So, last night’s election results for Congressional District 2 are in--a seat being vacated by US House of Representatives Mark Udall, who is running for the Senate--and the winner is Jared Polis, former Colorado State Board of Education Director, business owner, and first openly gay man to serve in Congress.
Because this district is heavily Dem leaning, it’s a nearly foregone conclusion that he will win in the general election against the sacrificial lamb from the Republican Party, Scott Starin.
The primary was a contentious one with two other excellent candidates: Will Shafroth--an environmentalist advocate, and Joan Fitz-Gerald--a former County Clerk and current two-term State Senator who also has the honor of being Colorado’s first woman to be elected as President of the Colorado State Senate.
This was the most costly congressional primary race in the history of the state. He is independently wealthy and sank more than $5 million of his own money into the campaign. One highlight is that Polis will not be in the position of owing anything to any special interest group.
I moved to Colorado in May, 1992. That same year, on November 3, 1992, Colorado earned itself the dubious nickname, "the Hate State" by passing an Amendment Two type provision to its constitution that declared:
Neither the state of Colorado, through any of its branches or departments, nor any of its agencies, political subdivisions, municipalities or school districts, shall enact, adopt or enforce any statute, regulation, ordinance or policy whereby homosexual, lesbian or bisexual orientation, conduct, practices or relationships shall constitute or otherwise be the basis of, or entitle any person or class of persons to have or claim any minority status, quota preferences, protected status or claim of discrimination. This Section of the Constitution shall be in all respects self-executing.
The amendment was overturned in 1996 (Romer vs Evans) by the United States Supreme Court but the taint of homophobia has long lingered, to the horror of many progressives, including myself.
Jared is not the first gay man to serve in Congress. Gerry Studds, Barney Frank, Steve Gunderson and Jim Kolbe, however, did not come out publicly about their sexuality until after they were elected. Jared ran as an openly gay man and it is with great pride that I say congratulations to him on his win in the primary.
And just when the day couldn’t get any better...more good news. Our current Republican Secretary of State, Mike Coffman won his primary race in CD-6, an open seat being vacated by the odious Tom Tancredo. There is a Democratic opponent named Hank Eng but the outcome is a foregone conclusion--this is an easy pick up for the Republicans.
Wait a minute...why is that great news if you are a Democrat? Because Mike is headed to Congress which means our current Democratic governor, Bill Ritter will be appointing a Democrat to fill out Mike’s term. We haven’t had a Democrat in the Secretary of State’s seat for a long, long time and in some ways, this is the sweetest news of all.
All in all, Tuesday night proved to be a damn fine day to be a Democrat in Colorado.