Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper narrowly won a second term in office, defeating Republican challenger Bob Beauprez in a campaign that had the incumbent on the ropes amid criticism over the death penalty and gun-control legislation. The contest was Hickenlooper\u2019s toughest of his career, and his victory showed that he continues to be a political force.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe voters in Colorado have spoken,\u201d Hickenlooper said. \u201cWe\u2019re incredibly grateful that we have won a second term as Colorado governor.\u201d<\/p>\n
U.S. Senate<\/p>\n
Republican Rep. Cory Gardner defeated incumbent Sen. Mark Udall to win one of the seats the GOP needed to win control of the Senate. Gardner and his conservative allies stressed Udall\u2019s support for President Barack Obama while Udall focused on women\u2019s issues. Gardner is the first Republican in a decade to win a top-of-the-ticket race in Colorado.<\/p>\n
U.S. House<\/p>\n
Voters sent Colorado\u2019s congressional incumbents back to Washington.<\/p>\n
Republican U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, who easily defeated challenger Abel Tapia in the race for the U.S. House in District 3. Tipton said he will focus on decreasing regulation for small businesses and increasing transparency requirements for agencies such as the EPA.<\/p>\n
GOP Rep. Mike Coffman, overcame a tough challenge from Democrat Andrew Romanoff in the redrawn 6th Congressional District in suburbs south and east of Denver.<\/p>\n
GOP Ken Buck won in eastern Colorado\u2019s 4th Congressional District, a seat opened up by Gardner\u2019s decision to challenge Udall for the Senate.<\/p>\n
Ballot measures<\/p>\n
Voters rejected ballot measures that would have required the labeling of certain genetically modified foods, allowed casino gambling at some horse tracks to help fund public schools, and the third attempt in recent years to grant so-called \u201cpersonhood\u201d rights to unborn children. However, they did say \u201cyes\u201d to requiring some school board negotiations with teachers\u2019 unions to be open to the public.<\/p>\n
Constitutional offices<\/p>\n
Coloradans picked Republican Cynthia Coffman over former Adams County district attorney Don Quick to succeed Attorney General John Suthers, who is retiring. She\u2019s the state\u2019s first new AG in 10 years.<\/p>\n
Republican Treasurer Walker Stapleton beat Democrat Betsy Markey, a Fort Collins businesswoman and former member of Congress, to win a second term.<\/p>\n
Voters also picked a secretary of state to succeed Republican Scott Gessler, who resigned for an unsuccessful gubernatorial bid. Republican El Paso County clerk and recorder Wayne Williams defeated Democrat Joe Neguse, currently a University of Colorado regent.<\/p>\n
State Legislature<\/p>\n
Colorado Republicans were aiming to erase Democrats\u2019 one-seat majority in the state Senate and cut into, if not overturn, the Democrats\u2019 37-28 majority in the House.<\/p>\n
Democrats have controlled the Senate since 2005, but Republicans felt they were within striking distance of a majority, partly because two districts had open seats being vacated by term-limited Democrats \u2013 Sen. Lois Tochtrop in Thornton and Sen. Gail Schwartz in Snowmass Village.<\/p>\n
Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper narrowly won a second term in office, defeating Republican challenger Bob Beauprez in a campaign that had the incumbent on the ropes amid criticism over the death penalty and gun-control legislation. The contest was Hickenlooper\u2019s toughest of his career, and his victory showed that he continues to be a political force. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6363],"tags":[188],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-116733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ds-news","tag-dolores-star"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116733\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116733"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=116733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}