Here are the top stories of 2019, as judged by The Denver Post’s politics team and readers of The Spot, our politics newsletter.

1. Two in, one out

Colorado’s former governor and beer entrepreneur announced that he was running for the Democratic nomination for president in a crowded 2020 field. Polling showed he would do better as a U.S. Senate candidate for Colorado, and he faced pressure from national Democrats eager to see Republican incumbent Cory Gardner unseated. After months of saying he didn’t want to be a senator, John Hickenlooper dropped out of the presidential race in August and joined the numerous Democratic candidates running for Senate.

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado, meanwhile, announced his presidential bid in May after prostate surgery — temporarily making the state the only one with two candidates in the primary. Despite low poll numbers and not qualifying for the last several primary debates, Bennet is still moving forward.

2. A challenge to how we elect presidents

Democrats — after winning both chambers of the legislature and the governor’s office in late 2018 — voted to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, an agreement among participating states to give all their electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins the overall popular vote. Two-hundred and seventy votes are needed to elect a president, and the compact can’t go into effect until that threshold is met. The movement has picked up steam since the 2016 election, when Donald Trump won the most electoral votes despite losing the popular vote.

Colorado conservatives, however, pushed back, collecting a record number of petition signatures to ask voters to overturn the law in 2020.

3. Psychedelic mushrooms a go

Coloradans, and particularly Denverites, are big fans of being first. The city’s voters narrowly passed a groundbreaking measure in May to decriminalize psychedelic mushrooms. The drug is still illegal to possess, but Denver police must make enforcement of that law its lowest priority, and entrepreneurs are taking advantage of the gray areas.

The vote comes after Colorado was one of the first states to legalize recreational marijuana — a move an increasing number of states have followed.

4. Grasping at straws or energizing the base?

Summer 2019 was the season for failed recall attempts against Colorado Democrats, with the last — against state Senate President Leroy Garcia — ending dramatically. Organizers made it seem like they had boxes full of signatures to turn in to the Secretary of State’s Office. They turned in four. Signatures, not boxes.

Many Republicans latched on to the efforts to remove five Democratic lawmakers and the governor, hoping to re-energize a dejected base and prove Colorado hasn’t turned blue. But five of the recall campaigns failed to gather enough signatures and the one against Rep. Rochelle Galindo ended after the legislator resigned over an unrelated sexual misconduct investigation.

5. Split decisions in city elections

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock won his third election for the seat in June after challenger Jamie Giellis forced him to a runoff. His win came despite discontent about the city’s rapid development and the mayor’s earlier sexual harassment scandal. Some of Hancock’s City Council allies didn’t fare as well, leaving him with a less cooperative council for his final term.

City Council elections in Aurora — the state’s third-largest city — brought similar results. Mike Coffman, a former Republican congressman, was narrowly elected mayor over local NAACP chapter president Omar Montgomery in a victory so close that the campaigns were out curing ballots for a week after Election Day. On council, however, incumbents lost seats to more progressive candidates.

6. The gun debate and Second Amendment sanctuaries

Colorado has a libertarian streak, but it has also been the site of several high-profile mass shootings, making the gun debate particularly personal here.

Gov. Jared Polis signed a red-flag bill into law this year, giving Colorado judges the power to temporarily confiscate firearms from people who could be at risk for harming themselves or others. It was the first gun legislation passed since 2013, when Democratic lawmakers were successfully recalled over the issue. Senate President Leroy Garcia was the only Democrat to vote against this year’s bill, saying he didn’t believe it was the right legislation for southern Colorado, which he represents.

The red flag bill led to staunch opposition from sheriffs in a number of counties, including Weld, Fremont, Montezuma, Otero and Custer. Commissioners passed resolutions saying their sheriffs don’t have to enforce the red flag law and declaring their counties “Second Amendment sanctuary” counties.

7. Oil and gas control

A sweeping new oil and gas bill that provides cities and towns more power to regulate drilling in their communities was signed into law this year despite Republican objections to the speed with which it went through the legislature. Senate Bill 19-181 also changes the mission of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission from fostering energy development to regulating it and requires increased monitoring of flow lines and public disclosure of information about the flow lines.

Supporters of the new law called it a paradigm shift, centering decisions on public health and safety. Opponents said it threatens jobs and the state economy.

