Colorado State Senate Projection Update Feb. 2010

The Democrats currently enjoy a 21-14 majority in the Colorado State Senate. In our last post we looked at some competitive races. Our original forecast hasn't changed. District 6 currently is our only race ranked as a toss up. Senator Schwartz seems well on her way to buying her reelection in SD 5. SD 16 should be competitive on paper. Joan Fitz Gerald won this district a decade ago, she turned it over to Dan Gibbs and he won the district in his own right in 2008. The independents break for the Democrats in this mountain district. Voter sentiment seems to be trending against the Democratic party this cycle, so a close look at candidate financing reports will give us an idea if this seat really is in play. SD 2 looks likely to remain in Republican hands. SD 11 has simply become too Democratic for the GOP to hope to pick it up. Macro events could push it into the toss up category however. Lastly, SD 20. The Republicans would love to win this district, but Jefferson County, especially in the old ring suburbs has trended Democratic over the last decade. Look for the Democrats to outspend the GOP by 3-1 or 4-1. The real fight will probably be the Democratic primary.

Rank 1.

District 6: Durango-four corners region. Partisan make up: D 29.2% R 39.8% I 30%

Bruce Whitehead (D) $19,410

Ellen Roberts (R) $42,160

Toss Up.

Rank 2.

District 5: Central Mountains. Partisan make up: D 34.7% R 35.6% I 29%

Wayne Wolf (R) $1,470
Robert Rankin (R) $35,865

Gail Schwartz (D) $79,160

Leans Dem.

Rank 3.

District 16: North Central Mountains. Partisan make up: D 32.4% R 32% I 34.6%

Jeanne Nicholson (D) No Activity

Mark Hurlbert (R) No Activity
Tim Leonard (R) 12,820

Leans Dem.

Rank 4.

District 2: South Eastern Plains. Partisan make up: D 36.2% R 38.9% I 24.4%

Kevin Grantham (R) $12,340
Matt Heimerich (R) $6,050

No Democrats Registered Yet.

Rank 5.

District 11: Colorado Springs. Parisan make up: D 34.8% R 32.6% I 31.9%

John Morse (D) $37,650

Owen Hill (R) $865

Leans Dem.

Rank 6.

District 20: Wheat Ridge. Partisan make up: D 37% R 30% I 32%

John Odom (R) $10,220

Cheri Jahn (D) $38,480
David Ruchman (D) $28,500

Colorado State Senate 2010 Forecast.

We are going to begin our look at the State Senate Elections with this observation.

During the last three election cycles there have been 25 elections held in districts which should be competitive on paper. These are districts where neither the Republican nor the Democratic Parties have a registration advantage of greater than 10%. Of these 25 races the Republicans won 3. That is right, a win percentage of 12%.

Is the Republican Party really that dismal in Colorado? The answer is complex, but in short, no. In 2002 the Colorado State Constitution was amended, what resulted was a game changer for local elections. Amendment 27 radically changed Colorado Legislative elections, while many can debate its merits, its effects have been to cripple Republican fundraising.

Here are some examples from the 2006 election cycle:

SD 5. Democrat Schwartz raised $222.8K vs. Republican Entz who raised $125K. This district had a 7% Republican registration advantage. Schwartz squeaked out a 51-49 win. Who says you cannot buy an election?

SD 6. Democrat Isgar raised $97K vs. Republican Tate who raised $26.5K. That is nearly 4-1.

SD 11. Democrat Morse 120K, Republican Jones 61.6K.

SD 20. Democrat Keller 126K, Republican Sargent 41.6K.

SD 16. Democrat Fitz-Gerald 147K, Republican Neilson 22K.

In 2008 Democrat Dan Gibbs ran to finish the second half of Joan Fitz-Gerald's term in SD 16. He raised 122.7K, Republican Ytterberg raised 63.5K.

We will reserve our detailed analysis of Amendment 27 (it is a joke, and a complete failure at its stated goal, which was to reduce the influence of money in politics) for a later date. Let us just say that 2004 was a watershed election in Colorado, and that the Democrats have been in power ever since.

As for the current election, here is our forecast of the five top races. Remember, the current breakdown of power in the Colorado State Senate is R 14 D 21. The number to get to in order to gain control is 18.

District 6: Senator Bruce Whitehead (D) took over this Four Corners district when former Senator Isgar left for a post with the Obama administration. The current makeup of this district gives the GOP a 10% registration advantage (that would be a R10 in Mile High Delphi speak). Fundraising will be critical and we don't expect the GOP to be outspent 3-1 this time around. Ellen Roberts, R-Durango, who represents House District 59, has announced that she plans to challenge Senator Whitehead in 2010. According to the Colorado Secretary of State, Roberts already has $22,500 cash on hand. Senator Whitehead has $3000.

After District 6, things really get a lot less fun. The Republican's dismal record in close registration races makes the probability of them picking up 3 additional State Senate Seats nearly impossible. Here are the four most competitive races that we forecast:

District 5: The two parties are locked in a registration dead heat in this mountain district. However, as we mentioned before, the GOP wins only about 1 out of 9 times in races where it has less than a 10% registration advantage. We mark this as leans Democrat at the moment. However, if the Republican's do pull off something like 2002, with the Gubernatorial candidate and the Senate candidate pulling off big wins, we could see a coat-tail effect.

