The 2022 election is 11 months away, and a wave of candidates is filing paperwork to run in Colorado’s newly reconfigured congressional and legislative districts.
But jumping into a race doesn’t guarantee someone a spot on the ballot for the June 28 primary, let alone the Nov. 8 general election. Candidates have to spend big money to qualify for the contest, or they can try to pick up enough support from members of their political party through what’s called the caucus and assembly process.
The mad dash to make the ballot starts in January, with the primary ballot set by April 29.
Here’s how the process works for Democratic and Republican candidates:
The federal and state governments set qualifications for candidates to run for elected office.
First off, candidates must be affiliated with a political party on Jan. 1, 2022, to seek the Democratic or Republican nomination.
To run for U.S. Senate, candidates must also:
To run for the U.S. House, candidates must:
Anyone running for office in Colorado must be a U.S. citizen. But that’s not the only requirement.
To run for governor or lieutenant governor, candidates must:
To run for treasurer, secretary of state or attorney general, candidates must:
To run for state Senate or House, candidates must:
To run for University of Colorado regent, state Board of Education or district attorney, candidates must:
The caucus and assembly process is considered the traditional, grassroots method of getting on the ballot. It’s also the least predictable route to being elected.
Candidates must cultivate support among party members who show up to precinct caucuses, where a handful of people – sometimes only two or three – gather to throw their support behind someone and elect delegates. Those delegates move on to county, district and state assemblies where they help form party platforms and nominate candidates for everything from county offices to the U.S. Senate.
Only voters registered as Republicans or Democrats by Feb. 7 may attend precinct caucuses, which must be held between March 1 and March 5. Typically, the caucuses and subsequent assemblies draw mostly party activists. That’s because it takes dedication – and a good deal of time – to participate.
To make the ballot through the caucus and assembly, candidates must get at least 30% of the delegate vote at each step. This limits the number of candidates who may emerge from an assembly to three, though it’s typically fewer.
For example, in the 2018 gubernatorial caucus and assembly process, Democrats nominated Cary Kennedy and then U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, while Republicans nominated then state Treasurer Walker Stapleton and former Parker Mayor Greg Lopez.
But those four people were far from the only candidates seeking to be on the primary ballot that year.
The caucus and assembly process can be somewhat unpredictable because delegates may switch their support from one candidate to another at the last minute. The 2016 Republican primary for U.S. Senate is a prime example, where then El Paso County Commissioner Darryl Glenn surprised many political observers by wooing party activists at the last minute and making the ballot. In the process, he denied others a chance at winning the GOP nomination.
Candidates may also petition to get on the ballot by gathering signatures from voters registered to their party. Those signatures are then reviewed and confirmed by the Secretary of State’s Office.
Jan. 18 is the first day that Democratic or Republican candidates may begin gathering those signatures. Signatures must be submitted by March 15.
The signature-gathering rules are somewhat complicated, and going the petition route can be expensive – as in tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars expensive – especially for statewide candidates who typically hire private firms to do the work.
Here are the requirements:
There’s often a race to submit signatures to the Secretary of State’s Office because once a voter has been counted on one candidate’s petition, they can’t be counted for another one running for the same office.
Problems can also arise with the signature-gathering process.
In 2018, Stapleton paid a firm about $235,000 to gather signatures so he could get on the ballot. But he withdrew the signatures he submitted to the Secretary of State’s Office at the last minute when he learned that the company he hired didn’t follow state laws.
Stapleton later won a lawsuit against Kennedy Enterprises, the signature-gathering firm, which was ordered to return the money.
Campaign finance records don’t indicate how much 2018 Republican gubernatorial nominees Victor Mitchell and Doug Robinson or Democrats Donna Lynne and Mike Johnston paid to make the ballot. But Democratic Attorney General Phil Weiser spent nearly $175,000 to make the ballot in 2018, and Republican candidate for treasurer Polly Lawrence spent $128,000.
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