8. Health reform takes center stage

Lawmakers passed major changes on the health care front this year, making Colorado the first state in the nation to cap the price of insulin and approving a reinsurance program to help insurers cover their sickest, most expensive patients. The reinsurance program was approved by the federal government in July and lowered premiums on the state’s marketplace for the first time.

The General Assembly also approved a study of a potential public health care option. Colorado is among a few states exploring such an program, which would allow residents in high-cost areas to buy insurance from the state. The issue has been controversial, with hospitals and insurance companies worried about the cost and impact to the health insurance market.

Democrats tried to pass legislation on vaccines to improve Colorado’s worst-in-the-nation vaccination rate, but it died amid pushback from Polis.

9. Growth dominates local politics

Communities across the Denver metro area continued to try to manage a population boom, with all that entails — traffic challenges vs. transit expansion, housing affordability vs. too much development too fast. RTD opened new legs of its rail system in the northwest and southeast parts of the Denver metro area in the spring but by fall the agency was struggling with a shortage of drivers to keep all its rail and bus routes running.

In Castle Rock, the town is redeveloping land at the site of its former landfill to create more jobs for its commuter residents. In Lakewood, voters passed a measure to limit growth by placing a cap on residential construction, and city leaders were still trying to figure out how to implement it as the year ended. People living in the Elbert County town of Elizabeth resisted their leadership’s attempts to approve new development and change its rural feel.

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that as of July 1, 2018, the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood metropolitan statistical area was the nation’s 19th largest, at 2.9 million, up 1.4% from the prior year. The city and county of Denver alone added 11,053 more residents in the year that ended July 1, 2018, according to the census, moving the population to 716,492.

10. When weather meets politics

The weirdest political story of the year came in March, when the state Senate met — and even held a public hearing — amid a rare bomb cyclone. Democrats were trying to accomplish their agenda with a narrow majority in the chamber, despite Republicans’ best efforts to slow them down. The bomb cyclone was Colorado’s strongest storm on record, according to forecasters — a combination of wind and snow that caused closures and crashes across the state. The family leave bill that was the subject of the public hearing was ultimately scrapped.

Disagree with our rankings? Is there something we missed? to share your thoughts on the year’s top political news.

The failure to deliver those ballots — replacements sent out well in advance of Tuesday for Arapahoe and Denver counties — fueled a spat between Secretary of State Jena Griswold and the U.S. Postal Service on Friday, when it was revealed publicly. Postal carriers were called back Tuesday afternoon to deliver the ballots before the polls closed, USPS said, but Griswold said the Postal Service should have notified her office.

Had that happened, Griswold said, she could have asked a judge to keep polls and drop boxes in those two counties open past the 7 p.m. closing time. But her office learned of the day-of-the-election deliveries on Friday morning when it received a third-party tip, she said.

“The post office has failed to adequately deliver their ballots,” she said, adding that the issue points to the need for a regulation or law requiring notification in such cases.

A spokesman for USPS, James Boxrud, called Griswold’s comments about the replacement ballots “inaccurate” and “disappointing” in a statement late Friday that downplayed the delivery delays. He said local letter carriers didn’t receive the replacement ballots until Election Day and then “ensured the replacement ballots were delivered before the polls closed through special runs.”

“All ballots — including replacement ballots — are printed and mailed by an out-of-state vendor,” Boxrud said. “Due to this process, it is not uncommon for the Postal Service to handle replacement ballots through the election period.”

“This was extremely uncommon — that����ap why you are all here,” Griswold responded to members of the media during an afternoon news conference.

The majority of Aurora is in Arapahoe, and candidates for three races there — mayor and two City Council seats — are leading by fewer than 300 votes. In the mayor’s race, former U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman led Omar Montgomery, the local NAACP chapter president, by 281 votes in the latest unofficial results Friday.

Griswold told reporters that 664 of the replacement ballots in question were sent to Aurora voters. Of that group, 141 voters submitted ballots by the time polls closed — 96 by dropping them off, and 45 by voting in person, potentially before Tuesday. That’s 21% turnout for that group, versus 43% for Arapahoe County as a whole in the election.

Based on wider turnout in the Aurora race it doesn’t appear that the late-delivered ballots would have been enough to affect the outcome there, Griswold said.

Her office was still researching what happened with other affected voters in the two counties.

