Colorado Springs – An intense focus on absentee voters proved to be the magic that pushed state Sen. Doug Lamborn to a last-minute victory Tuesday in the six-way GOP primary in the 5th Congressional District.
Lamborn defeated his nearest competitor, Jeff Crank, by 915 votes after El Paso County posted the results from about 18,000 absentee voters. Before the absentees came in, Crank was ahead.
“We out-hustled the other campaigns on the absentees, and we won absentees overwhelmingly, 2-to-1 over Jeff Crank,” said Lamborn campaign manager Jon Hotaling.
Lamborn appeared Wednesday morning at a “unity” rally in downtown Colorado Springs. He was joined by three of his primary opponents, gubernatorial hopeful U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez and other Republicans seeking statewide office.
Lamborn thanked his supporters, praised his opponents and vowed to win the Nov. 7 general election.
He will face retired Air Force Lt. Col. Jay Fawcett, a Democrat.
Fawcett, a 1977 Air Force Academy graduate, said: “We’re pretty fired up. … I don’t think this is a race to be taken lightly.”
He said he’ll focus on health care, funding for Veterans Affairs, education, environment, the war on terrorism, and immigration.
Republicans outnumber Democrats by more than 2-to-1 in El Paso County, which accounts for 83 percent of voters in the six-county district. Overall, the district includes 187,137 Republicans, 131,936 unaffiliated voters and 88,105 Democrats.
“The most important influence in these elections is partisanship, and there is an extraordinary partisan advantage,” said Denver pollster Floyd Ciruli. “It is extremely difficult for the Democrat, the minority party, to win people over. There are few exceptions.”
Early and absentee votes accounted for 42.6 percent of all ballots cast in the GOP’s 5th District race, said Bob Balink, El Paso County clerk and recorder. Balink said four of the six campaigns requested lists of absentee voters.
Once the Lamborn campaign had the list in hand, volunteers called voters, sent multiple direct-mail fliers and showed up on voters’ doorsteps.
“Other candidates were out talking to the general populace, but when we knew a voter had a ballot in their hand, we went to them,” Hotaling said.
By the time a barrage of negative advertising attacking Lamborn hit television and radio in the last weeks of the campaign, he said, the absentee voters had already selected Lamborn.
Jim Banks, campaign manager for Crank, said the race was won and lost on absentee ballots.
“The senator’s campaign did the best job among the campaigns of targeting those people,” Banks said.
Ciruli said political campaigns are increasingly paying more attention to absentee and early voting because it can account for as much as 50 percent of the vote.
“Those campaigns that either delay their advertising too long or don’t do some specific direct mail and phoning and other targeted techniques to early voters and absentee voters really are making a big mistake,” Ciruli said.
Staff writer Erin Emery can be reached at 719-522-1360 or eemery@denverpost.com.
