DENVER—Still giddy from successes up and down the Colorado ballot, Democrats prepped Wednesday for their most commanding state majority in more than 70 years.
Their biggest question: What will an even stronger congressional majority and two Democratic senators mean for Colorado’s clout in Washington?
Democrats picked up two seats—one in the House and one in the Senate—to for a 7-2 lead in the congressional delegation.
Democratic Rep. Mark Udall will replace retiring Republican Sen. Wayne Allard, and Fort Collins businesswoman Betsy Markey knocked off an embattled conservative, Republican Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, who was dogged by her association with the national GOP in a district that is trending more Democratic.
The wins give Colorado Democrats their strongest majority since the 1930s, the last time they held both U.S. Senate seats, the governor’s office and both chambers of the Legislature.
Now, Coloradans will look to Democrats to deliver.
“There’s going to be greater expectation that Democrats follow through on campaign pledges,” said Steve Mazurana, a political scientist at the University of Northern Colorado.
That expectation will be especially strong for the congressional delegation. With a Congress firmly in Democratic hands, and a Democrat in the White House, Coloradans will expect their members to deliver what they said they would.
Near the top of the list is energy, a topic Udall made a mainstay of his campaign against former Rep. Bob Schaffer. Udall mentioned clean energy three times in a postelection conference with reporters Wednesday—saying he wanted to see wind turbines “planted like trees” across the eastern plains of Colorado.
Already Colorado is home to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and receives hundreds of millions a year in federal energy spending. Udall indicated he’d lobby to send even more energy spending to Colorado.
“We can start this year to trigger a green energy revolution,” Udall said.
Two Democrats new to the delegation—Markey and Jared Polis, an Internet businessman who succeeds Udall in the 2nd District—have said they will make the economy the top priority when they head to Washington.
The head of the state Democratic Party, Pat Waak, said Wednesday that a stronger Democratic presence in Colorado, along with Democratic majorities in Washington, will mean more attention to needs here.
“In general there’s a real commitment in the delegation to do something about the financial pressures being felt by people in Colorado,” Waak said. She added, “You will continue to see this state becoming a leader in alternative energy.”
The Democratic surge doesn’t mean the GOP can be counted out. Rep. Doug Lamborn, one of the two Republicans left in Colorado’s congressional delegation, cruised to easy re-election this week.
Lamborn says that he and the other Republican—Rep.-elect State Mike Coffman, the current secretary of state who will succeed retiring Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo—won’t stay such a small caucus for long. Already, he said, the GOP is thinking about a comeback in the 4th District, where Republicans still hold a registration advantage over Democrats.
“I think Betsy Markey is very vulnerable because she’s in a Republican seat,” Lamborn told reporters.
The GOP defeat this year is a sound one. But it’s not forever. Republicans will immediately start work taking back state and congressional offices, said Scott Adler, a political scientist at the University of Colorado-Boulder.
“This election, along with 2006, is a time when Republicans are going to have to regroup,” he said.
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Associated Press Writer Judith Kohler contributed to this report.
