Colorado Politics columnist Paula Noonan writes that Colorado progressives prevailed in the primary over the party machine, despite business-backed money flowing through groups like One Main Street Colorado and American Future to support more moderate Democratic candidates. The column argues that progressive candidates beat establishment favorites in several races, including Melat Kiros defeating longtime U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, Iris Halpern defeating Sean Camacho, and other progressive wins in statehouse contests.
But the column opens in a strange place: Dick Wadhams, Victor Marx, Barbara Kirkmeyer, and the GOP’s possible collapse. That is not a mistake to smooth over. That is the whole Colorado political moment in miniature. Democrats are getting mugged by their activist flank, Republicans are fighting over whether their voters are torching the furniture, and every consultant in both parties is discovering voters are not obedient little precinct cattle.
The through-line is simple: Colorado politics is now a bar fight between the machine and the people the machine spent years ignoring. The insiders still think nominations belong to donor networks, endorsements, caucus cliques, and marble-mouth strategists who treat voters like a scheduling inconvenience. The voters, inconveniently, keep voting.
The Bullet Point Brief
- Noonan says progressives beat the machine. Business interests backed more moderate Democrats through One Main Street Colorado and American Future, but several progressive candidates won anyway. Apparently voters did not get the memo from the donor class. Rude.
- The Opportunity Caucus takes a hit in the column. Noonan points to Democratic lawmakers who met with business leaders at the Sonnenalp Hotel in Vail, a gathering that sparked objections from Common Cause and others. Nothing says grassroots uprising like everyone arguing over who got invited to the fancy policy sleepover.
- Sean Camacho lost despite a big money edge. Noonan writes that Camacho was defeated by Iris Halpern even with a $250,000 campaign finance advantage. That is the sort of result that makes consultants stare into a half-empty LaCroix and whisper, “But the model said…”
- Other establishment bets failed too. Kenny Nguyen survived an effort to knock him out. Consuelo Redhorse beat Chris Floyd despite Floyd having support from House Speaker Julie McCluskie and $182,000 in independent expenditure support. Chela Garcia Irlando defeated Andrès Carrera in northwest Denver.
- Then there is the GOP detour. Noonan frames a possible Victor Marx win over Barbara Kirkmeyer as the final burial of conservative principles and a nightmare for the old Wadhams-style GOP establishment. Which is rich, because the old guard helped hollow out the brand and now acts shocked that voters might burn the couch.
My Bottom Line
Colorado’s political machines are not dying because voters got stupid overnight. They are dying because the machines spent years being arrogant, useless, and allergic to reality.
On the Democratic side, the “progressive grassroots” story is not quite as pure as the incense suggests. A lot of that world runs through nonprofits, activist networks, union muscle, ideological groups, and grant-funded oxygen tanks. They call it people power, then show up with a laminated agenda and a fiscal note that looks like it was written by someone who thinks money grows in a Boulder foundation basement.
But the establishment Democrats should not act like victims here. They built the conditions for this revolt. They ran the state, blessed the insider games, tolerated the policy clubs, and assumed enough money and endorsements would keep the activist flank in line. Then the activists looked around, saw weakness, and took the wheel.
Republicans should resist the urge to laugh too hard, because their own house is on fire with a different soundtrack. The old GOP establishment keeps warning that voters are destroying conservatism by rejecting the “serious” candidate. Maybe. Or maybe the old guard spent too many years losing, scolding, and offering voters warmed-over consultant chow, then seemed stunned when the base started shopping elsewhere.
That is the real lesson. Both parties keep pretending they control their voters. They do not. Colorado voters are tired of being told the serious candidate is whoever got pre-approved in a back room with stale coffee and dead campaign instincts. The machines are losing authority because they confused access with trust, money with persuasion, and strategy with entitlement. Turns out voters still get a say. Terrifying concept, I know.
Source: Colorado Politics
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