The replacement mail ballots were ordered from Denver’s and Arapahoe’s vendor more than a week before the election for voters who requested replacements, or who didn’t receive theirs in the initial mailing last month. The vendor printed those ballots in Seattle and mailed them Oct. 29, Griswold’s office said.

They landed in a Denver postal warehouse on Nov. 1, Griswold said. Part of that batch was delivered on a priority basis as intended, she said. But Caleb Thornton, an election attorney in the secretary of state’s office, said the Postal Service has told him that for the other part of that batch, a tag labeling the ballots as priority apparently fell off, resulting in the mail going undelivered until the issue was discovered Tuesday.

“Had that (tag) remained in place … I think they would have been delivered much sooner,” Thornton said.

Griswold, in placing the blame on the Postal Service, said the Denver and Arapahoe clerk’s offices properly initiated their replacement ballot orders before the state deadline.

But she addressed concerns raised Thursday about Arapahoe County Clerk and Recorder Joan Lopez after Lopez during an interview with 9News why the public should have faith in the vote-counting process. Republicans have questioned the Democratic official’s handling of the election.

The interview prompted Griswold to send observers Friday to watch Arapahoe’s continued processing of remaining ballots.

“We have no reason to believe there’s any irregularities,” Griswold said. “With that, I think the interview was troubling, and I’ve sent observers to Arapahoe because I know some folks are concerned about that statement.”

In District 5, which covers northwest Denver, Brad Laurvick received 35.4% of the vote. Julie Bañuelos, who had been in third place on Tuesday night, overtook Tony Curcio for second in Wednesday’s counting, with 34.3% to 30.3%. The race was decided by about 300 votes and couldn’t be called until all votes were counted.

In the final, unofficial total for the at-large seat, Tay Anderson received a decisive 51% of the vote. Alexis Menocal Harrigan finished second, with 36.8%. Natela Manuntseva came in third, with 12.2%.

In District 1, which encompasses southeast Denver, Scott Baldermann received 47.2% of the vote, followed by Diana Romero Campbell at 31.1% and Radhika Nath at 21.7%.

The winners will replace board President Anne Rowe, who represents District 1; at-large representative Allegra “Happy” Haynes; and District 5 representative Lisa Flores. The first two were term-limited, and Flores opted not to run again.

Already on the menu of options: a full repeal of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights — the nuclear option of Colorado politics — and a revived stab at a progressive income tax that would cost high earners more. Voters rejected the latter proposal last year as a way to raise more money for schools, but its backers see a potential opening in a presidential election year with far greater turnout.

“Whatever we do next must be bold enough to drown out the alarmists,” declared Scott Wasserman from the liberal Bell Policy Center on Tuesday night as CC’s decisive defeat sunk in. “That work begins today.”

That sentiment was the most aggressive signal that backers of CC don’t intend to stand down in their efforts to reform TABOR — or to seek out new sources to fill recurring funding gaps of hundreds of millions of dollars for K-12 education, higher education and transportation, the three areas that would have benefited from CC. Losing by more than 8 percentage points , the measure would have let the state keep excess tax revenues above the spending cap instead of returning it to taxpayers.

But not everyone is on board with a renewed ballot strategy. Democratic Gov. Jared Polis urged his compatriots to take the hint from voters and explore legislative solutions instead, at least in regard to transportation funding.

Meanwhile, supporters of TABOR who fought off CC are considering switching to offense next year, potentially by running a ballot measure that would ask voters to bolster the 1992 constitutional amendment. The potential measure could seek to make large fee increases, often seen as a TABOR workaround, subject to the same voter approval requirement as tax increases.

Michael Fields, the executive director of conservative group Colorado Rising Action, said Democrats, who have majorities in the state Senate and House, would be foolish to return to the ballot box next year after several tax rejections by voters in recent years.

“I think the margin (on CC) was big enough that it wasn’t a low turnout that did this,” Fields said. “It would have failed in any year. … It����ap too early to tell what it means for 2020. (But) it means that conservatives were fired up, and it means enthusiasm was very high on our side for this.”

Strategy still up for debate

Groups including the Bell Center, the Colorado Fiscal Institute and Great Education Colorado are still mulling which ballot measures to pursue, but they’ve been laying the groundwork. CFI won a Colorado Supreme Court ruling in June that allows a single ballot measure to pursue a full TABOR repeal, and it’s now appealing subsequent disagreements with the state Title Board.

State legislators are pondering their next steps, too.

