As poorly as things were going for Republicans last Tuesday night, you might have expected the mood at their “victory” party in Lone Tree to have been more dismal.
Because the truth was, they were getting shellacked at virtually every level of government.
Everywhere, that is, except the state legislature, which should have been small comfort since that tidal wave washed over them four years ago. Tuesday’s returns showed small gains there, but little in the way of reversing Democratic dominance.
Amid a cacophony of chatter and clinking cocktail glasses, former congressman and 2006 gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez took the stage and began to talk harshly of Democrats and tell Republicans that they didn’t really need to change a thing.
“We just need to find our voice,” he said.
It is a belief that has been repeated time and again by many old- hand Colorado Republicans who have seen the party brand wax and wane over the years. But it’s not a belief that is universally held.
Some state Republicans say, with an increasing urgency, that the party has got to be more “inclusive” and, yes, more “moderate.” As it turns out, those can be fighting words.
And that very well may be the crux of the problem.
“I think we’re scaring away the moderates,” said former state Sen. Kiki Traylor of Littleton, a moderate who lost a hard-fought 2006 primary. She was attacked by outside groups on abortion.
Sean Tonner, a political consultant who ran Bill Owens’ gubernatorial campaign in 2002, said the Republican Party has to make a concerted effort to reach out to voter blocs that have trended away from the party, such as Latinos.
And it has to get away from the “God, guns and gays” litmus tests (the three Gs) and a party dominated by older, white males. “That’ll kill us,” he said.
The Democrats have taken the middle with candidates who have strong community roots and values matching those of their constituencies. U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, a moderate former attorney general, is frequently touted as the model for the new Democrat.
It’s clear that Republicans need to do something — and fast — if they want any chance of running things during the next decade.
Democrats hold the governor’s mansion and majorities in the state Senate and House. They have both U.S. Senate seats and five of seven in the House. Democrats even have a voter registration edge in Arapahoe County, long a GOP stronghold.
And, perhaps most important, they hold the keys to the congressional redistricting and state reapportionment processes, which begins after the 2010 U.S. Census.
“This is huge,” said Sean Duffy, who was a senior aide to Owens. “If you don’t control any of the mechanisms, you’re doomed.”
How should the Republican Party reposition itself and, more importantly, what can it do given the constrictions of being a minority party with limited ability to move an agenda?
First, according to Republican political consultant Katy Atkinson, is to realize that the Democratic tidal wave isn’t necessarily indicative of how voters are feeling ideologically.
Going blue doesn’t mean they are going liberal. Looking at the outcome of various referendums is a better indicator for that, she said. Voters are inclined toward fiscal conservatism, the traditional domain of Republicans.
In particular, the defeat of Amendment 58, a rollback of severance tax credits pushed by Gov. Bill Ritter, is an indicator of the governor’s political capital. That, said Atkinson, is an opening for Republicans.
The pendulum of power swings both ways, she said, and eventually having absolute power means having the same amount of responsibility.
“Anything that goes wrong, the blame’s on you,” Atkinson said.
Also, Republicans will have to get to where the litmus test “isn’t so strict,” she said. In the decades that Republicans controlled the legislature, there were liberal-leaning Republicans and conservative Republicans. “The majority party has to have diversity,” Atkinson said.
Duffy, the political consultant and former Owens aide, agrees. Running the 2006 Referendum I campaign, an unsuccessful effort to give gay and lesbian couples many of the legal rights of married couples, resulted in his being “basically thrown out of the Republican Party.”
“I was treated as some sort of pariah because I was working with the gay community,” he said. The party, Duffy said, has got to get back to the Reagan model of big ideas where everyone is welcome.
Dick Wadhams, the state Republican Party chair, bristles at suggestions that GOP office-holders are too conservative or that there is a litmus test, and rattles off a list of pro-choice Republicans. Wadhams is among those who believes the unpopularity of President Bush and the lack of fiscal restraint by Republicans at the national level has created an impossible situation for those at the state level.
Now that Democrats are free to enact their promises and proposals, he expects voters to be turned off by what they’ll see. And Republicans will be there. “I do not think,” he said, “the Republican agenda is irrelevant.”
