Colorado Constituents Recalling (2) State Senators for Gun Control Vote

[Devils30]

Sadly, the only people that care about these elections are on here. Between Syria and the NYC mayoral vote, its tough to see this getting more than zero national attention.

[Devils30]

And these are like D+7 districts, tell me the GOP track record in them in general elections. Appealing to a narrow electorate is great for low-turnout votes like tonight. Of course gun control played a role but far less than turnout. That said, Dems might as well wait a decade or so to pursue any gun legislation at the national level. They need an entrenched majority before going beyond simple background checks and at this point economic growth needs to be the agenda driver.

[Miles]

I don't mean literally that no minority or voter under 30 voted. But obviously it was a super low turnout election. Again, the GOP can cherish their minor league numbers. Beat us in 2016 and then we can talk.

Of course it wasn't. Turnout in Giron's district was not far below 2010 when the district was larger.

Carry on!

Why do you have to be so condescending? Its really immature.

Turnout in 2012 was 66K; turnout tonight was 34K. How does that not constitute a huge drop in turnout?

[illegaloperation]

And these are like D+7 districts, tell me the GOP track record in them in general elections. Appealing to a narrow electorate is great for low-turnout votes like tonight. Of course gun control played a role but far less than turnout. That said, Dems might as well wait a decade or so to pursue any gun legislation at the national level. They need an entrenched majority before going beyond simple background checks and at this point economic growth needs to be the agenda driver.

Aside from expanded background check, more gun restrictions should be handle at the state level.

The mentality of those who live in rural area where crime is not much of a concern is much different from those who live in urban area with high crime rate.

[Devils30]

I can definitely see CO being slightly more GOP than the country in 2016, unlike the past two cycles. Probably not a significant swing but Hillary simply has much more room to grow in VA, NC, FL, PA, OH than CO.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

The NRA must go.

[Miles]

Aren't you the guy who calls me names all the time?

Try reading the numbers in my post again. I bolded the important criteria, which was when Giron won election. Pueblo County grew heavily in population in the 2000s and the 2010 district was held under the old lines.

For the record, in Giron's district:

GOP turnout: 10,329
Dem turnout: 14,633
Others turnout: 6,867


That is 4000 more Democrats than Republicans.

I, along with several others, wouldn't have to call you out if you weren't like that in the first place. You practically solicit negative reposes.

Ok, but to to say that turnout wasn't low would still be erroneous.

[Devils30]

And the GOP was 33% of all voters today despite being registered at 23% in Giron's. And who knows how many indies are GOP leaners. I do agree that gun control in rural areas is seen much differently and probably has more support in metro Denver.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

26 people in my hometown murdered > 2 state senators recalled

[Devils30]

I support common sense gun laws but this issue can't be the Dems top priority. Gun control and gay marriage are just not issues where national majorities are made. It's about breaking the GOP's interest groups stranglehold on politics and I would start with their business interests long before taking on the NRA.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

I support common sense gun laws but this issue can't be the Dems top priority. Gun control and gay marriage are just not issues where national majorities are made. It's about breaking the GOP's interest groups stranglehold on politics and I would start with their business interests long before taking on the NRA.

I haven't seen any recent national polls on guns, but as for gay marriage, the momentum is definitely on the side of those who support it.

[AkSaber]

Final Results, courtesy of AP

State Senate 3 - Recall Giron

Yes: 19,355 (56%)   
No: 15,201 (44%)

State Senate 11 - Recall Morse

Yes: 9,094 (51%)   
No: 8,751 (49%)

Double Whammy.

It just puts a on my face.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I support common sense gun laws but this issue can't be the Dems top priority. Gun control and gay marriage are just not issues where national majorities are made. It's about breaking the GOP's interest groups stranglehold on politics and I would start with their business interests long before taking on the NRA.

The problem for the Democrats is that not all of the gun laws progressives support are common sense.  Indeed, some of them are just plain nonsense, and supporting them weakens support for the ones that truly are needed such as universal background checks.

