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11 07 24 Political Analysts Dick Wadhams and Mike Dino discuss the election results
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Your choice, all for free. Stream easy with Zumo Play. Get live and on-demand entertainment with no logins, no sign-ups, no accounts, no hassle. This November, get cozy and stay in from movie night with Air Force One starring Harrison Ford and Glenn Close, and The Art of War starring Wesley Snipes. All streaming free on Zumo Play. Go to play.zumo.com now. Life is hard. Zumo is easy. We'll get right to it as there's much to analyze, both locally and nationally, following last night's election results. Our favorite democracy duo, both joining us on the KOA Comet Spirit Health Hotline this morning, it's Dick Watams and Mike Dino. Gentlemen, good morning. Dick, I just want to start with you from the jump. Four years ago, we heard about a red wave. It didn't happen. Seems like it happened last night. It sure looks like it, Marty. It looks like Republicans are going to have a pretty big margin in the U.S. Senate. I frankly don't know what's going on in the House, but the Senate is going to be not a 51-49 Senate. It looks like it could be as much as a 54-55 Republican majority in the Senate. Well, Mike, let's look at the House a little bit here. The 8th congressional district race still seems pretty close, as Dick predicted yesterday. Dear Caraveo and Gabe Evans, do we see that going which way, one way or another? Any reaction or results from what we saw locally in that one? Well, Jeanette, where I thought it would be, very close within a margin of 2%, and certainly without a Libertarian candidate in the race, as there was two years ago, it is more competitive. Of course, there were two third-party candidates that have pulled a considerable amount of the vote, more than the margin that Caraveo is winning by. So I don't know if that affected either one of the candidates, but there's still some more votes to count, and we will have to wait to see until that one's called. Let's go to the big prize, if you will, Mike. Are you surprised? Maybe not surprised because it's always been told it was going to be a close race, but are you surprised in what looks like the margin that Donald Trump won by over Kamala Harris? Yeah, I am surprised. I felt that he had momentum leading up certainly to the rally at Madison Square Garden, but looking at some exit polling, he did well with younger people, he did well obviously with men, he got younger men to turn out. I mean, the bottom line, he kind of did what he had to do. I think Harris read a really good campaign. She was a good candidate. It was a short campaign though, and the economy hung heavy in those swing states, and certainly the immigration continued to play through. Trump played with his drinks, and his drinks carried him all the way to the White House. Dick, what swing states, if any, came as a surprise to you? Oh, I really did think that, well, first of all, the blue wall. I mean, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, I mean, I thought she had a shot at winning all three. She didn't. In fact, all seven of the competitive districts went to Trump, and you know, I think the Democrats are going to have to take a hard look at what they did the past two years, because this election cycle started within concealing the fact that Joe Biden was not up to running for another term. And then they waited too late to replace them, and they replaced him with somebody. The Democrats had soundly rejected in their own party process in 2020 when she didn't even make it to the Iowa caucuses. And so, clearly, I think she might have run a decent campaign, but she was allowed to be candidate. And I think Trump was able to exploit those weaknesses of hers. And then on top of it, the Biden record with inflation, immigration, it was clear that voters were able to overlook their concerns about Trump's personality, and his personality overall, and they wanted something different. And that's what they did last night. Dick, the last few election cycles, it seems like voters seem to be voting more against somebody than more for somebody against versus the love. Do you see this as being voters voting against the Biden-Harris administration or for a love of Donald Trump? I do, Marty. I do think that voters said to themselves, okay, we really don't like Donald Trump. We like her better. But boy, we can't go for another four years of high inflation of a border that is leaking like a sieve. I mean, I just really think that voters just -- they came to that conclusion. And frankly, they did remember the four years under Trump. I mean, as big of a critic as I am of Donald Trump personally, think about -- we had four years of a great economy, a safe border. Trump had a good record on policy. And I think that people kept remembering that. Maybe they remembered it more optimistically than they should have. But he had a very good four years. And I think voters said the last four years have really been bad. We're ready to go back. Mike, I want to pivot over to some of the local ballot measures and some of the Denver races that we saw as well. What do you think hurt that two are Denver sales tax increase for affordable housing? I mean, we talk about the length of the Denver ballot, the lack of details, the fact that the Denver health sales tax increase looks like it is set to pass. I mean, was it all of the above? None of the above? What kind of looked forward when it came to some of those Denver ballot measures? Well, first of all, Jimmy, there's probably a lot more ballots that need to be counted in Denver. We've seen this before. You know, it's only behind about 7,000 votes. And it has happened before where a ballot measure has been behind in such a small number of votes. And by the end of the week, it's ended up passing. So we do need to keep an eye on that. But I think you bring up a good distinction. You know, the Denver health made a good case. I mean, what it needs to spend the money on for a good reason. Certainly two are, which dealt with affordable housing is a good reason. The plan may not have been as well defined as voters wanted it to. And I think anecdotally, as I mentioned, I heard people say, Hey, you know, I want to vote for something like this. Maybe next time if I understand it better. Dick, what statewide ballot measures or local ballot measures came mostly as a surprise to you? Well, I was kind of surprised that the ban on funding caps failed. I think that the voters are they're tired of ballot box biology. I mean, they've watched the fiasco of the reintroduction of wolves. And I think that while their heartstrings were tugged by the commercials about to the beautiful cats that are being hunted, but at the same time, professional wildlife managers say we need to keep that population under control because of other species like like deer and elk. So I think the voters were finally saying enough of this ballot box biology. I was disappointed. I'll be honest. 131 the ranked choice voting open primary. I worked on that campaign. This issue is not going to go away. Voters are voting with their feet. They don't like the two party system right now. And this is the time there will be a time where this will come. Final question from us here. And I'll ask both of you this question. I know for years, Colorado prided itself being on a purple state. No doubt that it's been pulled more blue, blue and blue. But as the results for this election, maybe in the main in general, looking at the congressional races, the presidential races, some of the ballot measures. And I'll start with you on this, Mike, is Colorado's complexion changing at all, even though the complexion of what they reflect here versus what's going into the White House? Well, you know, we'll see what happens with the eighth. If it holds, you know, it's kind of a, you know, status quo from where we've been and where we're going. I mean, you know, a few of the Republicans, you know, switched in chairs and in some of their seats. But, you know, the legislature doesn't look like it's going to be dramatically different. And, you know, we saw reproductive rights enshrined in our, in our constitution pretty considerably, as well as removing, you know, marriage restrictions in our constitution. So, you know, the state, the state hasn't changed much. And, you know, certainly for Democrats who feel fairly forlorn with the results of the national election, they see Colorado as a good haven. And Dick, your final thoughts on that? Well, I think overall, it was a good night for Republicans in that, Tamarty. They, I think they avoided having a super majority of Democrats elected in the car at a state senate. They still have one in the house, but the state senate remains one vote short. And frankly, the happiest guy this morning about that is Governor Jared Polis. He did not want his party to have a super majority and have a bunch of stuff come his way that he didn't want. So, I think, so overall, that means that Republicans had a good night given the fact that this state is still very blue and Harris carried it by 12 points. Political strategies, stick bottoms, and Mike Dino, we could talk for hours about everything. So, we'll have to have you guys back on with more analysis and all of this. We appreciate your eyes' insight. Thank you so much. You bad to care. There's only one feeling like knowing your banker personally, like growing up with a bank you can count on, like being sure what you've earned is safe, secure, and local. There's only one feeling like knowing you're supporting your community. You deserve more from a bank. You deserve an institution that stood strong for generations. Bank of Colorado. There's only one member FDIC. I bet you're smart. 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