Almanac Home Browse By State Browse By Name State of Colorado Gov. Romer (D) Sen. Campbell (R) Sen. Allard (R) Rep. DeGette (D-01) Rep. Skaggs (D-02) Rep. McInnis (R-03) Rep. Schaffer (R-04) Rep. Hefley (R-05) Rep. Schaefer (R-06)

Colorado, at the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains and at the front edge often of cultural change, can claim to be the typical American state, but in so many ways is atypical. Colorado is far away from just about any other population center, an island of nearly 4 million people surrounded by the sea of the Great Plains and the ramparts of the Rockies. With vistas of vast emptiness, it is mostly an urban state: more than half its people live in metropolitan Denver and four-fifths in the urban strip paralleling the Front Range, where the Rockies rise suddenly from the mile-high plateau. And despite the sturdiness of its peaks and the sublimity of its plains, as a society it has been subjected to bouts of unsettling change -- indeed, may be in the midst of one today.

Colorado started off with a boom, with the discovery of gold and silver in the crevasses of the Rockies. Evidence of this mining boom can be seen still in the opera houses and storefronts of Cripple Creek and Central City, Aspen and Telluride, built when Denver was just a village on the creek that is the South Platte River. Then Denver grew, as a meatpacking, banking and manufacturing center, and also as the state capital and regional headquarters of the federal government: growth that is evident in the orderly neighborhoods and lush trees and pleasant parks of older Denver neighborhoods. Then came the booms of the 1960s and the high-energy-priced 1970s, when the Denver skyline sprouted new buildings overlooking the Capitol's golden dome and sports entrepreneurs built ever more ski resorts and year-round mountain condominiums. Young people looking for a splendid environment settled where the Front Range of the Rockies rears dramatically up over the High Plains; for them Colorado "represented the geography of hope," as then-newcomer Dick Lamm said (he went on to be elected governor three times).

These Denver liberals, who included Lamm, Gary Hart, Patricia Schroeder, Tim Wirth -- none of them natives of Colorado -- set the tone for Colorado civic life and political struggles for most of two decades. They took prosperity for granted, opposed the war in Vietnam and looked askance at American power abroad, wanted to preserve the environment and set limits on development. Their first success came in 1972, when they persuaded voters to reject the 1976 Winter Olympics; in quick succession Schroeder and Wirth were elected to Congress, Lamm was elected governor and Hart senator, and Democrats won the legislature. Republicans surged back to take the legislature in 1976 (they have held it ever since) and to retain an open Senate seat in 1978, as Colorado partook thirstily of the gushings of the energy boom of 1974-82.

It was a time of business success and excess: Denver was the base of several billionaires and also of the now infamous Silverado Savings and Loan; the environment was cleaned up in many ways, but Denver tends to have bad air quality ("brown cloud") and the government's plutonium plant at Rocky Flats just north of Denver was shut down in 1989 for safety violations. The original Denver liberals gave way to other Democrats who worked in cooperation with the private sector -- Roy Romer, elected governor in 1986 and reelected to serve until 1998, and former Denver Mayor Federico Pena (now secretary of Energy), who promoted a new convention center, Coors Field baseball stadium, and the giant Denver International Airport 25 miles from downtown.

Airports can serve as a metaphor for Colorado's course in the 1990s. Up through the 1980s the state's prime airport was Stapleton, named after the man who brought Western Slope water over the mountains to thirsty Denver, a typical product of the combination of business leaders and government operators who ran Colorado until the Denver liberals came along. It was one of the nation's busiest airports, and most convenient, a mere five miles from downtown. But the Denver Democrats, notably Pena, thought they could do better. Using projections from a few years when both United and Frontier operated hubs here, they proclaimed that Stapleton could not handle future traffic and persuaded voters in 1990 to build DIA at a predicted cost of $1.7 billion. But after United and Frontier merged, the projections for future traffic proved to be way too high, while the projected costs were far too low. DIA cost some $5 billion when it was finally opened in February 1995, its bonds were relegated to junk status, and its $186 million high-tech baggage handling system was abandoned because it kept mangling luggage. DIA's roof with its 34 fiberglass masts is a dazzling sight sitting below the mountains. But travelers started avoiding it because it was miles from anything, including rental car lots and hotels. As Denver Mayor Wellington Webb said, with perhaps unintentional understatement, "I think the age of the megaproject is probably over."

Into the gap stepped a competitor. If DIA was a government dinosaur built by Denver liberals, the Colorado Springs Airport was expanded, quietly and without fanfare, by the fathers of the same city that has become symbol and spokesman for the conservative trend that is increasingly important in the Colorado of the 1990s. As home of the Air Force Academy and Fort Carson, Colorado Springs has always been much more conservative than its much larger neighbor. It is where Dr. James Dobson in 1994 built the headquarters of his Focus on the Family, an organization often aligned with Christian conservative values, which runs radio programs and sends out millions of publications, mostly advice to parents and young people. Even as the small and not heavily-publicized Colorado Springs Airport was attracting travelers from Denver's southern suburbs and visitors who wanted to get to their connecting flights or rental cars easily and without smashed luggage, so the conservative ideas so popular in Colorado Springs were quietly making headway. Neither the airport nor the ideas were as heavily publicized or as prominent as their Denver counterparts, but they seemed to make more sense and produce better results.