“At the end of the day, they won this campaign, but continuing in this direction is not a way for Colorado,” House Speaker KC Becker said about CC opponents. “And these issues aren’t going away. I want to see the opposition actually come up with solutions for how we’re going to do these things.”

CC initially was seen by TABOR reformers as giving them a good shot since the measure said it wouldn’t raise taxes, even if taxpayers potentially would lose out on rebates triggered by the TABOR spending caps. Based on estimates from differing economic forecasts, the state could have retained somewhere between $550 million to $1.7 billion over the next three years.

In a statement issued while Polis was traveling in India, the first-year Democratic governor said voters’ rejection of competing transportation funding measures in 2018, along with CC on Tuesday, was instructive: “It����ap clear that voters want elected officials to do more with their existing tools and legal authority.”

“I look forward to working with Republicans and Democrats to develop new and innovative approaches to respond to the need to reduce traffic and congestion,” he added.

But Democrats and Republicans have stark differences to navigate. Senate Minority Leader Chris Holbert, a Parker Republican, reiterated in reaction to CC’s failure that Democrats should “prioritize the money our state government already has.”

“Show me the money,” responded Becker in an interview. She expressed frustration that Republicans in the past proposed what she saw as token budget cuts that didn’t add up to much. “Show me the real ideas,” she added.

A longtime TABOR critic lamented Wednesday that, in his view, the amendment had helped Republicans maintain a foothold they otherwise would have lost as Democrats gained control of state government.

“TABOR keeps the Democrats from being able to be Democrats because it takes away the money they need for the kind of programs they like,” said Robert D. Loevy, an emeritus professor of political science at Colorado College.

Better chances in 2020?

But as they look ahead to 2020, the outside groups working on potential ballot measures see more promising dynamics. Turnout is likely to be far more robust, skewing younger and more liberal, analysts say. The nearly 1.6 million ballots cast in this week’s election compare to 2.6 million in the 2018 midterms and 2.9 million in the 2016 presidential election.

“With an electorate that was 1 million voters shy of what we saw in 2018, this was not a referendum,” the Bell Center’s Wasserman said. “The 2020 conversation is going to be a lot different, and we need to be exploring a lot of options for that conversation.”

Since TABOR was enacted, voters have rejected most statewide tax questions. They have approved tax-raising measures only on marijuana and tobacco — and now sports betting, with voters’ narrow approval this week of Proposition DD.

But local measures have had more success. Several municipal tax questions won approval Tuesday across the state, though others failed.

“This is a state that I think is friendly to Democrats, increasingly so, and reasonably friendly to taxes on the local level,” said Eric Sondermann, an independent Denver political analyst. “Your odds are pretty good. But state government is now perceived as ‘them’ instead of ‘us,’ and state requests usually fall on deaf ears.”

The union-endorsed candidates were leading in 16 contested races late Wednesday afternoon.

The lone exception was District 4 in Jeffco, where Susan Miller, a parent, defeated Joan Chávez-Lee, a former principal.

While two incumbents kept their seats, candidates with previous school board experience generally didn’t do well in this election cycle. Harvest Thomas, an incumbent in Adams County School District 14, didn’t secure a spot, and former Adams 14 board member Adrian Schimpf also finished near the bottom. Former board members also failed to secure spots in Aurora Public Schools.

Five districts — Englewood Schools, Mapleton Public Schools, Sheridan School District 2 and Westminster Public Schools — canceled their elections because of a lack of candidates.

Adams County School District 14

Adams 14 had five candidates for three at-large seats, including incumbent board vice president Harvest Thomas and former member Adrian Schimpf. All three of the top candidates were endorsed by the teachers union, which had mobilized because of fears that teachers could lose their contract.

• Reneé Lovato: 23.0%
• Ramona Lewis: 22.5%
• Regina Hurtado: 19.8%
• Harvest Thomas: 19.5%
• Adrian Schimpf: 15.2%

Aurora Public Schools

Five people, including former board members Amber Drevon and Barbara Yamrick, ran for three at-large seats. The Aurora teachers union endorsed Vicki Reinhard, a retired teacher, and Stephanie Mason, a parent, but didn’t back a third candidate.

