Hello, Colorado Kosserians!
I want to talk about some local election results from Denver suburbs with which I am familiar, school board results from all over, and open the comments for discussion about results from your locality. Click here to select a county for full results.
WINS
The best results we saw for progressives were in Aurora, and thankfully so, given the massive investment into Aurora Council and school board candidates. Of the 8 progressive candidates running, 7 won, and the one who lost was the one we expected to lose: Martha Lugo in Council Ward 3, where the Dem/progressive vote was split 3 ways against one incumbent Republican (more on this dynamic in a moment).
Another loss though was that Tom Tobiassen, the centrist Dem running for Council At Large—expected to win based on name recognition from his service on the RTD Board, his business support, and funds—finished third, just a hair behind the second place finisher, retired Air Force Colonel & Republican Dave Gruber. This is too bad, but I gotta say, maybe Tom shouldn’t have pandered right in an environment drawing the greatest amount of progressive activist energy to mobilize the vote. Unlike 1st place finisher and indisputable progressive Allison Hiltz, Tobiassen said that Aurora should not be a sanctuary city. Way to motivate your base, great job. :-/
In addition to Allison’s first place finish for At Large, the other two big winners for Council are Crystal Murillo, whose story will certainly bring a smile and a tear, and Nicole Johnston, a powerhouse community activist. For School Board J28, the slate of proponents of traditional public schools and unionized teachers known as Aurora's A Team, all won. This is a pretty amazing result all around, so all y’all in Aurora who voted, major props to you for helping create a clear shift away from Republican rule and corporate influence.
Perhaps the biggest win with national implications was the resounding victory of the anti-voucher school board slate of Schor, Leung, Graziano, and Holtzmann in Douglas County. If you follow education policy, especially with regard to “choice” and vouchers, you are almost certainly already aware of this win, but if not, this Mother Jones piece will catch you up on this pivotal fight that pit Americans For Prosperity against the American Federation of Teachers, with hundreds of thousands spent.
Along similar lines, another major victory was the re-election of the JeffCo School Board members who were initially elected in the 2015 recall of Koch-funded Tea-Partier historical revisionists.
In Northglenn, the city remains in Democratic hands, although that’s not entirely great. Democrat Carol Dodge, who appeared tied to some unpleasant tactics, handily won election over union leader Democrat Debbie Olander, whose late entry into the race proved too great a factor to overcome with heavy canvassing support from labor. Julie Mullica, Jenny Willford, and Meredith Leighty have been sworn in.
In Broomfield, two anti-fracking community candidates, Deven Shaff and Guyleen Castriotta, rose above challengers. Also, Broomfield passed the fracking-regulation Question 301 by 15%, which is a strong victory margin. Of course this will precipitate legal actions, but it is a strong stand and the result of great local organizing.
MIXED RESULTS
Westminster saw the re-election of the arguably sensible Republican Mayor Herb Atchison, as well as wins of two out of three available At Large seats: one re-elected incumbent, Emma Pinter, and one newcomer, Kathryn Skulley, a professor at Front Range Community College. The new Republican is longtime candidate Dave DeMott, who is problematic. Still, we can be thankful that Bruce Baker is not Mayor.
In Lakewood, the only Democrat to win is Jacob LaBure in Ward 2. Unpleasant Republican incumbent Ramey Johnson held off the other progressive of note, Dem Kyra DeGruy, in Ward 1. There was only one Dem candidate in the three southern Wards combined, William Furman, and he lost.
MEH
In Denver, only one proponent of traditional public schools and unionized teachers was able to overcome the Kochalance of ed reform dollars: the superbly qualified Dr. Carrie Olson, who is resigning from her teaching position to take the seat on the Board. If only the other Board members recognized their similar conflicts of interest and resigned from their non-Board positions. Oh well. Hopefully new members Jennifer Bacon and Angela Cobian will take more measured positions on blaming teachers--rather than TABOR funding problems and widespread increasing poverty—for low performing students, and using that as a reason to close traditional neighborhood schools and replace them with charters.
The sad note is that the At Large seat could have been won, if there had been a discussion between and subsequent agreement by Julie Bañuelos and Robert Speth as to who would run and who would support the other. As was the case in Aurora Ward 3, the progressive vote was split, and we all know what happens (or is at least likely to happen) when a vote is split. More on this later.
A MESS
Thornton saw only one Dem of 4 prevail, and she—Sherry Goodman in Ward 1--was the Dem who was endorsed by the pro-fracking industry group Vital For Colorado, spending under the IE committee name Thornton For A Stronger Economy (this group spend in other cities under IEs with the same name format, replacing the city name in each instance). Ward 1 featured 3 Dems and a Green as candidates splitting the progressive vote.
The best Dem candidate, Suzie Brundage, lost by less than 1% to the incumbent, an Anadarko Petroleum employee and public education foe Jan Kulmann, in Ward 4. In Ward 2, another female fracker with name rec defeated two flawed Democrats, and in Ward 3, the unaffiliated incumbent staved off two challengers, one Dem and one Rep. This city will need a lot of help to right the ship—by which I mean left the ship—in 2019 when a new Mayor will be elected.
TAKEAWAYS
* Probably the biggest problem is youth turnout. About 2/3 of the electorate was over 50. While this is understandable, it has to be changed to elect progressives. The bright spot is that those aged 18 vastly outperformed those aged 19-29, so if we can connect those first time voters with the candidates personally, I feel that they will be much more likely to remain engaged voters for all following elections. This may not be breaking news to some, but it’s worth repeating, and it may be more significant for nonpartisan, off-year elections, in terms of engagement by those voters in the following even-year election.
There is a problem 1A attached: the nature of nonpartisan elections naturally favors older voters who have more experience in the community, know more names, and have more time to do the research. Communication and engagement with younger voters should dispense with the pretense of “nonpartisan” as much as possible, even while the values probably should be prioritized over Party ID for communication when dealing with Unaffiliated young voters.
* The second major problem is candidate recruitment and training. I think this is improving with the specific use of social media to connect and build community, but it’s clearly not good enough. This problematic situation results in both 1) unprepared candidates, and 2) too many candidates who end up splitting the vote, with the result that one prepared candidate with opposing views wins out. Obviously if that prepared candidate brings along a financial advantage, it’s even more likely that they will win.
* Overall low turnout is a persistent issue and not likely to be solved. However there have to be ways to improve it over time. Major voter registration drives EVERY year can simultaneously inform those newly registered about off-year elections, and how to ensure that one stays on top of keeping one’s registration current. County Parties that are effective on a continual basis, rather than engaging only for even-year campaign season, play a major role in solving all the above problems, so if you aren’t already an active volunteer in your County Party, please find them today and pitch in as a precinct or ward officer or committeeperson.
Thanks for reading! Let’s talk about your local elections: good, bad, or... other. ;-)
