The country gave Colorado a close look this year — or at least the presidential campaigns did — while we seemed a battleground state. We hope they’ll look a bit longer, because with Tuesday’s momentous elections behind us, we’re struck by how the country now finds itself in a situation Colorado’s been facing the last few years.
Barack Obama, a first-term senator, is to enter the White House to work with a House and Senate that’s been controlled by his party the past two years — very much like our own newcomer, a Democratic governor who stepped into power two years ago to work with a legislature that had been controlled by his party for two years.
As in Colorado, Democrats will be returning from the desert to the promised land after a long, bitter struggle. And they were sent there by disgruntled voters, many of whom want a left-of-center government. But the temptation easily could be to overreach — to advance well-meant agendas as well as to settle scores.
We hope the new leadership guards against such temptations.
Consider the fallout we just slogged through with several anti- business and anti-union ballot items that reared up after Gov. Bill Ritter used his new power to launch a surprise executive order granting collective bargaining for state workers. It was not pretty, and probably damaging.
But consider also the reputation Sen. Ken Salazar has built in his first term. His moderate style and level- headedness has impressed and gained him useful clout in Washington. We hope his style of leadership will serve as the kind of role model newcomers like Sen.-elect Mark Udall will follow.
Obama’s big win came in no small part due to enormous and visceral dissatisfaction for the Bush years. And despite his clear victory, Obama and his colleagues should remember that 47 percent of Americans didn’t vote for him, and the many independents who joined Team Obama likely are moderates who don’t want to see yet another power-hungry party taking undue advantage.
Colorado’s Democrats flourish when they govern more like Mayor John Hickenlooper: that is, with an entrepreneurial, business-friendly mindset that residents see usefully translated into their day-to-day lives.
Solve problems, don’t demagogue.
Salazar won his Senate seat as a moderate who, like Obama, intentionally kept racial politics from the dialogue. Following in his boot tracks, Udall, a liberal in earlier years, worked diligently to transform himself into a moderate in order to win statewide office.
The congressman from Boulder County articulated the let’s-work-together mantra of Western Democrats and pointed to bipartisan legislation he helped pass to protect key Colorado landscapes.
Obama’s supporters want change, and they will push hard to see their interests made flesh. We hope the discipline Obama showed on the campaign trail extends to his leadership.
