jump - over the same period, according to the latest estimates.
The rolls of unaffiliated voters increased even more this year, with a jump of 94,150 or 10.4 percent.
More than 577,000 Coloradans have already voted either at early polling places or by absentee ballot. Election officials predict that the number of people voting Tuesday will eclipse elections of recent years.
Larimer County Clerk and Recorder Scott Doyle said last week that turnout in the northern Colorado county could match the historic high of 85 percent notched during the 1980 election.
But the rush to sign up voters has led to charges that registration rolls include people ineligible to vote. Both parties have vowed to sic their lawyers on counties and campaigns that look like they may have illegally swayed elections. Depending on a few votes, the state could stay in firm Republican hands or gain some Democratic clout.
One of the tightest races in the country for a U.S. Senate seat pits Pete Coors, a Republican and chairman of Coors Brewing Co., against Ken Salazar, Colorado's Democratic attorney general.
The race has set spending records for a Colorado political contest, with Salazar taking in $7.4 million and Coors $6.3 million.
Salazar's brother John is also locked in a tight and high-profile race against Republican Greg Walcher to represent the 3rd Congressional District, which covers western Colorado. The national Democratic and Republican parties last week alone spent a combined $1.75 million on the race, more than they spent on any other House campaign in the nation.
But perhaps no race in Colorado has raised more eyebrows than the one showcasing incumbent Republican Rep. Marilyn Musgrave and Democratic challenger Stan Matsunaka in eastern Colorado's 4th Congressional District.
An independent political group has produced television commercials portraying Musgrave as a corpse-robbing, soldier-fleecing skinflint who is also against stem-cell research.
Musgrave has shot back that the ads are inaccurate and unfair, while Matsunaka has kept his distance from them.
Other congressional races have raised hackles. Commercials for 7th Congressional District Rep. Bob Beauprez have targeted elements of Democratic opponent Dave Thomas' tenure as Jefferson County district attorney. Thomas accused Beauprez of spreading lies, citing a lifetime of community service.
Newcomer Democrat Joanna Conti, running in the 6th Congressional District, has charged that incumbent Republican Tom Tancredo's obsession with immigration has obscured other issues in the district. He has been airing earnest appeals for votes in the heavily Republican district.
Also hanging in the balance Tuesday is control of the state legislature.
Republicans currently hold power by one seat in the Senate, and a bigger margin in the House.
The party that charts the Senate's course will help shape any constitutional budget reforms, how and where state money gets spent, and a host of other important decisions that affect Coloradans.
The high stakes have driven Democrats and Republicans into fierce and, some say, dirty fights in six battleground Senate districts. In addition to the candidates' campaign cash, outside groups have funded much of the advertising.
The Senate Majority Fund and Forward Colorado, two of the major independent groups, raised and spent a total of almost $1 million between September and mid-October in the state's tightest races. And while they fought for candidates, they also fought each other.
The 37-28 margin in the state House of Representatives is eight seats more comfortable for Republicans than in the Senate, but the fights are no less nasty.
Democrats are hoping to take control of the chamber for the first time in three decades, but even a few more seats could make controversial Republican agenda items, such as school vouchers, much harder to pass.
Referendum 4A, the FasTracks tax measure, is being promoted by supporters as a way to give more mass-transit options to commuters who use the Denver area's most congested highway corridors, for 4 cents on every $10 purchase. The plan includes at least six new rail lines built around a hub at Denver's Union Station.
Opponents say the $4.7 billion plan is a boondoggle that would raise the Regional Transportation District's sales tax by 67 percent and do little to relieve traffic congestion in the area.
Voters will also decide on a handful of constitutional amendments that could change everything from how Colorado picks its president to how it gets its energy.
Opponents and supporters have spent nearly $2 million on the Amendment 36 campaign, which would split the state's nine electoral votes based on the popular vote. Now, the presidential candidate with the most popular votes takes all nine electoral votes.
Amendment 34, which would lift some some limits on how much in damages homeowners can collect from builders, has spurred a barrage of television ads on both sides.
Coloradans will also decide whether to require utilities to get 10 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2015, and whether to increase the tobacco tax to fund a variety of health care programs.
At the local level, voters will choose county commissioners and district attorneys, and decide school bond issues and local spending questions.
[url="http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~64~2505243,00.html"]http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~64~2505243,00.html[/url]
TANCREDO FOR PRESIDENT 2008!
2004-11-02 07:45 | User Profile
Just curious AntiZOGNewEnglander. Do you have any Denver ties, or are you just readng it to see what those liberals are saying about Tancredo?