• Vicki Reinhard: 25.2%
• Stephanie Mason: 22.2%
• Nichelle Ortiz: 19.6%
• Amber Drevon: 19.0%
• Barbara Yamrick: 14.0%

Boulder Valley School District

Only the District A race was contested, and the union-backed candidate won by a wide margin. Richard Garcia ran unopposed for District G, Kathy Gebhardt will take the District C seat, and Stacey Zis will represent District D.

• Lisa Sweeney-Miran: 72.1%
• Jai Rajagopal: 27.9%

Cherry Creek School District

Only the District C seat was contested, and the union-backed candidate won by more than 50 percentage points. Anne Egan ran unopposed in District A, as did incumbent Janice McDonald in District B. 

• Angela Garland: 76.5%
• Alioune Sogue: 23.5%

Denver Public Schools

The “flip the board” slate of candidates was leading all three Denver races. The DPS board election attracted substantial money from both the teachers union and “reform” groups that support closing some schools and opening new options like charters.

At-large seat

• Tay Anderson: 50.5%
• Alexis Menocal Harrigan: 37.2%
• Natela Manuntseva: 12.4%

District 1

• Scott Baldermann: 48.2%
• Diana Romero Campbell: 31.0%
• Radhika Nath: 20.9%

District 5

• Brad Laurvick: 35.7%
• Julie Bañuelos: 33.2%
• Tony Curcio: 31.1%

Douglas County School District

Two seats were open in DCSD and one had an incumbent running again. Board President David Ray was one of the few incumbents to win Tuesday, after receiving support from teachers. The other union-backed candidates also won their races. Incumbents Wendy Vogel, who represents District A, and Anne-Marie LeMieux, who represents District C, decided not to run again.

District A

• Susan Meek: 51.1%
• Andy Jones: 48.9%

District C

• Elizabeth Hanson: 59.5%
• Franceen Thompson: 40.5%

District F

• David Ray: 54.2%
• Kory Nelson: 45.8%

Jeffco Public Schools

Jeffco had two candidates for each of two open seats. One union-endorsed candidate won, as did Susan Miller, who ran on a platform that Jeffco needs to do more to improve student achievement.

District 3

• Stephanie Schooley: 53.4%
• Robert Applegate: 46.6%

District 4

• Susan Miller: 53.5%
• Joan Chávez-Lee: 46.5%

Littleton Public Schools

LPS had four candidates for two at-large seats. Incumbent Robert Reichardt retained his seat, and newcomer Lindley McCrary joined the board. Both were endorsed by the union.

• Robert Reichardt: 34.9%
• Lindley McCrary: 28.1%
• Jessica Roe: 20.3%
• Christine Copp: 16.8%

Proposition DD, the measure that was too close to call on election night, widened its lead in overnight and morning vote-counting, and The Associated Press predicted Wednesday afternoon that it will pass. With more than 1.4 million ballots counted, Prop DD had 50.8% of the vote by late afternoon, according the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office.

The proposition’s approval will allow the state’s 17 casino operators to apply for licenses for physical or online sportsbooks, where bets can be placed on the outcomes of sports events. The casinos have to pay a 10% tax on net proceeds, and a majority of the money will go toward Colorado’s water plan.

The measure to allow Coloradans to place bets on the outcome of sporting events had little opposition, but the ballot language, which characterized it as a tax increase under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, may have put off some voters.

The Colorado Division of Gaming is tasked with regulating the market, and the state expects to collect up to $29 million a year from the new tax.

A coalition of Colorado conservation and sports groups lauded the proposition’s passing, calling it a big win for Colorado.

“Taxing the revenue from legalized sports betting will create a dedicated down payment to help ensure that Colorado has healthy rivers and enough water for all,” Western Resource Advocates wrote in a statement Wednesday. “Still, it’s important to remember that this is just the first step toward addressing the growing gap between the water we have and the water we need.”

Democrats and Republicans celebrated the bipartisan-backed effort, with state Sen. Kerry Donovan calling Proposition DD an investment in Colorado’s water future.

“With the growth of the Front Range, and climate change shifting us to a more arid future, today marks an important step for the future of agriculture and the quality of life for all of us who call Colorado home,” the Democrat said.

Although some opposed the measure on moral grounds, others saw it as a way to better regulate an industry that was already operating in the state.

“Black markets aren’t conservative, and they aren’t good for Colorado,” Republican House Minority Leader Patrick Neville of Castle Rock said in a statement. “Bringing sports betting into the daylight, regulating it and leveraging it for the benefit of our water future is a common-sense approach.”

