Final numbers are not in, but the major races and issues have been decided.

President
George Bush®takes Colorado’s nine electoral votes. This race was highly contested with heavy advertising and frequent state visits. Ultimately, the difference came down to the larger number of registered Republicans in the state.

Senate
Ken Salazar(D) wins Ben Nighthorse Campbell’s® vacant senate seat over Pete Coors®. Salazar ran a much better campaign and was able to paint himself as a moderate to the voters. Coors inexperience as a candidate didn’t help at times but, ultimately, his campaign was poorly run.

Referendum 4A - FasTracks
Opponents only raised a few thousand dollars. Supporters raised millions. This Denver Metro mass-transit bill won easily as a result (currently 18% margin).

Referendum 4B - SCFD Funding
There was no noticeable opposition to this referendum which continues a tax to support the arts. Currently winning by about a 30-point margin.

Amendment 34 - Contractor Liability
This amendment would have raised liability caps on home builder lawsuits. Opponents heavily outspent supporters and ran highly-effective ads. Currently winning by a 42-point margin.

Amendment 35 - Raising Tobacco Taxes
Colorado has the lowest tobacco taxes in the country and a lower number of smokers. With no significant opposition this passed easily.

Amendment 36 - Electoral College
This amendment would have caused the state to divide up its nine electoral votes by percentage of the popular vote. Initially this led in the polls but the amendment quickly plummeted as it drew bi-partisan opposition, newspaper’s came out against it, and heavy anti-36 money entered the contest. Currently losing by 32 points.

Amendment 37 - Renewable Energy
This amendment would mandate a percentage of energy be generated by renewable resources. There was very little opposition spending, yet this passed by just a few percentage points. This was kept close by concerns about this raising the cost of energy.

House District 3
John Salazar(D) (Ken Salazar’s brother) wins a close contest over Greg Walcher®. A lot of 527 money went into this race and Walcher’s support of a (failed) water bill last year cost him votes in his district. Salazar probably picked up some votes due to name recognition and heavy advertising for his brother’s Senate race.

House District 4
This was looking close for a while but Marilyn Musgrave® will win over Stan Matsunaka(D) by a comfortable margin. Musgrave is a very conservative Republican in a conservative district. Republicans came in, late in the race, with a reported $3 million for her campaign.

House District 6
Tom Tancredo® wins easily against Joanna Conti(D). This was considered a safe Republican seat in a strong Republican district.

House District 7
Bob Beauprez® easily wins this district over Dave Thomas(D)by 26,000 votes. You may remember that Beauprez barely won this seat last time by slighly more than 100 votes in this evenly-split (voter registrations) house seat.

And in the undercovered story of the day…

It looks like Democrats will gain control of both the state house and senate. In a state with a solid advantage in Republican registrations, this has to be considered something of an upset. It looks like Democrats had a much stronger ground game.