Mike Coffman, the Republican state treasurer who helped conduct elections in Iraq as a Marine reservist, took a solid early lead over Ken Gordon in the tense statewide race for secretary of state.
“It’s all positive, although it’s certainly too early to call,” Coffman said Tuesday night.
Running for the office that oversees elections, Coffman noted room for improvement after visiting polling places in Denver and Highlands Ranch, where frustrated voters faced two-hour lines.
“In both cases, that is unacceptable,” he said. “I did see people who were coming out, and they were just fed up.”
The race between longtime political peers was marked by uncommon civility rarely seen in other campaigns.
“I actually think the important thing is governing, not elections, and I don’t want to run an election that makes it difficult or impossible to govern later,” said Gordon, the Senate Democratic leader.
Having served together in the state legislature beginning in 1992, the two men focused on their own strengths rather than smearing each other.
Although the secretary of state’s office is viewed as largely administrative, in other states it has been in the center of recent political firestorms.
Both Coffman and Gordon, however, said they would refrain from making decisions based on political affiliations.
Pre-election polls showed the two candidates running neck and neck.