District 16: Another mountain district that has a registration dead heat. Our model gives the GOP a one out of nine chance of winning it. See above for further analysis.

District 2: This South Eastern Colorado District looks like it should be solid GOP territory, but don't tell that to the voters, the GOP only has a 2% registration advantage. The Democrats could, with a carefully picked candidate win this district. Keep an eye on it.

District 11: Colorado Springs. Take a district with a small GOP registration advantage, outspend the Republican incumbent 2-1 and, abracadabra, you get a Democratic pickup. That was in 2006. Now this district has a Democratic registration advantage of 5%. This one has probably forever slipped away from the GOP. But we will watch it anyway.

Honorable Mention: District 20. This is Moe Keller's old Wheat Ridge centered district. It is made up of aging inner ring suburbs. Congressman Ed Perlmutter (D) lives in this district (he used to represent it). It is currently rated D+7. An Likely Democrat hold. Hell, this side of town elected Gwen Green (D) and she could have been outsmarted by a bulldog. Seriously, she couldn't debate anyone, she couldn't hold a conversation, she may not have been able to hold a thought. The days of "Jeffco" being a Republican stronghold are over.

We will flesh out this forecast over the next year. With, we promise you, a look at all the races. As things stand now, look for next year's State Senate to have 14-15 Republicans and 20-21 Democrats.

Updated Projections for 2010. Colorado Senate, House, Governor.

Lets make this short and sweet.

Senator Michael Bennet (D) is now rated by MHD as the underdog to ANY Republican. Don't blame us, if you think we are wrong go buy a Bennet futures contract over at intrade.com, he is trading for about 45 cents on the dollar. Rate this race a Leans GOP Pick Up. That is right, you heard it here first, 50 weeks out.

As for the US House Races.

You can bet money (literally, you can bet money on this) that the GOP will pick up 25 to 35 House Seats in the fall of 2010. How many will come from Colorado?

HD 1 (Denver) Safe Democrat. Degette could be in a coma and still win this race.
HD 2 (Boulder) Safe Democrat. No Republican is going to win in Boulder.
HD 3 (Western Slope) Leans Democrat to Toss Up. This depends on who challenges Salazar. But his vote on Health Care along with the fact that this district voted for McCain make him vulnerable. Keep your eyes on this district. If Salazar starts to look weak it could be a very bad year for the Democrats. The GOP has even set up a website at reversethevote.org targeting all 24 House members who voted for the Health Care bill and are from districts McCain won.
HD 4 (North Eastern Plains) GOP Pick Up. That is right, Lucero beats Betsy Markey (D). This is a Republican District, the perfect storm of Obama on the ballot and Musgrove defending her seat is over, look for a return to normalcy.
HD 5 (Colorado Springs) Safe Republican. Remember what we said about Boulder...
HD 6 (South and West Denver Suburbs) Safe Republican. Mike Coffman could go far, we doubt that the House is his last stop.
HD 7 (Northern Denver Suburbs) Leans Democrat. Perlmutter should by all accounts have a more middle of the road voting record in this district which is designed to be competitive. However, the GOP hasn't been able to find a candidate that can give him a challenge, and we doubt they will this time.

State Races:

Governor: We are going to update the odds, moving from 3:1 in Bill Ritter's favor to 3:1 Bill Ritter gets nicknamed Rill Bitter. That is right, the first Governor in several generations to get kicked out of office by the voters after one term. Blame it on whatever you want, but you cannot go from an unemployment rate (per BLS) of 3.9% (seasonally adjusted in January of 2007) to 7.3% as of August 2009. We here at MHD aren't sure what the Colorado Promise was, but we are pretty sure that a doubling of the state unemployment rate wasn't part of it. Look for Ritter to get the boot.

As for the other statewide offices, come'on, that stuff is hard enough to predict when we know who the candidates are, we gotta wait for the primaries.

State House and State Senate.

So much work goes into those projections. Let us just say this, the last time the GOP had majorities in these houses was when Bill Owens (R) won a landslide election for Governor in 2002. Maybe the GOP can muster up a landslide against Ritter, but so far the tea leaves say that the Democrats are safe in both houses.

Colorado State Senate Race Ratings Chart.

Current Make Up: 20 Democrats 15 Republicans. Projected Make Up: Democrats 18 Republicans 15 Toss Up 2

No Election: R-8 D-8

Safe Republican (4): SD 27, SD 4, SD 10, SD 12

Safe Democrat (8): SD 17, SD 18, SD 25, SD 28, SD 29, SD 31, SD 33, SD 35

Republican Favored (1): SD 26

Democrat Favored (2): SD 14, SD 21

Leans Republican (0): SD 8, SD 23

Leans Democrat (0)

Toss Up Republican Held (0)

Toss Up Democrat Held (2): SD 16, SD 19

State House and State Senate Prediction Update.

Here is our new projection for the Colorado State Senate and Colorado State House elections.

State Senate: Current D-20 R-15 Projection D-18 R-15 Toss up-2

State House: Current D-40 R-25 Projection D-36 R-26 Toss up-4

Detailed analysis will be up shortly along with a map of the State House Districts.