It appears that both Denver Public Schools and RTD can rest easy; their funding proposals are passing. So is 2Q, which will raise Denver's sales tax to help subsidize Denver Health. But 2R, which would have raised Denver's sales tax in order to push an affordability program, is still losing.
The proposed fur ban is definitely dead, as is the proposed slaughterhouse ban.
And it looks like non-citizens will be able to become police officers and firefighters...if they're not deported when once and future President Donald Trump makes good on his threat to conduct a mass deportation on his first day back in office.
While Boyles and Trimpa will continue this broadcast for at least another hour or two, and the Denver Election Office seems to be on an every-ninety-minute schedule, I'm heading off into the snow.
Which, so far, is still white, not red.
We'll be back online tomorrow with updates on the latest figures. But in the meantime, you can track the most recent Denver results here, and the Colorado results here.
A Good Night for Republicans in Much of the Country
The consensus here in the studio, where all the voices are local and the national pundits are silenced: It's been a very good night for Republicans. "It's been a great Republican night," admits political strategist Ted Trimpa, who is as far from a Republican as you can get.The Republicans are taking the U.S. Senate. Donald Trump just rolled up North Carolina, and Georgia and Wisconsin are trending his way. The New York Times has proclaimed him the "likely" victor.
Here in Colorado, Kamala Harris secured a solid win. In CD8, Yadira Caraveo is holding her own against Gabe Evans; Adam Frisch is still putting up a fight against Republican Jeff Hurd for CD3. But it's hard to miss the red wave heading this way.
Mountain Lion Hunting Ban Goes Down
What's less popular in Colorado: a mountain lion or an election clerk? In one of the surprises of the night, the proposal to allow more time for certain elections is going down (that would be the mostly-overlooked Amendment K), while the very-much publicized proposal to ban the hunting of mountain lions is going down in a big way.Meanwhile, Amendment J has passed, which will remove language in the Colorado Constitution that bans same-sex marriage. And Amendment 79 has also passed, which will enshrine the right to an abortion in the constitution...and also remove the prohibition on any public funds being used for abortions that voters approved back in 1984.
KK appears to be passing, which means hunters will have to pay a little more for the guns and ammo they'll use to hunt those mountain lions.
But the surprising big winner among the Colorado ballot measures? Proposition JJ, which will give more sports-betting tax revenue to the Colorado Water Plan...which is exactly what the original measure that allowed sports-betting should have done four years ago.
Can Republicans Make a Comeback in Colorado?
"What will it take to get the Republicans to go forward?" Peter Boyles is talking to a caller, while former congressman Tom Tancredo listens. Back in 2010, Tancredo took a quixotic run as a third-party candidate because the Republican candidate for governor, Dan Maes, was a loser who, as he says, "just wanted a job." Although Democrat John Hickenlooper, who'd most recently been mayor of Denver, won the race, Tancredo definitely gave him a run for his money, coming in with 35 percent of the vote. Dan Maes got just 10 percent; if he'd placed much lower, the Colorado Republican Party would have become a minor party.
Fourteen years later, under the leadership of Dave Williams, it often comes close. While Lauren Boebert has won in CD4, Adam Frisch is still in play in her old district of CD3. And as Tancredo says, no one with an R after their name is going to win a statewide race in the foreseeable future.
And Kamala Harris trounced Trump in Colorado.
Colorado Is Called for Kamala Harris
"I'm going to win Colorado," Donald Trump proclaimed last weekend.Wrong. The state has now been called for Kamala Harris, who's leading by about 11 percent. But that can't be much of a surprise to anyone but Trump, who likes to say that Colorado's election system is "rigged" and during his rally in Aurora last month occasionally broke from his diatribes against immigrants in order to castigate Governor Jared Polis, accusing him of getting involved in the lawsuit to keep him off the Colorado primary ballot.
Wrong again. That lawsuit was filed by six Colorado voters, all either unaffiliated or Republicans, who believed that Trump did not qualify for the ballot because of his actions on January 6, 2021.
Here's how Trump concluded that rally: "I will ban all sanctuary cities, including Denver. And we will begin the largest deportation program in the history of our country. We will not be conquered. We will reclaim our sovereignty, and Colorado will vote for Trump. I will give you back your freedom and your life. And together we will make America powerful again. We will make America wealthy again. We will make America healthy again. We will make America strong again. We will make America proud again. We will make America safe again. And we will make America great again."
But he will not win Colorado.
Is Proposition 131 an Invitation to a Weird Party?
Denver hasn't updated its results since 7 p.m. Colorado is moving a lot faster, and the prospects for Proposition 131 aren't looking good. As of 8 p.m., when the Secretary of State's Office last updated the count, it's losing by 10 percentage points."It's like an invitation to a weird party," explains one pundit. "You like parties, but there's just too much that's weird."
"Party" is a good choice of words. Clearly, Colorado's two-party primary system has to be opened up, and the first half of 131 would do an admirable job of that. But the ranked choice voting system in the general election seems unduly complicated. And what happened to the single-subject rules for ballot measures, anyway?
Close to $30 million was spent on 131. That buys a hell of a lot of party favors.
Talk Is Cheap in a Civil Society...for Now
Peter Boyles is a longtime Denver talk-show host; just when you want to pigeonhole his politics, he gets in a big fight with election-denier strategist John Eastman. Meanwhile, Ted Trimpa is a gay Democratic political strategist who helped turn this state blue over the past two decades.They're co-hosting KNUS, 71 AM tonight (listen here), taking calls and chatting with everyone from Brother Jeff to Mike Rosen, who are polar opposites on the political spectrum. With the weather outside tonight, polar seems an appropriate description. But it's also one of the hallmarks of this state that people with very different views can sit down and have a civil conversation. At least during the first hour of election returns.
The Fur's Flying Over Two Denver Proposals...
Hat's off: It looks like the proposed fur ban is going down in Denver. Ditto for the slaughterhouse ban.Both of these Denver ballot proposals — Initiated Ordinance 308 and Initiated Ordinance 309 — always seemed to be imposed upon the city by outside interests (although they certainly had plenty of sincere supporters here). Still, a ballot measure geared to a single slaughterhouse?
A slaughterhouse is by nature an unsavory business, but Superior Farms supplies 160 jobs...and many of those employees are even owners of the company. City, state and federal officials can police this slaughterhouse to make sure it observes health and environmental regulations — and fine it when it does not — but eliminating a business that's a longtime citizen of this city would not have been a good move.
Click here for updates from Denver Elections.
Snow Puts a Damper on Last-Second Votes
About half of Colorado's four million active voters mailed in their ballots or voted early — which means the tens of thousands of people just trying to deliver their ballot to an official drop box today often landed in traffic jams reminiscent of Black Friday at Walmart, according to one Adams County voter. And then came the snow, tangling last-second runs even further. But while the process may have been slow, it's been relatively smooth as we head into the half-hour hour of voting. Remember, all completed ballots must be dropped off by 7 p.m. — but if you're in line at an official voting center at 7 p.m., you can still cast your vote in person. And then...we wait for the results on fourteen statewide ballots, ten Denver ballots, and a very big nationwide decision.
We'll be following the action as the polls close, with regular updates from the KNUS radio studio, where Peter Boyles and Ted Trimpa are broadcasting live; listen at 710 AM.