Colorado is the 19th state to legalize sports betting, according to The Associated Press.

U.K.-based sports betting company with casino developer Full House Resorts to offer online sports betting in Colorado this year in anticipation of the vote.

“It’s great news that the people of Colorado have legalized sports betting, and we can’t wait to bring our sportsbook platform, SBK, to the Centennial State in 2020 through our partnership with Full House Resorts,” Smarkets CEO and founder Jason Trost said in a statement. “As more and more states adopt sports betting legislation, the industry will be brought further into the light and regulated in a more professional manner, compared with the previous status quo of offshore bookmakers dominating the market.”

Proposition DD sought to legalize sports gambling in Colorado and use taxes paid by casinos to fund the state water plan. There was no truly organized opposition to the measure, and no money funding any opposition. DD had the bipartisan support from public officials at all levels of government in the state.

And yet, as of this writing, DD was no sure thing to pass. It was a nail-biter all of election night, and at one point the yes and no sides were separated by just 84 out of more than 1.2 million votes. By Wednesday morning, it was on the way to a narrow victory, leading by about 13,000 votes.

One key thing to know about DD: It opened with, “Shall state taxes be increased …”

The proposed tax increase is on casinos, not taxpayers. But those likely were still very unwelcome opening words for many in a state electorate that has proved, time and again, to be extremely tax-averse. In the weeks leading up to Election Day, DD proponents conceded that the ballot language wasn’t on their side, but said they didn’t think it’d have a major effect on the end result. That may have been wishful thinking.

And speaking of language…

Proposition CC supporters felt they had language on their side. The measure would have resulted in fewer dollars in Coloradans’ pockets, but the first words were, “Without raising taxes” — an opening that deeply worried opponents.

But the measure lost, and it wasn’t close. It was Democrats’ latest attempt at chipping away at the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR), which fiscal conservatives view as sacred and liberals tend to find immensely frustrating because of how it hampers government’s ability to raise new money in Colorado.

A sense of frustration at their latest funding loss filled the air of the pro-CC watch party: Back to the drawing board, yet again — with no consensus on what step to take next.

The Trump years may have cemented Colorado’s blue-state status — time will tell — but voters in the Centennial State continue to hold a hard line on anything that has even a whiff a new tax. In tandem with the statewide rejection of Prop CC on Tuesday, two local tax issues — a tax hike in Arapahoe County to pay for a new jail and a TABOR override in Jefferson County to plug an anticipated $16 million shortfall — were defeated.

Funding questions remain

Gov. Jared Polis says there’s a lesson to be learned in CC’s failure. The Democrat was in India on Election Day — make of that what you will — but issued a statement after the ballot measure’s loss ensured the state would not get to keep hundreds of millions to put toward education and roads.

“With the recent voter rejection of several different ways to fund our roads and reduce congestion,” the statement read, “it’s clear that voters want elected officials to do more with their existing tools and legal authority.”

Music to the GOP’s ears. As Amy Oliver Cooke of the libertarian Independence Institute said at Tuesday’s anti-CC watch party, “This is a mandate to the state legislature that they damn well better start prioritizing roads and education” without raising taxes.

If that were easy, someone would’ve done it already. The matter is certainly pressing: Colorado has some $9 billion worth of unfunded transportation projects.

House Speaker KC Becker, who is arguably the most powerful person in the Capitol, had this to say: “If this is not the solution, we’re going to keep working on solutions. … There has to be a solution, because it doesn’t exist in our general fund today.”

Coffman comeback?

Almost exactly one year after he was swept out of Congress, Mike Coffman may well be headed back to political office as Aurora’s mayor.

Many viewed Coffman’s defeat in the 6th Congressional District as inevitable. Aurora, which covers a giant swath of that district, is Colorado’s most diverse city and is increasingly blue. But Coffman, a Republican, survived for six terms in the district, taking down some serious challengers before finally falling to Jason Crow in 2018.

Coffman quickly bounced back, declaring he’d run for Aurora mayor in what was a nonpartisan race. As of late Tuesday night he held a comfortable lead over his closest competitor, Omar Montgomery, who’s president of the NAACP’s Aurora chapter.

