Over the past several decades, Colorado’s political landscape has changed in many ways and in dramatic fashion. This volume identifies and focuses on these changes and seeks to provide some explanations for these shifts by placing them within the larger context of national and regional politics and shifting demographic and partisan patterns in Colorado. These developments include a shift within the Republican Party that led to the end of its dominance in most state and congressional elections, as well as increased use of direct democracy that has resulted in the implementation of term limits, significant changes in fiscal policy, major...

This chapter provides a historical overview of Colorado electoral politics, including both federal and state elections, and demonstrates that the state of Colorado is very much available to either political party. Over the long term, the state has voted for both Democrats and Republicans in major statewide contests such as US president, state governor, and US Senate. From 2004 to 2008, there was a discernable Democratic trend in Colorado voting. This trend, which paralleled a nationwide shift to the Democratic Party, was not unusual for the state and fit with traditional Colorado voting behavior.

In the years since the end...

As recently as 2002, Colorado appeared to be reliably Republican: George W. Bush won the state 51–42 in 2000, and in 2002 Governor Bill Owens—who won a close contest in 1998—was reelected by almost two-thirds of the electorate. That same year Senator Wayne Allard, after trailing in many polls, was reelected by a five-point margin. Republicans also retained control of the General Assembly by regaining a majority in the state senate and won Colorado’s newly created Seventh Congressional District—designed to be competitive for both parties—by 121 votes (Barone and Cohen 2008). In short, Republicans controlled...

The 2008 presidential nominations process was an unusual one for Colorado.¹ After years of holding largely ceremonial presidential caucuses and primaries in which the nominations had already been effectively decided, 2008 presented the state with a rare chance to be consequential. The nominations contests in both major political parties were far from settled, and the state’s decision to join twenty other states in an early February election date had compelled candidates to devote campaign resources and candidate time to winning the delegates from the Centennial State.

The state’s increasing importance in presidential nominations paralleled its rising significance in general elections....

Colorado has a rich history of direct democracy. The most widely used form of direct democracy—the so-called citizen initiative—allows individuals and groups to circulate petitions in an effort to qualify a statutory or constitutional measure on the ballot for a statewide vote.¹ For nearly a century, the initiative has shaped the political landscape of Colorado. As we have seen in earlier chapters, many Coloradans consider direct democracy the bane of the state’s existence, allowing disjointed and destabilizing policies to become embedded into the state constitution. Others, though, view the initiative process as the state’s salvation, rightfully returning the...

This chapter examines multiple changes in Colorado’s election procedures in recent decades and their subsequent impacts. One major change, arguably the most innovative electoral development in the past century, has been the development of vote centers that have replaced precinct voting in a growing number of Colorado jurisdictions. Another significant change is the widespread use of permanent mail balloting that has recently correlated closely with increased voter participation.

Still other changes have resulted from the increasingly complex mix of new federal and state election laws that have often created challenging and costly problems for the county officials who must implement...

What a difference a few decades and shifts in political winds can make. The Colorado General Assembly in the early 1980s—under the control of a Republican Party with comfortable house and senate majorities—featured strong leadership, a dominating House Rules Committee run by an experienced and strategic veteran speaker, experienced committee chairs, and a senate with a similarly experienced president and committee chairs. Both chambers had considerable election-to-election turnover but were shaped by the long-term tenure of a small number of veteran members. For example, Speaker of the House Carl “Bev” Bledsoe served nineteen years in the house, ten...

On November 8, 1988, an overwhelming 72 percent to 28 percent majority of Coloradans voted for a democratic experiment that remains unique in US political history. They approved an initiative, put on the ballot by a coalition of twenty-three government reformers and civic groups, that promised to “Give a Vote to Every Legislator” (GAVEL). This initiative resulted in a reorganization of the state legislature, the Colorado General Assembly, and played an important role as one catalyst for the broader transformation taking place in Colorado politics. The changes it brought were especially acute in the Colorado House of Representatives and were...

On January 1, 1991, the state of Colorado initiated term limits restricting service in the Colorado State Senate to two consecutive terms, for a total of eight years, and the Colorado House of Representatives to four consecutive terms, for a total of eight years. All legislators in office during the 1991–1992 legislative term were term-limited out of office beginning January 1, 1999. More than a decade has passed since the first state representatives and senators were term-limited, and ample data are now available to examine the effect of term limits on elections and representation in Colorado. While there are...

This is a story about the evolution of fiscal policy and related institutional change in Colorado over the past two-and-a-half decades. It is a story about the substantial dismantling of a governing apparatus capable of establishing policy direction and budget priorities. It is a story of a decision-making style our founders would surely have viewed with dismay, and it is the story of a state in which fiscal policy is piled upon fiscal policy in a process driven largely by the uncoordinated pursuit of special advantage by an assortment of interests and the flow of economic circumstances rather than by...

The most recent comprehensive review of Colorado’s public finances found that “approximately 80 percent of the State’s total revenues were earmarked” (Colorado Office of the Governor 1959: 131). Specifically, 57 percent of the state’s revenues were earmarked by the state constitution, while another 23 percent were earmarked by statute (ibid.). The practice of earmarking fixes expenditure programs in perpetuity and privileges some state functions over others. Programs supported by earmarks are not subject to the same annual consideration and competition for funds that define legislative budget processes. Agencies and beneficiary groups develop proprietary interests in earmarking, and these programs are...

As illustrated throughout this volume, Colorado’s politics, which for over 100 years has featured an independent citizenry, is nothing if not both changeable and resistant to one-party rule. For most of the state’s history, neither the Democratic nor the Republican Party has been able to fully dominate elective politics; on the few occasions when one party has gained the upper hand, complete hegemony was short-lived. Republicans found that out in 2004, as did the Democrats in 2010.

Consistent with our argument that Colorado politics is fluid and subject to change, the state’s political landscape shifted again in the months preceding...