Colorado 2010 Election Results

Colorado held its general election on November 2, 2010, deciding 84 legislative seats and 5 statewide offices led by the governorship. Control shifted: the House moved from a 37-27 Democratic majority to a 33-32 Republican majority.

Highlights

• Democrats kept the governorship and the Senate, but the one-seat Republican House takeover ended the Democratic trifecta. Divided control carried into redistricting: in 2011 the General Assembly failed to adopt new congressional boundaries, leaving the map to the courts.
• John Hickenlooper (D) won the open governorship by about 15 points, coasting past two opponents who split the conservative vote. Tom Tancredo (ACN), a longtime Republican running on the American Constitution Party line, finished second as Republicans bolted from the Maes camp. Republican nominee Dan Maes (R) took about 11%. Below 10%, the GOP would have lost major-party status.
• The House turned on razor-thin margins. Of the six Democratic-held seats Republicans picked up, two went by fewer than 300 votes: Robert Ramirez (R) unseated Debbie Benefield (D) in House District 29 by about 200 votes, and Donald Beezley (R) beat Dianne Primavera (D) in House District 33 by about 270. In House District 61, Roger Wilson (D) edged Rep. Kathleen Curry (I), who ran as a write-in because she had left the Democratic Party too late to make the ballot.
• Republicans won 2 statewide offices from Democrats. Scott Gessler (R) unseated Secretary of State Bernie Buescher (D) by about 6 points, and Walker Stapleton (R) unseated Treasurer Cary Kennedy (D) by about 1 point. Attorney General John Suthers (R) won re-election.
• The only Senate seat to change hands was the open Senate District 6, which Ellen Roberts (R) picked up from Democrats. Beyond the flips, 5 more legislative races finished inside two points, all of them Democratic holds.
• Voters passed only 1 of 9 statewide measures, Amendment Q, which set a process for temporarily moving the seat of government in a declared disaster. They rejected a trio of tax-and-debt limits by wide margins: Amendment 60, which would have cut and limited property taxes; Amendment 61, which would have barred state borrowing; and Proposition 101, which would have cut the state income tax. They also defeated Amendment 62, which would have applied the term "person" to every human being from the beginning of biological development. Amendment 63, a health care measure, came closest but also failed.

Legislature

• House (65 seats): 37 D, 27 R, 1 other or vacant before the election, 32 D, 33 R after; control moved from Democrats to Republicans.
• Senate (35 seats): 21 D, 14 R before the election, 20 D, 15 R after; control stayed with Democrats.

Statewide races

Legislative races

Ballot measures