If you want to understand what effect the passage of Proposition 131 might have on Colorado politics, look to Alaska.
In 2020, Alaska voters passed an initiative, Ballot Measure 2, that’s almost identical to Proposition 131. The Alaska measure enacted all-candidate primaries after which the top four vote-getters advance to a ranked choice voting general election.
In 2022, the new system was used for the first time in Alaska in a congressional special election and in the regular primary and general elections that year.
The Colorado Sun interviewed Alaska Senate Majority Leader Cathy Giessel, an Anchorage Republican, about her experience with the changes. Giessel was initially opposed to Ballot Measure 2, but after she lost her 2020 reelection bid to a more conservative primary challenger who attacked her for working with Democrats in the legislature, she became a supporter of the initiative.
Giessel ran again in 2022 once the election changes had been implemented, beating the man who unseated her two years prior. Three candidates advanced to the general election — one Democrat and two Republicans — and each received about a third of the vote in the first round of ranked choice tallying. She won in the second round, after the Democrat had been eliminated, with 57% of the vote.
Giessel argues she would have won in 2022 even under the old system. But she’s become an outspoken supporter of Ballot Measure 2 — and an opponent of the effort this year in Alaska to repeal it.
“Elections are for the voters,” Giessel said. “They’re not for political parties’ benefit. They’re for voters’ benefit. And that’s what the Alaska model does —it puts the voter in the forefront of the election system.”
The following has been edited for clarity and length.
The Colorado Sun: What was your initial opposition to Ballot Measure 2?
Sen. Cathy Giessel: For decades I was a volunteer for the Republican Party. I was a district chair for about 20 years. I was the president of the Anchorage Republican Women’s Club for two terms. I was Republican Woman of the Year in 2006. In 2008 I was elected vice chair of the state party. I was immersed in the state party. So when this initiative came out, I said “this takes away power from the party, and so I’m against it. Keep the status quo.”
The Sun: So it sounds like you weren’t a fan of Ballot Measure 2 until after you lost your primary in August 2020. Is that right?
Giessel: Yes — and saw how the party could manipulate an election to create the outcome they wanted. I heard from lots of people who said “if I had known, I would have, as an independent voter, chosen to vote the Republican primary ballot. But I didn’t realize they were going to throw you out of office.”
The Sun: How did you find running in the new system in 2022? What was your experience like?
Giessel: I realized that I didn’t need to target voters who were most likely to vote for me. I actually needed to talk to everyone. Everyone had a vote. I started knocking on every single door. I didn’t know who was behind it. I didn’t know what their party affiliation was — none of that. I knocked on doors that I had previously walked past. It was delightful. I talked to people I had never talked to before. I found out we have incredible people living in my district who have done great things, and they have some really great ideas. We have so many things in common. That very short list of things that we don’t agree on is very, very short, actually.
The Sun: There is a lot of anxiety in Colorado about voter education and voter knowledge around all-candidate primaries and ranked choice general elections. Did you run into folks who didn’t understand the all-candidate primary system or ranked choice voting?
Giessel: We actually ran this system twice in 2022. People forget that we had lost our congressman —Republican Don Young, who died in March 2022 — and our law required that we hold a special election to replace him even though it was only a few more months until November when he would have been up for reelection. The Division of Elections did significant education. There were mailers. The organization Alaskans for Better Elections were at the state fair and the local fairs and festivals and they would have booths where people could practice with “pick your favorite jelly bean flavor,” “pick your favorite salmon,” and “pick your favorite game animal.” People got the drift of it. Over 99% of ballots were filled out correctly.
The Sun: Naysayers may argue that you’re only supportive of Ballot Measure 2 because it was politically advantageous for you. How would you respond to that? And what would your message be to partisans here in Colorado who are worried about the status quo being shaken up?
