As the dust ever so slowly continues to settle, it has become clear that Republicans will not control the state house. And the truth is, it was always a long shot.
Did Colorado Dems learn to gerrymander from their Chicago counterparts?
In 2011, the Democrats drew a House map that was so grossly gerrymandered that statehouse Republican candidates were able to earn over 189,000 more votes that Democrat candidates this cycle yet still not take over control of the chamber.
Governor Elbridge Gerry would be proud.
For comparison purposes, Sen.-elect Cory Gardner beat Mark Udall by over 47,000 votes, and Gov. John Hickenlooper beat Bob Beauprez by over 58,000 votes.
Even if you take out all the unopposed races on both sides and look at the numbers, House Republicans still have a 24,000 vote advantage. Political consultant Andy George sums it up perfectly:
Democrats may control the state house but not because they earned the majority of the votes. #gerrymandering #copolitics #coleg
— Andy George (@andy_george) November 7, 2014
Disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of voters comes with a price. Democrats might be patting themselves on the back today, but good luck getting public support for your low-flow toilet mandate without a mandate from the people.
And Cory Gardner as a member of congress was not Gerrymandered into a safe district allowing him to progress to the Senate ?! Had he stayed in the original district that he won as a representative it is unlikely he would have made it to a 2nd term. So let's not paint one side of the fence without the other….(business as usual).
It's the same situation in SD11. The Dems reduced the size of SD11 in Colorado Springs to only the few small liberal portions, like down town, CC, Old Colorado City and Manitou Springs. This only incorporates about 35k of the 500k which makes up Colorado Springs. That's why the GOP candidates crushed it down here, but Mike Merrifield won. Because 90% of us were not allowed to vote for the SD rep for our city. Pisses me off too, because Merrifield is even worse than Jon Morse. Be warned Mr Merrifield… we like our taxes low, we like guns and we like our charter schools.
Please explain how gerrymandering impacted the Gardner-Udall and Beauprez-Hickenlooper races…