National Story About Guns; Story in Colorado About Power

Lynn Bartels with Kurtis Lee assessed the impact of the recalls on Colorado politics and assessed it went well beyond the Democrats’ loss of two state senate seats and gun legislation.

“The national story is about guns, but the story in Colorado really is about power, and what the Democrats have learned from this blowback,” pollster Floyd Ciruli said Wednesday. “People thought they weren't being listened to.” (Sept. 11, 2013)

“That, Ciruli said, would benefit Hickenlooper [a narrow Democratic majority in State Senate with possible Democratic defections]. In the governor’s first two years in office, Republicans controlled the House and Democrats the Senate, meaning little controversial legislation landed on his deck.

But Democrats scored stunning victories in 2012 and Ciruli thinks that emboldened them to push for an ‘aggressive agenda’ during the 2013, whether it was gun bills, a renewable energy measure that many in rural Colorado opposed and a complicated elections bill that critics said rushed through the process.

‘The governor has to sit back and take deep breath,’ Ciruli said.”

See:
Denver Post: Colorado GOP targets Gov. Hickenlooper in wake of recalls
Denver Post: Ciruli: For Colorado, Being purple isn’t pretty