In 2004, unions, activists and millionaires helped Democrats seize both houses of Colorado’s state legislature, even as the party lost the presidential race statewide. Between 2004 and 2008, Democrats captured three of the state’s GOP-leaning House seats. In the 2008 election, they appeared to cement a permanent majority as President Obama handily carried the state.
But alas, it may be short-lived, The New York Times reports:
“We were set up for a 15- or 20-year Democratic dominance,” said Gary Hart, a former Democratic senator from Colorado, adding that the party would have prospered if the economy had not collapsed. “This state, more than most, is a pendulum. It seems to be to be swinging faster than it did before.”
Among the ominous signs:
[R]egistered Democrats have fallen by 30,000 since November 2008, a drop of about 4 percent, according to the Colorado secretary of state. And since April, when the state began allowing new voters to register online, more Republicans than Democrats have done so. As of May 1, the state had 849,572 Republicans, 813,126 Democrats and 752,503 voters not affiliated with either party.
