By Joey Bunch and Ernest Luning
The Gazette
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The Colorado governor’s race turned on aspirations, financial realities and a blue wave of support for Democrats, drowning Republican gubernatorial nominee Walker Stapleton in favor of Democrat Jared Polis, who will become the first openly gay governor in the U.S., and the state’s first Jewish governor.
Both ABC News and pollster Floyd Ciruli at KUSA-TV projected that Polis would win the election within an hour of the polls closing.
With nearly 1.4 million votes counted as of 7:52 p.m. Mountain Standard Time, Polis was leading Stapleton by more than 6 percentage points, 51.4 percent to 45 percent.
While Polis spoke of free preschool, universal health care and 100 percent renewable energy by 2040 —top wishes on almost any progressive wish list —Stapleton attacked Polis as “radical and extreme” and obsessed about government efficiency and relying on the private sector to address issues ranging from transportation and education to healthcare and public pensions.
During the fall debates, Stapleton depicted Polis as a free-spending liberal ready to promise Colorado and its major industries into bankruptcy. If Polis delivers, Stapleton insisted, Coloradans will have to raise taxes and pay higher utility bills.
The Republican nominee argued that renewable energy might be the wave of the future but said that’s no reason to regulate the oil and gas industry out of business, jeopardizing the jobs and tax revenue it provides Colorado.
“It’s a disastrous, job-killing measure for Colorado,” Stapleton told callers to his telephone town hall last week.
Polis, an entrepreneur who struck it rich starting businesses, said cutting spending and costs are ways he can deliver on his education and health care promises. Contrary to persistent attacks, Polis said his pledge to move the state toward renewable energy relies on innovation and encouraging market solutions, not the mandates Stapleton warns will soak consumers.
Polis sidestepped specifics when it comes to tightening regulations on oil and gas production, a cause he championed just four years ago when the congressman from the Boulder-based 2nd District financed — and later withdrew — a ballot measure that would have drastically increased setbacks between occupied structures and drilling operations.
As far as his pledges to provide full-day preschool and kindergarten, Polis said a combination of spending priorities and social-impact bonds will provide the funding. The bonds, already used in some Colorado communities and by other western states, repay investors with the money school districts save with lower special education and grade repetition costs for students who attend the expanded pre-school offerings.
Polis plans to move the state toward universal health care with multiple proposals aimed at cutting costs and increasing coverage. He said he’ll also explore whether to band together with neighboring states to come up with a regional single-payer system, a process that could take years.
On renewable energy, one of the first promises Polis made when he got in the governor’s race last year, the Democrat listed incremental steps, such as his encouraging solar and wind power on public lands and appointing like-minded members to the Public Utilities Commission.
Midterm elections historically favor the party that doesn’t occupy the White House. President Donald Trump motivated Democrats more than less-aggressive and bombastic Republicans might.
Polis enjoyed that baked-in momentum in his quest to become the state’s first gay and first Jewish governor.
An early trouble sign for Stapleton came in the June primaries, when for the first time, unaffiliated voters were able to take part. About 119,000 more people voted in the Democratic primary than in the Republican matchup, and 66 percent more unaffiliated voters voted Democratic than Republican in the primary.
Looming over the election was the presidency of Donald Trump, and the fact that, while popular among Colorado Republicans, Trump is phenomenally unpopular among Democrats and also disliked by most independent voters who often decide Colorado elections. A Republican-led poll in June indicated nearly 7 in 10 Coloradans had a negative view of the president, and 57 percent disliked the Republican Party.
In the primary, at least, Stapleton enthusiastically embraced Trump and said the president would be welcome to campaign with him in Colorado. But once Stapleton became the party’s nominee, Trump did not show up in the state to campaign for Stapleton or any other Republican. And when Vice President Mike Pence dropped in on a fundraising lunch in Denver, Stapleton was nowhere to be seen.
However, Trump did endorse Stapleton in tweets, first on Oct. 10, several weeks after former President Barack Obama endorsed Polis.
Publicly released polling had shown Polis ahead of Stapleton since the primary.
Several surveys conducted between late June and early October found Polis holding a consistent 7 percentage point lead over Stapleton. The Democrat held a lead in two polls released last week, although the one from a Democratic firm said Polis was ahead by 11 percentage points, while the one from a Republican firm found a tighter race, with Polis leading by 5 percentage points.
Stapleton raised money from some of the state’s richest and best-known business leaders, as well as celebrities such as Denver Broncos legend John Elway, as well as putting $1 million of his own funds into his campaign.
Through the most recent reporting period, Stapleton had hauled in $4 million for his campaign, and his political action committee, Better Colorado Now, had also raised $4 million.
But it was Polis with cash to burn — at last count, contributing $22 million to his campaign from his own pocket.
Polis will be sworn in as the next General Assembly convenes in January. He will inherit a state budget that next year is expected to total $31.4 billion, an increase of $1.5 billion or 4.6 percent, over last year.
