There are many races that could be discussed as examples of how thorough the Democratic victories were on Election Day, but here’s a quick synopsis:

  • The Rocky Mountain News declared Democrat Bill Ritter the winner of the gubernatorial race before 9:00 p.m. While the Rocky may have jumped the gun a little, you really couldn’t argue a scenario whereby Republican Bob Beauprez could have overtaken Ritter. The margin of victory for the Democrat at the top of the ticket could end up as high as 20 points – an astounding blowout.
  • Democratic Rep. John Salazar (CO-3 – Western Slope) won re-election over Republican Scott Tipton by about 25 points. Incumbent candidates are usually most vulnerable in their first bid for re-election, and CO-3 is a Republican-leaning district, but Salazar still managed to completely crush Tipton. It’s no surprise that Salazar won, but by 25 points? Nobody would have predicted that.
  • Every top targeted legislative race went to the Democrats. There were three seats in the state House that were major battlegrounds for both parties (HD-23, HD-29 and HD-50), and every one of them stayed in Democratic hands. There was one major fight in the state Senate (SD-21), and Democrats kept that seat as well. Republicans didn’t manage to pull off a single legislative upset in the entire state. Not one.

  • Kathy Hartman was elected as one of three Jefferson County Commissioners, and she did it in fairly convincing fashion. This is an obscure race that didn’t get much press, but put it this way: Democrats do not win county commissioner seats in Republican-leaning Jefferson County. Yesterday they picked one up with a solid five point victory.

The Democratic victories yesterday, both in Colorado and nationwide, were truly stunning. It wasn’t just that Democrats won – they won everywhere. And they won convincingly.