The election madness has ended, at least for a couple of months.
Election 2024 is in the history books, and the preliminary winners have been declared, whether folks like the results or not. Here is our take on the winners and losers of the infamous election. So here we go:
Winners
*Woodland Park Schools Community Coalition group. Alright, the name may have been tough to digest, especially the WPSCC acronym. Nevertheless, the group pulled off quite an elaborate campaign, with a heavy local media blitz, a commanding online presence, an informative community gathering forum and even a highly visible billboard display on Hwy. 24. And that’s not to mention their grass-roots, folksy sign-waving effort. They garnered a big win in getting Woodland Park citizens to actually okay continuing a tax. Mention the word tax, and you are already facing an underdog position locally. But one winning factor was their decision not to focus on the controversial decision made by the Woodland Park City Council to put the issue on the ballot to begin with. They opted to move on, accept the fact that this issue would be voted on again, and even offered critics a chance to voice their concerns at a community forum. Board President Mick Bates kind of put the issue in prospective at the forum, when he said in essence: “Don’t punish the kids and teachers when you don’t like the school board. Instead, vote us out of office in the next election.”
*The Woodland Park Ambulance Company. There is nothing like waiting until the final hour to put an issue on the ballot, but this is a common practice with the Ute Pass Regional Health Service District. But district leaders made quite a case in their plea for a sales tax to help generate needed funds for services, with increasing demands and a definite need for more personnel. Plus, leaders of the district aren’t afraid to try again, if an earlier tax effort fails. This has been a consistent political strategy used by the ambulance company, and one that definitely works. You can’t argue against this level of success.
*Teller County Commissioners. The proposed state ban against mountain lion and bobcat hunting/trapping turned into a lively and entertaining debate. Proposition 127 definitely produced the most creative ads. The group behind the ban almost compared mountain lion kills to the ruthless slaughter of dogs and family pets in your own backyard. Both sides put up quite a fight. Locally, our county commissioners heavily lobbied against this measure, even before it became official. They equated this ban to an all-out attack against the hunting traditions of rural Colorado and put together some impressive statistics. Largely because of these earlier arguments, the anti-127 fight picked up momentum at the end of the campaign season. In the end, most Coloradoans heavily agreed with these sentiments, and the issue was thrashed locally.
*Area Trump Fans. Unlike its previous campaign, Donald Trump’s election effort featured little internal drama this time around. There wasn’t the infighting among top campaign officials and even top supporters. And although many will differ with me on this point, Trump fans actually got a huge bump due to two failed assassination attempts against the former president. Much like Ronald Reagan in 1981, public opinion may have changed from skepticism to support, following failed attempts on his life. When Reagan was targeted by shots fired in 1981 by John Hinckley, he was facing many political obstacles. He had proposed what many considered a radical conservative agenda, proposing massive cuts in federal spending. Plus, Reagan confronted a heavily Democratic-leaning House. He overcame these obstacles, and following a fatal-shooting attempt that nearly killed him, Reagan gained much support. Eventually, he got many Democrats and even liberal-Republicans to okay his spending cuts. It was an amazing turn-around. Same case could be made for Donald Trump in Campaign 2024. Trump won handily across the country, a verdict heavily supported by local voters but opposed state-wide. Consequently, the impacts for Colorado and the region are still unclear.
The Local Election Process. It was another bullish time for voter turnout and a rather smooth process for those wanting to cast tallies without any real hassles. Plus, we didn’t get impacted by the wild state furor regarding the fight between state GOP leaders and Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold.
Losers
Elected officials in Teller who Want to End Term Limits. Once again, country proposals to end term limits for two, rather unpolitical positions (this time, it was for the coroner and surveyor slots), went down big. For our elected leaders, let’s remember the following: Citizens in Teller County Love Term Limits! Do I need to repeat again. Even the soundest, most rational campaigns to end term limits have faced stern rejection locally. The concept of term limits for virtually all elected positions was approved in the early 1990s. Counties were given the option to opt out for specific positions, a route that El Paso County has taken for certain positions, at least to extend these offices for another term. But in Teller County, term limits have become a sacred right. I must admit I was surprised at the extent of the No vote on these ballot issues, 1A and 1B.
Democratic National Party Leaders. Monday morning armchair-quarterbacking will become the name of the game for months for what has emerged as one of the Donkeys’ most stunning defeats in the presidential election. Should party leaders have stuck with Joe Biden longer than benching him after his poor debate performance? Should Uncle Joe have gotten out of the race sooner? Did the Dem Party just have the wrong economic message and become too hung-up on Donald Trump, or is it time for some serious internal soul-searching? Or did it have the wrong front-runner candidate with Vice President Kamala Harris, who had to launch a presidential campaign from scratch within a couple of months, or a little bit of All of the Above. I kind of believe too the Dems have gotten into the habit of killing their own. The benching of Biden almost brought back memories of the way party leaders revolted against former Vermont Governor and former Democrat Party National Committee Chairman Howard Dean years ago, when he captured the fancy of many young voters. Many Dem party leaders need to quit interfering with the natural political process and mind their own business. In any case, it will be interesting to see what happens next on the national Democratic Party front. Stay tuned and look out for Colorado Governor Jared Polis or Senator John Hickenlooper. They may be headed to Washington to save the Dems.