[smoltchanov]

Well, it's a very old truth, that many Democrats in Mountain states are, generally, "pro-gun". The same - in most of the South, the same - in many rural areas elsewhere. So, it was rather foolish to try to predict the recall results based on Obama's percentage. Obviously - in this election results MUST be  "skewed" in favor of the recall. And if you add, usual during such elections turnout drop (especially - in most Democratic areas) - these percentages become even less relevant.. Yesterday we saw EXACTLY that...

[Vosem]

Excellent news! Unfortunately, the Colorado State Senate will maintain an 18-17 Democratic majority, but this is still an encouraging rebuke to Governor Hickenlooper's policies.

[Miles]

Liberals, who tried to block the recall, are now crying voter supression!

Lol.

A more substantive link.

Hickenlooper said that people may have been sent to the polls to disrupt the process.

That's what the Republicans in NC are trying to encourage.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Good riddance.

[DrScholl]

Anyone want to take bets on how these new Republican Senators fair in 2014? Turnout will be different, so the recall numbers are not guaranteed to be repeated.

And there's a bit of hypocrisy on this board, when Wisconsin Democrats launched recalls, most Republicans here called that unfair. Double standards run amok.

[Miles]

Liberals, who tried to block the recall, are now crying voter supression!

Lol.

A more substantive link.

Hickenlooper said that people may have been sent to the polls to disrupt the process.

That's what the Republicans in NC are trying to encourage.

That's interesting given that white liberal John Morse tried to disrupt the process in the first place after writing a flawed election law that conflicted with the state constitution.

Yeah it's a bit ironic, but we've seen stranger things.

[windjammer]

Who knows, maybe if your wife, your husband, your sister, your brother or anything else is killed by a gun, maybe some pro-guns would change their mind?

Depressing this recall. Fortunately, the dems keep majority in the state senate.

[Miles]

PPP is trying to claim an after the fact poll.

How cute! Remember when they released that junk poll showing Colbert Busch up by 9 in a district Romney won by nearly 20?


Jensen also testified that 'the people are stupid' on behalf of John Morse.



Grueskin also paid for Public Policy Polling, a Democratic research firm based in North Carolina that polls mostly on the state level, to survey 380 constituents in Morse's district to find out whether they knew what signing a recall petition would actually lead to.

"We found that 54 percent of voters in Senate District 11 didn't know what happens in a recall election after the petitions are certified," said Tom Jensen, who runs PPP and flew to Denver to testify Thursday.

Jensen said there was no way to know how many of the respondents had signed recall petitions but argued that, statistically speaking, it's almost a certain that many did.

'A few things that you're omitting:

If you were privy to this update on PPP's site last week, it wouldn't come as much of a surprise that they polled CO.

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I wasn't the greatest form to release the poll today, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. Then again, I'm less knee-jerk than you.

Tom is making a conjecture based on his data; I'm not faulting him there.

SC-01? I guess you're just playing dumb on that one. You know as well as I do that PPP's final poll had Sanford up. The poll with him losing by 9 was taken 3 weeks before election day.

[Miles]

'And here's Tom:

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[Devils30]

Yeah, PPP is a terrible polling company. Of course we all know how well Rasmussen called 2012. Can't see this having a real effect on gun control legislation simply because Dems really don't control any other swing state legislatures. Even at the national level we've moved onto other issues.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

I think the NRA should be prosecuted for racketeering. This saga has proven what a fraud they are.

[Devils30]

If they tried this is a hypothetical competitive southern district without vote by mail, I would argue something like that violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. More likely the GOP will get cocky and fail when they try this again somewhere.
For some reason Republicans enjoy putting these hard right administrations in power and getting 35% approvals within 6 months of taking office. Look at FL, NC, PA and to a lesser extent MI. If that's what they want in 2016 at the national level they can expect a backlash in 2020 just in time for redistricting.