Brief by Central Staff
Election – December 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine
On the national and state levels, this year’s election had a pattern — basically, a Republican sweep. But in Central Colorado, some Democrats got elected, as did a lot of Republicans. Some tax increases passed, others failed, some term limits were retained while others were eliminated — in other words, we’re a diverse lot.
In the congressional races, Republican incumbents easily won both relevant seats. Scott McInnis of Grand Junction got 65.8% of the vote in the Third District, and Joel Hefley of Colorado Springs received 70.7% in the Fifth. Curtis Imrie of Buena Vista, the Democratic candidate, got only 23.2% of the vote (Libertarian Biff Baker got the other 6%), but he did accomplish something no other Democrat has done since the Fifth had its first election 30 years ago — he carried a county. That was Lake County, where he got 1,144 votes to Hefley’s 980 and Baker’s 186.
There wasn’t a state senate race for much of Central Colorado, because it was in Ken Chlouber’s redrawn 4th district, and his term isn’t up until 2004. He ran for the congressional seat in Denver, and with only 48,522 votes, he lost by a landslide to incumbent Democrat Diana DeGette’s 107,985.
In the state’s 5th Senate District (San Luis Valley and north to include Gunnison, Chaffee and Pitkin counties), Republican incumbent Lew Entz of Hooper won easily, with 58% of the vote; Democrat Rafael Gallegos got 36.8% and Libertarian Sandra Johnson 5.2%.
Fremont and Custer counties, and points south and east to the state line, are in the 2nd Senate District, where Republican Ken Kester got 57.4% of the vote, well ahead of Democrat Dan Slater’s 39.6%, and Libertarian James G. Healey’s 3%.
As for the House, Democrat Carl Miller of Leadville had a new district, the 56th, which includes Lake, Summit, and Eagle counties. He won a squeaker: 9,821 to Republican Heather Lemon’s 9,495. He got plenty of support from home by carrying Lake County 1,923 to 462.
In the 60th (Chaffee, Park, Fremont, Custer, and eastern Saguache), Republican incumbent Lola Spradley of Beulah defeated Democrat Emily Tracy 16,953- 8,702. Spradley will be the first woman to be Speaker of the House of Representatives, so maybe we’ll get a little more from the legislature. She’s also term-limited.
The 61st (western Saguache, Gunnison, Hinsdale, Pitkin, a little bit of Eagle and eastern Garfield) elected a Republican, Gregg P. Rippey, with 51.9% to Democrat Rick Davis’s 43.7% and 4.4% for Abba Krieger of the Natural Law Party.
Most of the San Luis Valley is in District 62, where the Democratic challenger, John T. Salazar, defeated Republican incumbent Jim Snook by 12,261 to 8,522.
On the county level, several school and other districts put a question on the ballot: Should we retain or remove term limits? Fremont RE-2 enthusiastically rejected term limits with 61% of the vote; Salida R32-J retained them by an even greater margin. Go figure.
Chaffee Democrats celebrated on election night; the only county office they didn’t win was sheriff. Lake County Democrats did even better; the closest race there was for county commissioner, where Ken Olsen defeated Joe King 1,384- 1,037.
Republicans won everything in Alamosa County, where Democrats contested only a commissioner race. Custer and Park counties are GOP territory, but both elected a Democrat. Clerk Debbie Livengood was unopposed in Custer, but there was a contest for coroner in Park County, where Democrat Sharon Morris got 57.7% of the vote.
We also note, from examining the columns of numbers, that Park County still elects a county surveyor: Republican Jack Kirby, who was unopposed and received 4,382 votes.
