Was the record-breaking money poured into Colorado campaigns—and the advertising it bought—more distracting than the big personalities in the race for governor? Regardless of your opinion, it doesn’t change the fact that the “other” (read: non-senatorial or -gubernatorial) candidates struggled for attention. And two of the incumbents lost their seats. Colorado District Attorney John Suthers, a Republican, is not one of them.

Suthers will serve a second term after grabbing about 57 percent of the vote, compared to 43 percent for his challenger, Democrat Stan Garnett, Boulder County’s district attorney. “My hope is with John Hickenlooper as governor and the legislature, we will begin to make some progress in dealing with some of the constitutional constraints that we have in funding and higher education,” Suthers said after the win (via The Denver Post). “I think I can be a real valuable asset to that effort and provide the appropriate legal advice.”

Meanwhile, Democrat Bernie Buescher—who, like U.S. Senator Michael Bennet was appointed to his post by Governor Bill Ritter—was ousted from his job as secretary of state by Republican Scott Gessler, the Post reports in a separate article. Gessler supports issues such as requiring voters to show proof that they are U.S. citizens before allowing them to vote.

Another Democrat, Treasurer Cary Kennedy, also lost her job. Walker Stapleton, president and CEO of SonomaWest Holdings, a publicly traded real-estate company, grabbed the seat for Republicans. Stapleton, the great-grandson of Denver’s longest-serving mayor and a second cousin to former President George H.W. Bush, campaigned on his business experience, writes 9News, while Kennedy focused on her success in growing the state’s $6 billion investment portfolio during a time of economic downturn.