Brief by Central Staff
Politics – December 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine
Back on Oct. 15, the New York Times ran a story about how race was or wasn’t a factor in the presidential election in Chaffee and Lake counties, which are almost entirely white.
Among those quoted was Leadville Mayor Bud Elliott, who “said he thought Mr. Obama would win there because of the historic alliance of the mining unions and the Democratic Party. But Mr. Elliott also expects a gap, with Mr. Obama winning by a smaller margin than other Democrats, because of race-based defections.”
Was Elliott right?
Obama carried Lake County easily, with 1,847 votes to John McCain’s 1,076. He got more votes than Democrat Mark Udall did in defeating Republican Bob Schaffer for U.S. Senate, 1,785 to 917, and more votes than Democratic county commissioner candidate Carl Schaefer did in defeating Republican Donna R. McGinnis, 1,813 to 1,037.
So it appears that Elliott was wrong — Obama took Lake County by about 800 votes, just like other Democratic candidates.
We also note that Lake County, as is traditional, was the only county in the 5th Congressional District (heavily Republican, since it is dominated by Colorado Springs) to be carried by the Democratic candidate. Hal Bidlack won in Lake County, 1,582 to 1,056, over Republican incumbent Doug Lamborn, who was easily re-elected by the rest of the district.
Democrat Jay Fawcett carried Chaffee County against Lamborn in 2006, but this time around, Lamborn carried Chaffee 4,929 to 4,013.
The 5th District, created in 1972 after Colorado gained another House seat in the 1970 census, has never elected a Democrat. (The 1st District, essentially Denver, elected a Republican in 1970, but has been carried by a Democrat ever since.)
The presidential election was extremely close in Chaffee, with McCain winning by just five votes, 4,832 to 4,827.
Judging by the presidential race, the most Republican county hereabouts is Frémont, where McCain got 63.6% of the vote, followed closely by Custer at 63.4% (as Hal Walter notes in his column this month, the GOP primary is the election in Custer County, which led him to register as a Republican).
The most Democratic County is Costilla, where Obama got 73.3%, followed by Gunnison and Saguache, each 62.4%, and Lake, 61.8%.
As for local ballot issues, bonds and tax increases were generally defeated. That may not represent parsimony by local taxpayers so much as worry about the economy, what with the serious fluctuations in the Dow-Jones Industrial Average and a $700 billion bailout of the financial sector that doesn’t seem to produce many improvements.
