Colorado 2014 Megathread

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Election news from Colorado has been rather slow in the past week, but I thought we ought to have a thread for one of 2016's prospective Democratic candidates.  Obviously, Hickenlooper has to win this if he wants half a chance at getting the nomination in a couple years, and although the CO GOP is currently in its weak phase, his victory this November is far from guaranteed.

Anyway, you know how it goes.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Tancredo to try bypassing the GOP caucuses and go directly to the primary ballot by collecting petition signatures

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Tancredo wants heads to roll over Colorado’s ‘investigation’ into Sen. Udall’s office

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State Republicans are proposing bills that would let voters opt out of receiving a ballot by mail, and allow anyone to challenge the validity of ballots cast by mail.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

As expected - failed in committee on a party-line vote.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Summit County to host Republican gubernatorial candidate for community meeting

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Tancredo and Gessler opted to stay out of the GOP debate that was held last Tuesday.  Tancredo was apparently worried that him being at a debate would have provided ammunition for Democrats (he's probably right... but then why bother running at all?) and Gessler didn't attend because Tancredo wasn't there.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

I'm waiting to see if the Colorado Dems pickup one of the down ballot statewide offices in November

A realistic scenario would be Hickenlooper winning reelection by a hair, Udall getting defeated by Owen Hill for senate or some other REP candidate and Mike Coffman holding his seat.  All the Democrats holding their seats doesn't sound reasonable.

Oh please, GOP will nominate Ken Buck and as a result Udall will win comfortably. If he couldn't win in 2010, he sure as hell won't win this year. And Andrew Romanoff is a strong candidate against Mike Coffman, I say he has about a 50-50 chance of winning.

People don't wonder if Democrats will lose here, they only wonder how badly.

Colorado has snapped back to the right.  I don't know what that portends for the country more broadly, but I won't at all be surprised to see Romney lose by handful and still win in Colorado.  Frankly, the whole "new majority" narrative about Colorado and even Nevada has been wrong for six long years.

In a state where Republicans always outnumber Democrats in elections, and where the GOP has actually made real gains in the voter rolls since '08 (when, yet again, more Republicans voted than Democrats), why would 2012 be the most explosive year for Democratic turnout in Colorado ever?  The notion defies logic.

Did they poll the marijuana referendum?

Yes.  The Post will release those results probably sometime this weekend.  I really don't expect it to pass.  My hunch is that it's polling in the mid-to-upper 40s, as it has been for PPP for a while.  If it isn't well above 50% now, it won't get there before November.  The popular Democratic governor came out against it this week, which will only deepen opposition and will almost definitely bring along some Democrats who have been on the fence about it. 

It will either be real tight, or a real big win for Romney.  I can't decide which.

Which leads me to conclude that Obama can't win Colorado.

Glad to see our expert Colorado elections predictor is back to spread his seeds of wisdom.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Hickenlooper discourages other states from legalizing marijuana

Someone doesn't like tourism competition.