Gov Ritter (D): “The Democratic Party cannot be the party of metro Denver and Boulder"
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/12/us...r=rss&emc=rss&
DENVER — When Colorado passed a series of tough gun restrictions last winter, Democrats and gun control advocates hailed it as a sign of changing attitudes in a Western swing state. But moments after a pivotal vote in the state Senate, a Republican lawmaker named Greg Brophy warned that Colorado’s independent-leaning voters would rebel against the new laws.Related
- Colorado Lawmakers Ousted in Recall Vote Over Gun Law(September 11, 2013)
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Matthew Staver for The New York Times
Senator John Morse was also recalled. The two Democrats had backed tough gun restrictions.
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“The backlash will be severe,” he said.
On Tuesday, Democrats here got a taste of that popular anger, as voters in a recall election ousted two state senators who had been strong supporters of the gun control laws. Although it was a small, off-year election, the recall campaign grew into a referendum that pitted the National Rifle Association against Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York.
On Wednesday, gun advocates called the result a huge victory that they said would dampen other states’ efforts to pursue gun restrictions.
While some voters in the two districts groused about the flood of donations Mr. Bloomberg and outside groups made in the recall campaigns, analysts in Colorado said the election results were shaped by an eruption of local discontent from voters who say their leaders are ignoring the concerns of gun owners and abandoning Colorado’s rural, libertarian roots.
After years of gains propelled by shifting demographics and voter attitudes, Democrats now control the state legislature and the governor’s mansion, and make up most of Colorado’s Congressional delegation. But state officials said that the recalls showed how Colorado’s political pendulum could still swing in surprising directions, and that deep rifts still lay beneath its increasingly blue veneer.
“This is a state with a wide variety of interests at stake,” said Bill Ritter, a Democrat and former governor. “The Democratic Party cannot be the party of metro Denver and Boulder. It has to be the party who understands the values, views and aspirations of people who live outside of those areas.”
In addition to the gun laws, Democratic majorities in the legislature passed green-energy requirements for rural electric cooperatives, offered in-state college tuition to illegal immigrants who were Colorado high school graduates, and expanded mail-in voting. And Gov. John W. Hickenlooper, a Democrat, granted a reprieve to a convicted killer, heading off the state’s first execution in 16 years. Republicans opposed many of those acts.
As they fought for their political lives, the two senators facing recall, John Morse and Angela Giron, described themselves as common-sense Democrats who understood their state’s values. Mr. Morse, also the state Senate president, had been a police chief. Ms. Giron represented the heavily Hispanic, working-class town of Pueblo, which has struggled through years of layoffs at its steel mill.
They said the new gun laws, which include background checks on private gun sales and limits on ammunition magazines, were moderate restrictions that made sense in a state scarred by gun massacres at Columbine High School in 1999 and a movie theater in Aurora last year. In a state where hunting and shooting have long been part of everyday life, Mr. Morse and Ms. Giron had to make a nuanced case that they supported both gun rights as well as some restrictions.
But on Tuesday, many of their constituents seemed to reject their arguments. Mr. Morse lost his recall by 343 votes — almost the same margin by which he had eked out re-election in 2010.
Ms. Giron’s loss raised far more red flags for Democrats. She represented a district where registered Democrats outnumbered Republicans by two to one, and she won her seat in 2010 by 10 percentage points. But on Tuesday, voters lined up against her, 56 percent to 44 percent.
Of the state’s four Hispanic lawmakers from Pueblo County, Ms. Giron was the only one to back the most contentious gun legislation, said Theresa Trujillo, the Southern Colorado director for the Colorado Progressive Coalition. She also said that young Latino voters — a likely source of support — were not committed to the election. Recall proponents, she said, were gung-ho.
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