Rob Witwer - The Blueprint: How the Democrats Won Colorado
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- Book:The Blueprint: How the Democrats Won Colorado
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This is the inside story of one of the most stunning reversals of political fortune in American history. Four years ago, the GOP dominated politics at every level in Colorado. Republicans held both Senate seats, five of seven congressional seats, the governors mansion, the offices of secretary of state and treasurer, and both houses of the state legislature. After the 2008 election, the exact opposite was true: replace the word Republicans with Democrats in the previous sentence, and you have of one the most stunning reversals of political fortune in American history.
This is also the story of how it will happenindeed, is happeningin other states across the country. In Colorado, progressives believe they have found a blueprint for creating permanent Democratic majorities across the nation. With discipline and focus, they have pioneered a legal architecture designed to take advantage of new campaign finance laws and an emerging breed of progressive donors who are willing to commit unprecedented resources to local races. Its simple, brilliant, and very effective.
Rob Witwer is a former member of the Colorado House of Representatives and practices law in Denver.
Emmy awardwinning journalist Adam Schrager covers politics for KUSA-TV, the NBC affiliate in Denver. Schrager and his family live in the Denver area. He is the author of The Principled Politician: Governor Ralph Carr and the Fight against Japanese Internment
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We are fundamentally an independently minded state, a pretty moderate state. As the Republican Party went further to the right, it really opened the door to moderate Democratspeople like Ken Salazar, Bill Ritterto be popular and win statewide. And really, weve never had a problem with people considering Democrats for our state and local offices. Even in districts that are traditionally Republican, where Bush won handily, people are open-minded and willing to check different party ballots.
State legislative races used to be local campaigns. They did revolve around a lot of local issues, and candidates were seen through that prism. But now theyve basically become nationalized. There now is a statewide theme to these legislative races, and I think thats sad because I think people are voting on state legislative candidates now without having the foggiest idea of who the candidates are from the standpoint of who they are in their community, what theyve done, what their thoughts are about local issues. I think thats been one of the casualties of this process as well.
Im a supporter of campaign finance reform. I think its a better climate. Its not positive to have the candidate out there asking for money from people that are affected by the laws they are going to be making. Absolutely, by taking it on the outside, its better than it was before when the candidates had to raise the moneyIt comes down to who is a candidate talking to. If youre only talking to people who are going to donate $2, $3, $4,000, youre talking to a very select slice of the American people, and they clearly have their own agenda. Even if its not quid pro quo, and its most often not, most people are not corrupt, its just who youre hanging with, who youre talking to, whos at your fund-raisers, so I would love a system that encouraged small contributions, $25, $50, with federal matching funds.
Weve learned that campaign finance reform doesnt work. Amendment 27 was designed to benefit Democratic candidates. Through loopholes that were put there by design, organized labor enjoys special exemptions from campaign finance limits. Colorados campaign finance reformwhich I opposedwas a significant part of the Democratic strategy to defund Republican candidates and empower their super- wealthy donors. It left huge loopholes for Democrats and tied the hands of traditional Republican supporters.
Starting in the early 1990s, a civil war started within our party between moderates and conservatives that over time resulted in Democrats winning state legislative seats that historically had been Republican. Several moderate Republican incumbents found themselves fending off or even being defeated by conservative challengers. Although abortion certainly dominated these primaries, gun rights and fiscal issues also figured prominently. These primaries were so viciously fought that it often drove moderates to support Democrats in the general election or found conservatives just not voting at all in a race with a moderate Republican candidate, resulting in Democratic wins.
Conversations at the state Capitol were largely about social issues and they were not moving on school funding, transportation funding, or finding ways to fix a broken healthcare system. Thats been important to Democrats because our strategy is to talk about how you progress, what the future of this state looks like, what is it we can do to return to a place where Coloradans can be proud to be Coloradans.
Unfortunately, our conservative leadership at both the national and state levels lost their way. Our Republicans in Washington grew government and spent more money. They pushed for amnesty for illegal immigrants and expanded the federal bureaucracy through programs like No Child Left Behind. Here in Colorado, Governor Owens pushed for tax increases and would not work with Republican legislators on issues like illegal immigration. All of these things disenfranchised and demoralized our base. At the same time, Democrats had an incredibly well-funded and organized operation that we couldnt compete with. It created a perfect storm.
The divisive primaries have reflected the split in the Republican Party between social conservatives and economic conservatives. The shift of upscale, inner-suburban, well-educated Republicans, mainly in Jefferson and Arapahoe counties, to the Democrats is the major change in Colorado politics at the present time. If a state has few social conservatives to be gained, social conservative domination of the Republican Party leads to major defections of old inner-suburban economic Republicans to the Democrats. This already happened in New England and Middle Atlantic states such as Connecticut and New Jersey, and is happening now in New Hampshire. Colorado is just catching up.
Democrats won with equal parts spectacular Democratic strategy, massive funding, and Republican implosion.
Republicans have forgotten that politics is a game of addition, not subtraction.
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