Great 2022 Election Results for Dems in Colorado!

Pictured (left to right): Bob Marshall, Mike Bennet, Jared Polis, Jena Griswold, Phil Weiser, Kathy Plomer.

Dems Win Statewide and in our own Douglas County

Here in Douglas County, voters in the Highlands Ranch district (HD43) of the Colorado State Legislature elected retired US Marine Bob Marshall (pictured above, with American flag). This is the first time in modern history that a Democrat has been elected for a House District in traditionally Republican Douglas County.

Bob's campaign – which appealed to Independents and Republicans as well as Democrats – emphasized representing all of the voters in his district. He also committed to keeping in touch with residents during his term in office. In the course of unseating the Republican incumbent, Bob and his team of volunteers overcame a voter registration disadvantage in HD43, where active registered voters are currently 22% Dem, 31% R and 45% Unaffiliated.

Also, in the HD61 Aurora portion of northeastern Douglas County, Eliza Hamrick was the voters' choice for that State House district.

All our our Democratic statewide leaders (pictured above) were re-elected:

• US Senate from Colorado: Mike Bennet

• Governor: Jared Polis

• Attorney General: Phil Weiser

• Secretary of State: Jena Griswold

• State Treasurer: Dave Young

Kathy Plomer (pictured above) was elected to the statewide at-large seat on the Colorado Board of Education.

As a result of the 2020 census, Colorado has now grown from seven US Congressional Districts to eight, and five of those eight were won by Democrats.

District 4 (for Douglas County and counties in the rural eastern third of the State) was held by the Republican incumbent, but the following districts were won by Democrats:

• District 1: Diana DeGette

• District 2: Joe Neguse

• District 6: Jason Crow

• District 7: Brittany Pettersen

• New District 8: Yadira Caraveo

In the Colorado State House our HD43 representative Bob Marshall joins a history-making majority of 46 Democrats versus 19 Republicans.

And, in the Colorado State Senate, voters increased the Democratic majority to 23 to 12. In Senate District 27, in a portion of the northeastern corner of Douglas County, longtime gun-violence opponent Tom Sullivan was elected.

Throughout Douglas County, some of our Democratic candidates outperformed previous-year election results in their respective districts, such as:

• Braeden Miguel, for state Senate District 30, and

• Eric Brody, for state House District 39.

2022 goes down as a great year for Democrats throughout Colorado.

VOTE EARLY - VOTE BLUE - VOTE FOR THE FUTURE

Ballots are arriving in your mailbox. We should thank Coloradans for supporting a nation-leading process that reduces the burden of voting for everyone.

Please join our Douglas County Democrats, family, and friends in voting for our great candidates. Each is pledged to truth, democracy, and setting DougCo, Colorado, and America on the right path.

In DougCo and elsewhere, the GOP offers a soup of extreme naysayers and ideologues. They are clearly divided. Just recently, the county GOP chair sent an email begging people not to vote for alternative far-right candidates. Truly, their divisions create our opportunities. There are enough enlightened local voters to produce wins for our candidates, up and down the ballot. Although many of these voters may not be declared Democrats, our steady and consistent ideas and ethics are widely held.

What we need to do is VOTE.

We also need to take that extra step to ensure that all reasonable people meet their obligations to our community and country by voting. So, talk to your family, friends and neighbors over the next few weeks...GET OUT THE VOTE. Our endorsed candidates still need money for their final pushes to Election Day. If you haven't contributed to campaigns, now is the time. If you have contributed, please dig a little deeper. Each candidate also needs volunteer support, if only a few of your hours, for mailers, door knocking, posting yard signs and calls.

The DougCO Democratic Party supports these incumbents and new candidates. Thank you for your active and engaged support. https://www.dougcodems.org/candidates-2022 Colorado Blue Book prepared by our State government. https://leg.colorado.gov/content/initiatives/initiatives-blue-book-overview/ballot-information-booklet-blue-book Douglas County Measures Yes- DCSD 5A and 5B )Bond/MLO) - Official endorsed by a unanimous vote of the Executive Committee.

Yes - Ballot Issue 1A The existing Douglas County Sales and Use Tax of 0.17% for parks, trails, historic resources and open space shall be extended for another 15 years. (While not officially endorsed by our Executive Committee, we democrats value our environment. If we vote based on our values a Yes vote is appropriate.

Colorado Democratic Party - Support vs Oppose vs No Position Yes - Amendment D (grandfather judicial residency) Yes - Amendment E (homestead exemption for military widows) Yes - Proposition FF (food, nutrition, hunger) Yes - Proposition GG (fiscal transparency ballot measures) Yes - Initiative 123 (.01% income tax re affordable housing) No - Initiative 121 (drop income tax rate) Neutral - Amendment F (gaming); Initiative 122 (halluncinogens as medicine); Initiatives 124, 125, 126 (alcohol measures)

The Douglas County Democratic Party supports these positions with the exception of 125 which we suggest a No vote. It was the opinion of the EC that this measure would be detrimental to small businesses.