Big night for union-backed school board candidates

Denver Public Schools had a solid “reform” board two election cycles ago — a majority that supported ideas such as closing underperforming schools and didn’t oppose charter schools. In the last election cycle, two union-aligned candidates got elected. After Tuesday night, at least four of the seven board members will be union-backed. (One race was still close as of this writing.)

Does this signal that there’s increasing skepticism of the education reform agenda among Democrats in Colorado? Other Tuesday results certainly seem to indicate so. In addition to Denver’s board-flipping, union-backed candidates had big nights in Adams County, Aurora and Douglas County.

One notable union-backed winner on Tuesday was Tay Anderson, a 21-year-old Denver Public Schools product who’ll now help direct the district. “I just became the YOUNGEST elected official in Colorado history!” after his win.

An the Fort Lupton City Council in 2015, but he was appointed. (Earlier versions of this story incorrectly said the Fort Lupton councilman was elected.)

Staff writers Meg Wingerter, Jon Murray and John Aguilar contributed to this story.

Those were two of numerous notable issues and races in metro area communities in the fall election.Other results Tuesday night showed:

— Lakewood Mayor Adam Paul had 55% of the vote and challenger Ramey Johnson, a councilwoman, 45% in the bid to run Colorado’s fifth-largest city. The Lakewood race attracted big bucks, especially from outside groups.

— Brighton Mayor Ken Kreutzer will lose his seat as part of a recall election Tuesday. Voters were saying yes to ousting the mayor by a 71% to 29% margin. A movement against Kreutzer blossomed following the Brighton council’s July firing of the city manager, who said at the time of his dismissal that he was being let go because he had discovered unnecessarily high water rates being charged to residents.

— Broomfield mayoral candidate Kevin Kreeger trailed with 30% of the vote, vs. 36% for Pat Quinn and 34% for Kimberly Groom . The race drew regional attention after Kreeger confessed to political supporters that 13 years ago, while he was married, he had what he said was consensual sex with a hitchhiker in Clear Creek County who later accused him of sexual assault.

— Jefferson County’s request to de-Bruce was defeated 55% to 45%. Local leaders said the county faces a $16 million deficit in 2020 unless voters let them keep tax revenues that otherwise would have to be refunded under the Taxpayer Bill of Rights. If Ballot Issue 1A fails, the county said, inmates at the Jefferson County detention facility might have to be released early.

— Arapahoe County voters overwhelmingly opposed a measure to raise property taxes by an average of $68 a year to pay for a new jail. The margin was 67% to 33%. County leaders want to replace the aging Arapahoe County Detention Center that sheriffs for years have said is too small and too costly to continue repairing.

As of midnight, there were 646,227 votes in favor of Proposition DD — 50.2% — and 640,537 votes — 49.8% — in opposition.

Proposition DD would allow casino operators to enter a new legal betting market in Colorado, profiting off bets on professional and sanctioned sports that are placed in person, or through mobile apps and websites run by operators contracted by the casinos. The providers would pay a 10% tax to the state on their net proceeds, with the money largely going to help fill gaps in Colorado’s water plan.

The measure didn’t face an active opposition campaign, though some activists and political figures argued against it. Lawmakers had to put the tax question to voters under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.

Voters at a polling station in Denver’s Sunnyside neighborhood Tuesday were split on the issue.

Matt Wade said he voted against Proposition DD because “I didn’t want Colorado to become a gambling state.”

While she’s no gambler, Nellie Medina strongly supported DD. “If it’s going to help Colorado be better, if it’s going to fund some action on water, I’m all for it,” she said.

If voters approve DD, Coloradans could begin placing legal bets in May. The Colorado Division of Gaming would regulate the market.

Colorado is among at least 42 states that have at least considered allowing sports gambling. The rush came in response to a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year that invalidated a federal law outlawing betting for all but Nevada.

The state’s first modern foray into legalized gambling came in 1991, when casinos authorized by voters began opening in Black Hawk, Central City and Cripple Creek. A bipartisan team of state lawmakers, Democratic House Majority Leader Alec Garnett and his Republican counterpart, Minority Leader Patrick Neville, channeled the proposed betting market through those towns in part because Colorado voters have signaled a reluctance to expand gambling to other places in the recent past.

Proposition DD would allow the state to collect up to $29 million a year from the new tax, though that amount isn’t expected to flow into state coffers until the betting market matures. Sportsbooks typically take a 5% to 7% cut of each bet, and the tax would be applied to what they pocket.

