KOA Interview: Kennedy Sweeps the Caucuses

Last Tuesday night, party regulars and candidate supporters began one of the selection procedures to gain access to the June gubernatorial primary. In a KOA interview Wednesday with April Zesbaugh and Marty Lenz, it was clear Cary Kennedy had won the Democratic caucus with 50 percent of the support as recorded by the caucus preference poll.

Cary Kennedy | Ernest Luning/Colorado Politics

About 23,000 caucus attendees gave Kennedy a strong push, and held Jared Polis, which polls have said was the frontrunner, to only 33 percent. Among larger counties, Polis only carried Larimer and Adams. He lost his home county of Boulder. She also put the brakes on Mike Johnston’s momentum. His weak 9 percent leaves him in danger of not making the 10 percent minimum to get on the ballot.

Kennedy received about 11,000 votes in the preference poll. She will need to scale that up to reach a major share of the 300,000 or more Democrats who usually turn out for the primary, this year on June 26.

Republicans don’t have a preference poll and generally have very little attendance. Cynthia Coffman is completely dependent on the caucus-assembly path. Her support, along with the host of other Republican candidates, will be clearer at the county assemblies later in March (start on March 16). Anecdotal evidence indicates Walker Stapleton had support. A recent Republican poll showed Walker Stapleton as the frontrunner. He’s already turned in his petitions.

The caucus system is a relic of a smaller, more deliberative party. More than half the candidates are using the petition system. The few thousand attendees are less than 2 percent of the 2 million plus registered party members.

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