| COLORADO |
9
Electoral Votes |
Colorado's political landscape has
undergone a notable
shift in the past four years.
Heading into the Nov. 2004 general election, Republicans held a
registration advantage of more than 5 percentage points, had the
governor's office, controlled both chambers of the General Assembly,
had a 5 to 2 edge in the U.S. House delegation and both
U.S. Senate seats.
In his 2004 re-election campaign President Bush
achieved
a plurality of 99,523 votes (4.67 percentage points).
Democrats went into
the 2008
general election with control of the governor's office, a 4 to 3
edge in the House and one of the Senate seats. During the course
of 2008, Democrats achieved very significant
registration gains. The Democratic National Convention held at
Pepsi Center in
Denver from Aug. 25-28, 2008 provided a further boost for the party.
Voter Registration, 2008 (Active) - Feb. 5 Precinct Caucuses, Aug. 12 Primary
Election, Nov. 4 General Election
|
Dem.
|
Rep.
|
Unaff.
|
Lib.
|
Grn.
|
More
|
Total
|
Jan. 25, 2008
|
634,243 (31.74%)
|
740,665 (37.07%)
|
614,923 (30.77%)
|
4,650 (0.23%)
|
3,007 (0.15%)
|
732
|
1,998,220
|
Aug. 10, 2008
|
737,465 (33.19%)
|
795,660 (35.81%)
|
677,837 (30.50%)
|
6,378 (0.29%)
|
3,949 (0.18%)
|
840
|
2,222,129
|
Oct. 31, 2008
|
902,444 (34.36%)
|
892,791 (34.00%)
|
814,281 (31.01%)
|
9,489 (0.36%)
|
5,526 (0.21%)
|
1,644 |
2,626,175
|
Source: CO Secretary of
State.
Obama's
Campaign
for Change opened a total of 51 offices, and Colorado
Democrats also opened 15
Forward Colorado (coordinated
campaign)
offices. Republicans also ran a strong ground
game.
McCain got into some hot water
speaking about the Colorado River Compact in an Aug. 14, 2008 telephone
interview with the Pueblo Chieftain. McCain said that the 1922
agreement which allocates Colorado River water among seven states "obviously, needs to be
renegotiated over time amongst the interested parties." This did
not go over well at all. (See for example Bob Ewegen's Aug. 16
op-ed in the Denver Post
"McCain suggests raiding Colorado's water." Ewegen wrote, "We
don't vote for water rustlers in this state; we tar and feather them!")
Obama won with a
plurality of 214,984 votes
(8.95 percentage points).
The November
election not only put the state's nine electoral votes in the
Democratic
column but took the U.S. House delegation to 5 to 2 and gave the party
both
U.S. Senate seats.
See
Charles Ashby. "McCain: Renegotiate 1922
Western water compact." Pueblo
Chieftain, August 15, 2008. >
Bob Ewegen. "McCain suggests raiding
Colorado's water." Denver Post,
August 16, 2008. >
also: Rob Witwer. "Rocky Ride." National Review, March 23, 2009.
Travel compare...
Five
Months (June 1-Nov. 4, 2008)
| OBAMA-BIDEN |
McCAIN-PALIN |
Barack Obama - 6 visits (8 days)
Joe Biden - 2
visits (6 days)
Michelle Obama (solo) -
5 visits (9 days)
Jill Biden (solo) - no visits
|
John McCain - 8 visits (11 days)
Sarah Palin - 5 visits (6
days)
Cindy McCain (solo) -
no visits
Todd Palin (solo) - 1 visit
(1 day)
|
Newspaper Endorsements
NO ENDORSEMENT
Rocky Mountain News
Colorado Springs Gazette
| Copyright
© 2008 Eric M. Appleman/Democracy in
Action |
 |