Colorado Senator Angela Giron encouraged supporters to stay positive as election results came in Tuesday night, Sept. 10, 2013. (Karl Gehring, The Denver Post)
Opponents of an effort to recall two Democratic state senators for supporting stricter gun laws borrowed a page from an earlier playbook, arguing reproductive rights were in peril if the lawmakers were kicked out of office.
But the message — so effective in keeping Republican Ken Buck from becoming a U.S. senator in 2010 — failed to protect Senate President John Morse and Sen. Angela Giron, who were recalled by their constituents Sept. 10.
Political consultant Katy Atkinson, a Denver Republican, thinks
Colorado State Senate President John Morse gives his concession speech after being defeated in the recall election against him at his election night party at the Wyndham Hotel in Colorado Springs on Tuesday. (Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post)
she knows why.
"The reason it worked against Ken Buck and even Mitt Romney is because the left used those arguments to portray those two as extremists and in Colorado voters don't like extremists," Atkinson said.
"The argument about abortion didn't carry any credibility in the recall because I think the voters looked at the Democrats as extremists."
Karen Middleton, director of NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado, said she thinks her group's message was effective, but the election outcome was influenced by other factors. She noted it was an off-year election and in September at that, and a polling-place election, not mail-ballot, circumstances that favor "reliable Republican" voters.
Morse and Giron's support for stricter gun laws in the 2013 session sparked the recalls, but other votes angered their districts, too, including passage of a bill impacting renewable energy standards in rural Colorado.
During the recall campaign, Planned Parenthood Votes Colorado billed Morse and Giron as "fierce advocates of women's health" and urged constituents to keep them in office.
"What started as a genuine grassroots effort born out of anger over the gun vote has grown into something much bigger — a national proxy war on not just gun control but also reproductive rights," Mother Jones reported the day before the recall elections.
Morse, whose El Paso County district includes a portion of Colorado Springs and all of Manitou Springs, lost by only 343 votes — 51 percent to 49 percent. Giron, whose district includes the cities of Pueblo and Pueblo West, was sent packing in a rout, 56 percent to 44 percent.
Republican Bernie Herpin of Colorado Springs will take Morse's seat in the Senate, while Republican George Rivera of Pueblo will assume Giron's. They were the only candidates to petition onto the recall ballot.
Planned Parenthood Votes Colorado described Herpin and Rivera as "lifelong anti-choice, anti-women's health advocates." And a TV ad from a political group claimed Herpin and Rivera opposed "common forms of birth control" and wanted police to investigate miscarriages.
"I'm extremely pro-life, yes, but my wife used birth control," Herpin said.
He added the attacks were intended to turn the issue away from guns.
The passage of tougher gun laws was made possible after Democrats regained the majority in the state House after the 2012 election. They already controlled the governor's office and the Senate. With the loss of Giron and Morse, Senate Democrats will now have an 18-17 seat majority.
Atkinson also pointed to a civil-unions bill Democrats passed this year after two failed attempts. The Catholic Church was upset that the 2013 proposal no longer exempted Catholic Charities and other faith-based groups from placing children in same-sex couple homes.
"In heavily Catholic Pueblo, that might have contributed to the image that these guys are not mainstream Democrats," Atkinson said.
"They thought they had a mandate to fulfill every liberal dream they ever had. Republicans did the same thing when they were in control. They overreached.
"And voters don't like that in this state."
Lynn Bartels: 303-954-5327, lbartels@denverpost.com or twitter.com/lynn_bartels
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