Giessel: The thing to look at is the outcome — and I don’t mean the outcome of the election. I mean the outcome of the governance that resulted from the election. In districts that are extremely conservative, and we have three areas like that, they continued to elect very far-right partisans. But in the Alaska Senate, we put together a bipartisan coalition so the majority caucus is made up of 9 Democrats and eight Republicans. We have 20 members in the Senate. Seventeen of us said “we’re going to set aside extreme positions of our two political parties and we’re going to work on all those things in the middle that we agree on.” A balanced budget. Funding for education. Lowering the cost of energy. A reasonable pension for public employees. Those were our four priorities — and we made huge accomplishments in those four areas working together.
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OPPOSITION TO PROPOSITION 131
U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette this week became the most prominent Democrat in Colorado to formally oppose Proposition 131.
“Proposition 131 is not the right fit for Colorado,” the longtime Denver congresswoman said in a written statement. “Colorado has a secure and reliable voting system that has seen record voter participation. This initiative will introduce more money into our politics and add layers of confusion to a system that isn’t broken. At a time when election deniers are doing their best to break trust in our elections, this is the wrong time for such a drastic change.”
A number of Democratic state lawmakers also took positions this week formally opposing the measure, including House Majority Leader Monica Duran of Wheat Ridge; state Rep. Lorena Garcia of Adams County; Reps. Emily Sirota, Steven Woodrow and Javier Mabrey of Denver; Senate President Steve Fenberg of Boulder; Sen. Julie Gonzales of Denver; Sen. Tom Sullivan of Centennial; Sen. Faith Winter of Westminster; Larimer County Commissioner Kristin Stephens; and Summit County Commissioner Tamara Pogue.
8TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT
Gabe Evans gets an election integrity question on the campaign trail
Republican Gabe Evans made a campaign stop in Commerce City this week for a roundtable on small business. But a man attending the event wanted to pick the 8th Congressional District candidate’s mind about something else.
“I worry about registering illegals to vote,” the man said. “Is that a concern in Colorado? Or is that more other states that are going to have that issue?”
Evans replied “kinda,” pointing to how the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office a few years ago sent out postcards encouraging people to register to vote, including accidentally to tens of thousands of noncitizens.
“I mean, they found it. It was a mistake,” Evans said. “But of course that breeds the questions — are these ballots safe and secure?”
He told the constituent that he has toured ballot tabulating centers and feels confident in how that process goes, same with ballot boxes. But Evans lamented the lack of safeguards to prevent noncitizens from registering to vote in Colorado, blasting Democrats in Congress for blocking efforts to require proof of citizenship when someone registers to vote.
“That’s obviously something I support,” he said.
To register to vote in Colorado, people must provide their Colorado driver’s license number, the last four digits of their Social Security number or another valid form of ID. If the form of ID doesn’t confirm someone’s citizenship, they must affirm under the penalty of perjury that they are a U.S. citizen.
It is a federal felony to knowingly lie on a voter registration form, punishable by deportation or up to five years in prison.
Colorado does not verify people’s citizenship status when they register to vote. However, after a person registers, state elections officials say they check their voter database against numerous other databases to ensure the voter’s eligibility.
Matt Crane, executive director of the Colorado County Clerks Association, said more than 98% of Colorado voters have a driver’s license on file. People cannot use a noncitizen Colorado driver’s license as part of their voter registration, meaning that 98% of voters’ citizenship is verified through their driver’s licenses alone.
Crane said less than 2% of Colorado voters have just a Social Security number attached to their voter files, and only about 4,000 voters have neither a driver’s license or Social Security number on file.
There were 3.9 million active, registered voters in Colorado as of Oct. 1. There were 4.5 million total voters, including inactive and preregistered voters.
A TV AD FRENZY
The National Republican Congressional Committee is running a new TV ad in the 8th Congressional District that piles on previous GOP assaults on Democratic U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo over fentanyl.
The ad features Thomas Campbell, a recovering opioid addict, who claims that with Caraveo’s decision to vote for a bill decriminalizing fentanyl possession in Colorado “she signed the death warrants of hundreds of people.”
The Congressional Leadership Fund is running a similar new ad, attacking Caraveo’s fentanyl decriminalization vote and saying Caraveo has a “radical record.”