Initial tax revenue estimates start at roughly $10 million in the first full fiscal year, based on projections that Colorado licensees would take $1.3 billion to $1.5 billion in bets, according to the measure’s . Analysts have projected the betting tax would bring in an average of $16 million in the first five years, with $14.9 million of that going toward the Colorado Water Plan.

Under Proposition DD, bets on professional sports would be allowed, as well as some bets on college sports. Betting on sanctioned e-sports — video game tournaments — also would be allowed. But the measure wouldn’t allow bets on the in-game performance of college players, and it would bar any bets on high school sports.

Staff writer Sam Tabachnik contributed to this story.

“This is the definition of a team win,” said Michael Fields, executive director of Colorado Rising Action, which led opposition to Prop CC. “We were up against misleading ballot language and millions of dollars of out-of-state money pouring in against us, but thankfully our Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights is preserved.”

There were 610,536 votes in favor of Proposition CC and 749,905 in opposition, an 11-percentage-point difference, as of Wednesday morning.

“I didn’t want the state to hold my money,” said Kylen Partch of Lakewood after she voted against Prop CC on Tuesday. “It’s mine.”

The measure would have let the state keep any tax revenues above the state spending cap — money that the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights currently guarantees as refunds to taxpayers. Democrats said it wasn’t a tax increase; Republicans argued it effectively was.

“Once again, the people of Colorado have confirmed that they are the boss, not our part-time state legislature,” said Senate Minority Leader Chris Holbert, a Parker Republican. “Despite overwhelming funding advantages, questionable ballot language, and the full endorsement of the Democratic power trifecta in Colorado, Proposition CC has failed.”

The first results showed Prop CC up big — but no one at the “No on CC” watch party in Denver was too worried. They felt confident the tide would turn once more non-Denver numbers came in and, within minutes, things started to look up. By 7:40 p.m., the “no” side was up nearly a dozen percentage points.

“I know it’s going to be defeated,” said a beaming Bill Owens, the former Republican governor who advised the No on CC campaign, at the time. “We’ve seen the numbers.”

The tea leaves were becoming clear as some attendees began filtering out of a pro-CC gathering at Improper City in Denver’s River North Art District about 8 p.m. But officially, campaign backers were waiting for more results from Democratic strongholds to come in to see how much the negative margin narrowed. By 9 p.m., they had conceded.

“We didn’t win tonight, but we have advanced this conversation in such an important way,” said Colorado House Speaker KC Becker, a Boulder Democrat, to cheers.

“More Coloradans know today that Colorado is at the bottom of the barrel in our support for K-12, higher ed and transportation. And if this is not the solution, we’re going to keep working on solutions,” she added.

The measure was referred to the ballot by Democratic lawmakers, and estimates for how much the state could retain over the next three years ranged from $550 million to $1.7 billion. A law passed separately would have divided the money evenly among transportation, K-12 education and higher education.

If CC had passed, projections show, taxpayers would have missed out on refunds as small as $20 or as high as $248. It carried high stakes, and not just because of the potential dollars attached to it.

For Democrats, it was a chance to finally put a dent in TABOR, which significantly hampers the ability of Colorado governments to raise money because it requires voter support for any tax hike. Voters have been loathe to pass new statewide taxes since TABOR passed 27 years ago. CC wouldn’t have affected that part of TABOR, instead taking aim at the requirement to issue refunds if revenue grows faster than allowed by a formula that accounts for population growth and inflation.

A new tax, CC was not. But it would have led to the state keeping more taxpayer money than it does now — something Democrats de-emphasized in their limited campaign for the measure.

Republicans were desperate to stave off CC, which many GOP voters and party leaders saw as an attack on TABOR that, if successful, could set Democrats on a path toward seeking more limits on the law, if not a full-on repeal attempt. Opponents repeatedly accused Democrats of writing CC in misleading language, and felt the wording was a disadvantage to their side.

The pro-CC camp led the spending fight with about $4 million, a quarter of which came from University of Denver Chancellor Emeritus Dan Ritchie. The No on CC campaign was buoyed primarily by the Charles Koch-backed Americans For Prosperity Colorado chapter, which has spent about $1.5 million.

What the “no” camp lacked in money it has made up for in enthusiasm. That side has been campaigning since early summer, whereas the pro-CC side didn’t even officially launch until October.

Staff writer Jon Murray contributed to this story.