Posted on 11/04/2004 5:17:00 PM PST by cilbupeR_eerF
Ken Salazar's campaign plan put him in position to overcome a GOP voter-registration edge and beat out Republican Pete Coors for Colorado's U.S. Senate seat.
Coors, a political neophyte, entwined himself with the policies and rhetoric of President Bush, stressing tax cuts, a strong national defense and "conservative Colorado family values."
Salazar, the state attorney general, shunned most associations with John Kerry yet echoed his populist message, vowing to help the working class and rural communities.
"Coors needs Bush to win really big so he can ride on his coattails, and Salazar needs to look independent so he isn't pegged as a liberal like Kerry," said Jennifer Duffy, a Senate analyst with the Cook Political Report.
Additionally, both candidates needed to win over a significant number of unaffiliated voters.
Because registered Democrats trail Republicans by about 180,000 voters in the state, Coors had a built-in advantage. He also had tremendous name recognition and the benefit of presidential and vice-presidential visits. But his campaign said he needed more than a 20,000-vote edge coming out of Arapahoe and Jefferson counties to offset Salazar's numbers in Boulder.
Early exit polling, however, suggested Coors was significantly trailing Salazar in Arapahoe and Jefferson counties.
And Kerry, despite Salazar's arms-length attitude toward him, ultimately may have helped Salazar - by not hurting him.
Salazar only appeared with Kerry on one of the Massachusetts senator's six forays to Colorado. But on Election Day, it appeared that Kerry was staying competitive in the state, meaning that Salazar didn't have to rely on large numbers of Bush voters crossing over to help him.
Salazar needed not only the unaffiliated voters, but about 8 percent to 10 percent of moderate Republicans, according to his campaign. He also had to win big in metro Denver and win converts in rural communities that tend to vote Republican. As a result, he traveled throughout the state, talking to farmers and ranchers and portraying himself as a moderate.
Early exit polling showed Salazar way ahead of Coors among unaffiliated voters, as well as siphoning off some Republicans. He clearly made a dent in rural Colorado.
Additionally, despite Coors' attempts to emphasize his family in the last days of the campaign, Salazar clobbered the Republican among female voters.
President Bush only won Colorado by 5%. I though Colorado was much more conservative than that.
Please tell me you made that name up....
We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the Coors family. They were the original major contributors to the Heritage Foundation. Need I say more?
We may have lost that seat because of the Hispanic vote. Anybody can spell TANCREDO?
The hispanic vote is the only major group that is up for grabs. Bush won because he expanded the Republican party to include a much greater number of them than in 2000.
He lost becuase Coors Light sucks.
I think that is a big GOP disadvantage - Republicans must be germ free on all issues while the Demorats frolic. Many Christian denominations frown on all alcoholic beverages, so no brewer is going to get the activist Evangelical votes. The Evangelicals may drink as much or even more than the rest of us, but they will not vote in a brewer, especially one who sponsors lustful ads and gay hedonism. And I have to agree with them on that. We can do better than that.
You're right. Gay bashing might not be the right wording - they got knocked the $5ck out! Really now, I'm surprised anyone would take my gay bashing statement to mean anything other than they lost, big time. I'm no newbie round here, and have been supporting the anti-gay marriage issue for some time. When I say gay bashing, I mean they put themselves 'out there', and got beat to hell.
He's originally from California, but he moved his operations to Colorado Springs back in the early 1990's.
Leftist hypocrisy. One would think Salazar would have embraced that whole idea.
One's a CINO the other is a RINO. Coors lost the taste test.
Ken Salazar IS a conservative Democrat. He's more like Ben Nelson than John Kerry. A very likeable guy. I'm not surprised he won.
Understood. Have a great day.
This all sounds like the Democrats handwringing. He lost because more people voted for the other guy.
His beer tastes like bilge water.
Ha ha!
Fat Tire is muuuuuch better!
Yep. Thanks for the clarification, and I agree with you.
I, too, was dismayed when Coors beer started pandering to the homosexual crowd a few years ago & wondering what the hell they were doing. Besides causing me and others to stop drinking their beer we now know that action caused reduced support for Mr. Coors and ultimately reduced the GOP Senate majority in the election. I ponder if Coors recognizes the connection?
I think a distinction should be made: The company pandered to gays because they were being boycotted and getting a lot of negative publicity. I don't think Pete Coors ever thought he could get the gay vote! And before you stop drinking Coors beer, remember all of the conservative causes they have supported over the years: the Coors family was one of the major backers of Reagan's career, and the major funder of the Heritage foundation, and other conservative thinktanks. You can read about it in "Citizen Coors" if you like...
Nope, it's a true story. Wadhams is another Rove in the making. He was behind Allard and Owens' victories. When it seemed Campbell would cruise to re-election Thune recruited him to run the campaign against Daschle.
Yep. And the Twins.
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