Meanwhile, Evans is running a new ad defending his position on abortion after being attacked by Caraveo and Democratic PACs.
“Yadira Caraveo is getting desperate,” he says in the ad. “My abortion position is clear. I’ll always vote for exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother. And I don’t support a national abortion ban.”
DO THE MATH
56%
The share of likely voters in the 8th Congressional District who said they would vote “yes” on Amendment 79, which would amend the Colorado constitution to preserve unfettered abortion access in the state.
That’s according to a poll conducted among 600 likely voters in the district from Sept. 20 to 25 by Colorado Community Research, a Democratic firm. It had a 4.6 percentage point margin of error.
Thirty-five percent of those polled said they planned to vote “no” on the measure, while 9% said they were undecided.
Participants were also asked about Proposition 131, with 51% saying they planned to vote “yes” on the measure establishing all-candidate primaries and ranked choice general elections. Twenty percent said they were undecided and 30% said they would vote “no.”
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THE POLITICAL TICKER
OBITUARY
Victor Bencomo, a Denver Democrat who ran unsuccessfully for a state House seat this year, died Tuesday. The Navy veteran and gun violence prevention activist was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a form of brain cancer, in late April. Bencomo was given 18 months to live and believed his disease stemmed from exposure to toxic burn pits during his combat tour in Iraq.
3RD CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT
The National Republican Congressional Committee is purchasing TV ad time in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District in the lead-up to Election Day to help Republican Jeff Hurd. The NRCC spending is a sign national Republicans think Hurd is vulnerable as he runs against Democrat Adam Frisch in the GOP-leaning district.
Frisch lost to Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert by less than 600 votes in 2022, but the competitiveness of the race has largely been blamed on Boebert’s unfavorability among voters in the district. Frisch has a large financial warchest that he’s using to buy TV ad time.
4TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT
Democrat Trisha Calvarese is purchasing TV ad time as Election Day approaches. She’s running against Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District.
Calvarese’s ad features Danielle Robinson, whose husband, Keith, a military veteran who deployed to Iraq, died from lung cancer in 2020. Robinson blasts Boebert in the ad for voting against the PACT Act, which expands benefits for veterans who were exposed to toxic burn pits.
“She even heckled when Keith was honored at the State of the Union,” Robinson says. “My family deserved better. So did the veterans she voted against.”
In a statement Thursday to The Unaffiliated, Boebert explained her decision to vote against the measure: “There was no funding mechanism for this gigantic investment, and, even worse, this bill lacked a plan for staffing resources to handle the increase in cases which has led to an even further backlog of cases. This tragically hurts all veterans. Just last month, the VA Department had to be bailed out because of shoddy management and unrealistic promises from politicians.”
Boebert is running two TV ads of her own: one touting her work for veterans and the other boasting about her positions on the economy, oil and gas and women’s sports, specifically her opposition to transgender people competing in them.
Calvarese is running a longshot campaign in the district, but she has parlayed Boebert’s unpopularity into a surge of fundraising. Contracts filed with the Federal Communications Commission show her ad buy is at least in the tens of thousands of dollars.
6TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT
Inspire Colorado, a federal super PAC that formed last month, is spending money in Colorado’s 6th Congressional District. The group reported Wednesday that it had spent $15,000 on radio ads, apparently in support of Republican John Fabbricatore, who is running to unseat Democratic U.S. Rep. Jason Crow.
The committee doesn’t list a stated purpose, but its treasurer is Kayla Glaze, a campaign finance accountant who has been associated with Republican candidates and causes in the past.
The PAC’s first campaign finance report is due in the middle of this month. Crow is expected to cruise to reelection in the district.
LEGISLATIVE RACES
All Together Colorado, a state-level super PAC that supports Democrats running for state Senate, is purchasing TV ad time in the Colorado Springs/Pueblo media market.
The group is working to elect Democratic state Rep. Marc Synder of Manitou Springs in Senate District 12, which is in El Paso County.
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THIS WEEK’S PODCAST: Can Colorado solve its housing crisis?
THE BIGGER PICTURE
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