Democrats Winning in Denver

The following is a Charles Roos column in the Denver Rocky Mountain News of December 11, 2000:

**After 40 years, Democrats reclaim every Denver seat**

Something important will be missing when Colorado's 63rd General Assembly convenes in January: Denver Republicans.

For the first time in 40 years, there won't be a single Denver Republican either in the Senate or House of Representatives. And no, I don't know just what that means.

The Grand Old Party lost its last two Denver seats in the November election. Dottie Wham, a victim of term limits, will be succeeded in the Senate by Democrat Ken Gordon, a four-term veteran of the House.

GOP Rep. Dorothy Gotlieb, who had given up her seat in District 10 to run against Gordon for the Senate, lost that race. Democrat Alice Borodkin narrowly won Gotlieb's district, giving the Democrats all 10 Denver seats in the House as well as five in the Senate.

The last time this sort of thing happened was between the 1958 and 1960 elections when Denver Democrats held all 17 House seats and all eight Senate seats. (Since then, shifts in population have cut the city's legislative delegation in half).

Forty years ago it was easier for Democrats to dominate the local legislative ballot. Until the mid-1960s, all Denver House and Senate member were elected at large. In 1958, a big Democratic year nationally, city voters picked and chose the 17 House winners from among 34 candidates.

Party-line voting was fashionable.

After districting of legislative seats in the 1960s, however, Republican candidates carved out several reasonably friendly bases, mostly in south Denver. GOP Rep. Jeanne Faatz was considered unbeatable in southwest House District 1 until she bumped up against term limits in 1998 and ran, unsuccessfully, for the Senate.

Over the years, strong Republican candidates from Denver included two Whams (Dottie and Bob), two Shoemakers (Joe and Jeff), Palmer Burch, Don Friedman, Frank Kemp Jr., Carl Gustafson, Cliff Dodge, Jean Bain, Pat Grant, Sam Zakhem, Betty Neale, Paul Powers and Bill Chenoweth. Eight Denver Republicans were elected from Denver in 1976 and five as recently as 1984.

So how did all this get turned around?

Well, Rep. Ken Gordon, just elected to the Senate, thinks many of the more conservative and wealthy south Denver Republicans have moved farther south - to Arapahoe and Douglas counties. He believes they've been replaced by more moderate voters, including Republicans less preoccupied with such social issues as guns, school prayer and abortion.

Jim Gibson, Colorado director of the moderate-minded Democratic Leadership Council, thinks another factor may be that his party puts up better candidates. He mentioned a few DLC members who hold House and Senate seats as well as Gordon, who isn't a member but thinks the DLC has some "good ideas."

Gibson also suspects the Republican Party may simply have "given up" on heavily Democratic Denver to concentrate on the suburbs, which are more conservative, have more votes and will gain more legislators after the 2001 reapportionment.

Denver will lose seats.

Gibson also pointed out, though, that some of DLC's self-styled "New Democrats" are making inroads in suburban counties, too. He cited, among others, the recent Senate victories of Sue Windels and DeAnna Hanna in Jefferson County. Democrats also won seats in Republican and Larimer counties.

Charles Roos, retired political editor at the News, writes a weekly column.