<\/p>\n
DENVER \u2013 A voter-passed initiative that coincided with disenchantment with the polarization of the 2016 election will allow Colorado\u2019s 1.2 million active independent voters to cast ballots in either the Democratic or Republican party primaries on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The initiative passed in a year that saw presidential candidate Bernie Sanders defeat Hillary Clinton in Colorado caucuses and yet a strong vote for Donald Trump in the general election, though he lost the state.<\/p>\n
Early mail and drop-off ballot returns suggest that more independents are voting Democratic in a tight gubernatorial primary to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper. It\u2019s too early to predict independents\u2019 turnout or impact on the campaigns, advocates said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat this means for the races will take time to see,\u201d Josh Penry said, a political consultant and former Republican state Senate minority leader who campaigned for the initiative. \u201cAs the parties self-immolate and people flee them, it\u2019s important that they can vote in the semi-finals.\u201d<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s little sign that the major party gubernatorial candidates are reaching out in this swing state where Democrats and Republicans each have about 1 million registered voters.<\/p>\n
Presumed Democratic front-runners U.S. Rep. Jared Polis and former state Treasurer Cary Kennedy espouse universal health care, their public schools credentials, protecting public lands and promoting renewable energy. Republicans, including Treasurer Walker Stapleton, a cousin of President George W. Bush, generally embrace President Donald Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown and income tax cuts and promote Colorado\u2019s oil and gas industry.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s that polar opposite, take-it-or-leave-it campaign buffet that prompted Alex Leith, a Denver civil engineer, to abandon the Democratic Party and become an unaffiliated voter two years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was seeing a lot of hypocrisy coming from Republicans and Democrats,\u201d Leith said. \u201cI wanted to see a return to a common sense ability to actually govern and work across party lines.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 27-year-old cast his gubernatorial primary ballot this year for Republican businessman and former state Rep. Victor Mitchell.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s willing to not totally align himself with Republican dogma,\u201d Leith said, citing Mitchell\u2019s support for a \u201cred flag\u201d law that would allow the seizure of firearms from those who pose a danger to themselves or others.<\/p>\n
Supporters of the semi-open primary argue that independent voters like Leith pay for the party primaries and should have a say in them.<\/p>\n
Whether that generates higher turnout or moderate candidate positions could take several election cycles to determine. Arizona, Kansas, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island and West Virginia also allow independents to vote in primaries.<\/p>\n
As of early Friday, more than 598,000 Coloradans had voted \u2013 including nearly 139,000 independents. Democrats had returned more than 231,000 ballots and Republicans had returned more than 228,000.<\/p>\n
In 2016, 21 percent of active voters participated in the primary.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur data and our experience points to how philosophically diverse Colorado is. There is no such thing as a generic independent,\u201d said Kent Thiry, the CEO of Denver-based dialysis firm DaVita Inc., who spearheaded the 2016 initiative.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been an independent most of my adult life,\u201d Thiry said. \u201cTo not have a voice until the final election in a country where the primary has become the final election \u2026 that is very frustrating to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Seth Masket, director of the Center on American Politics at the University of Denver, is skeptical that the new system will produce an immediate impact.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of states allow some version of this, and honestly, the research suggests it doesn\u2019t make that much of a difference whether (the primary) is open or closed,\u201d Masket said. \u201cThe nominees end up looking like the ones the parties would choose themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also running to succeed Hickenlooper are former Democratic state Sen. Mike Johnston and Democratic Lt. Gov. Donna Lynne. Republican businessman Greg Lopez and investment banker Doug Robinson, a nephew of Utah Senate candidate Mitt Romney, want their party\u2019s nomination.<\/p>\n
Colorado hasn\u2019t elected a Republican governor since 1998, when Bill Owens was elected. He was re-elected in 2002.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
indicates many are going for Democrats<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56505,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[266,28,29,2972],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-56504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-election","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-primary"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56504","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=56504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56504"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=56504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}