Thanks to Lloyd Guthrie for this post.

Bob Marshall stands for integrity. His Republican opponent is hiding his extreme agenda from us.

Chart by non-partisan Activote.com, based on info from the candidates.

Op-Ed by: Barry Peters, Chair, Colorado House District 43 Dems

In a few weeks here in Highlands Ranch, we'll actually elect our Colorado House District 43 rep, rather than having one appointed by the Republican Party, as just happened in June.

Bob Marshall is my choice because of his integrity, truthfulness, transparency and willingness to represent all voters, regardless of party.

By contrast, his opponent -- like so many Republicans these days -- is deceptively willing to hide his true agenda. Contrary to what he told his Party base in June's Republican Primary, he's now changed his website in order to sound like a reasonable moderate. There's reason to expect he'd revert to his secret more-extreme agenda if elected.

For example, across the country in primary elections this spring, many Republican politicians promoted their anti-choice attitudes. “No exceptions,” they shouted. Not even in case of rape or incest, or to protect the health of the mother. They also promised to tear down common-sense gun safety laws.

Suddenly, now that they see that the majority of Americans oppose the US Supreme Court's rejection of the 50-year precedent of Roe v Wade, Republican politicians are hiding their opposition to women's reproductive health rights. And after so many school shootings, Republicans are now hiding their desire to kill common-sense gun-safety laws.

Hiding that He's Opposed to a Woman's Right to Choose

Now, we're seeing the same double-speak and the same shifty maneuver by a politician in Highlands Ranch — Kurt Huffman, the Republican running for House District 43.

Before the Republican primary, his website shouted in big bold red letters: “100% pro-life” and “strongly opposes” the Colorado law that ensures a woman's right to choose. Have a look (below) at these messages excerpted from his website during this Spring's Republican Primary campaign.

For his Republican base, he "strongly opposes" Colorado's pro-choice laws. For the rest of us, he's changed his tune and his website now is silent on his rejection of women's reproductive rights.

Hiding the Fact that He's A Gun Dealer

When he's confiding to his Republican base, he opposes Colorado's common-sense gun safety laws like our "Red Flag" law and our capacity limits on ammo magazines.

You won't find the following fact on his current website, but he's been a gun dealer for 30 years. His website simply says he's a "small business owner." Furthermore, in a pre-Primary video that's now hard to find on the internet, he told supporters that the "worst" legislation passed in Colorado in the last session was the law requiring that guns kept in homes be locked away safely from children. C'mon Kurt! How many school shootings could have been prevented if assault weapons at home had been locked away safe from teen-age children.

On the front page of his website, under the big heading "Election to HD43", you have to read the small print to discover that we voters didn't elect him. A few months ago, he was appointed by a process run solely by the Republican Party after a Republican official retired.

Like many Republicans across the country, Mr. Huffman now prefers that his General Election website hide his gun dealer's license and his extremism. Instead, his website now mimics his principled opponent, retired US Marine Bob Marshall.

Bob Marshall stands up for women's reproductive rights. And Bob would defend our common-sense Colorado gun safety laws. He's endorsed by Colorado Ceasefire, the non-partisan gun-safety advocacy nonprofit.

Deja Vu? Like Last Year's Republican-Endorsed School Board Slate

We should have learned the lesson about deceptive campaigning during last fall's school board election. There, four Republican-endorsed School Board candidates claimed to stand for the “Kids” agenda. They claimed to support our public-school staff.

Then, when elected, they reverted to their secret extreme agenda. There's evidence they met secretly to plot the firing of the school superintendent without cause.

When Highlands Ranch HD-43 candidate Bob Marshall confronted them for violating the state's open meeting laws, a state judge agreed that's what they did. (They're appealing the ruling.) And now there's tape-recorded evidence that one of them — School Board President Peterson — lied under oath about not threatening to fire the superintendent.

In this fall's election, let's not elect a candidate who is now hiding the extremist positions that he shouted in red to his Republican base a few months ago.

Please join me and my wife in voting for honesty and integrity. We're voting for Bob Marshall.

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Barry Peters is a retired Senior living in Highlands Ranch, and a volunteer member of Douglas County Democrats. This op-ed is inspired by his wife Channie, whose recent letter to the editor of the Highlands Ranch Herald, supporting Bob Marshall, was published in September. The opinions in this op-ed are solely those of the author.