The most visible evidence of this was the fact that Colorado was one of three states that Bill Clinton carried in 1992 and lost in 1996 (the others are Montana and Georgia). The metropolis which set the tone was not the central city of Denver (62%-30% for Clinton) but Colorado Springs and El Paso County (59%-32% for Dole), which cast nearly as many votes. Turnout, down in most of the state, was up in El Paso County and up heavily in Douglas and Elbert Counties, fast-growing areas between Colorado Springs and Denver. Colorado grew robustly, up 14% from 1990-95, and most of the newcomers seem to be high-tech, family-oriented cultural conservatives: Republican registration rose 156,000 between the two elections, Democratic registration only 38,000. And while public school enrollment rose 14% from 1990-95, private school enrollment was up 33% and the number of home-schooled children tripled.

Republicans won downballot as well. Republican Wayne Allard won the open Senate seat, 51%-46%, though he was outspent $2.8 million to $2.1 million by a Democrat with close ties to Denver developers and political insiders. With this victory and the 1995 party switch of Ben Nighthorse Campbell, a Western Slope moderate angered by Denver liberals, Republicans hold both of Colorado's Senate seats. In 1996 Republicans easily held four of the six House seats, losing only those dominated by Denver and the nearby university town of Boulder. Republicans increased their large margins in the state legislature. No wonder House Speaker Chuck Berry proclaimed, "Colorado is a mainstream Republican state."

This movement does encounter obstacles. Democrat Roy Romer remains governor, a moderate who rejects many of the conservatives' arguments. But he was reelected in 1994 by a reduced margin and against an opponent hobbled by personal liabilities. He cannot run again because of term limits -- Colorado passed the nation's first term limits initiative, in 1990 -- and Republicans have a good chance of capturing an office they have not won since 1970. Colorado conservatives were disappointed in May 1996 when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Amendment 2, the state initiative to roll back local gay rights law, and in November 1996 when voters rejected the parental rights initiative after teachers' unions spent heavily against it. (Interestingly, it ran best in working class Adams County just north of Denver.) Voters did approve 2-1 a campaign finance reform initiative.

It is not clear what is ahead for Colorado. Its growth may slow since big construction projects like DIA, Coors Field, and the Colorado Springs Airport are finished. Its political pendulum may stop swinging; in 1997 both the Democratic and Republican National Committees chose Coloradans to head their parties -- Democrat Roy Romer and Republican Jim Nicholson. But increasingly Colorado voters, especially newcomers to the state, seem to be looking to Colorado Springs, not Denver, for leadership. Voter approval is now required for tax increases, thanks to a 1992 initiative, and voters have turned down those put before them. This was one of Ross Perot's best states in 1992: he was leading in Colorado polls when he left the race July 16 and he won 23% here in November. But he got only 7% in 1996, and most of his old voters went to Bob Dole. As Colorado continues to grow and attracts yet another generation of newcomers, the reverence for the environment and insouciance toward traditional values and market economics of the Denver liberals seems to be on the way out.

Presidential politics. Colorado has been one of the most closely contested states in presidential elections in the 1990s; a reporter could do worse than cover the race from the Denver media market. In 1988 and 1992 it voted close to the national average; in 1996, with the rising voice of Colorado Springs and family-oriented conservatism here, it switched and voted for Bob Dole.

Colorado in the 1990s has had an early March presidential primary. It has produced one interesting result, the victory of Jerry Brown in March 1992, but has otherwise been mostly predictable, with easy victories for George Bush in 1992 and Bob Dole in 1996.

Congressional districting. Colorado did not gain a new House seat out of the 1990 Census, for the first time in three decades, because of sagging population growth in the mid-1980s. Redistricting by the Republican legislature and Democratic Governor Roy Romer didn't change the districts much. Faster growth in the 1990s means that Colorado may gain a seat in 2002, a prospect that undoubtedly many young Colorado politicians have an eye on.

The People: Est. Pop. 1996: 3,823,000; Pop. 1990: 3,294,394, up 16.0% 1990-1996. 1.4% of U.S. total, 25th largest; 18% rural. Median age: 35 years. 10% 65 years and over. 80.7% White, 3.9% Black, 1.7% Asian, 1% Amer. Indian, 12.9% Hispanic origin. Households: 53.8% married couple families; 27% married couple fams. w. children; 58% college educ.; median household income: $30,140; per capita income: $14,821; 62.2% owner occupied housing; median house value: 82,700; median monthly rent: $362. 4.2% Unemployment. 1996 Voting age pop.: 2,862,000. 1996 Turnout: 1,510,704; 53% of VAP. Registered voters (1996): 2,285,503; 719,230 D (31%), 824,222 R (36%), 742,051 unaffiliated and minor parties (32%).

Political Lineup: Governor, Roy Romer (D); Lt. Gov., Gail Schoettler (D); Secy. of State, Victoria Buckley (R); Atty. Gen., Gale A. Norton (R); Treasurer, Bill Owens (R). State Senate, 35 (20 R and 15 D); Senate President, Tom Norton (R); State House, 65 (41 R and 24 D); House Speaker, Charles Berry (R). Senators, Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R) and Wayne Allard (R). Representatives, 6 (4 R and 2 D).

Elections Division: 303-894-2680.

Filing Deadline for U.S. Congress: June 5, 1998.

1996 Presidential Vote Dole (R) 691,846 (46%) Clinton (D) 671,150 (44%) Perot (I) 99,628 (7%) Other 45,646 (3%)

1992 Presidential Vote Clinton (D) 629,681 (40%) Bush (R) 562,850 (36%) Perot (I) 366,010 (23%)

1996 Republican Presidential Primary
Dole (R)	108,065	(44%)
Buchanan (R)	53,314	(22%)
Forbes (R)	51,557	(21%)
Alexander (R)	24,164	(10%)
Keyes (R)	9,049	(4%)

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