How could a Democrat
win statewide office in
a red state like
Colorado? That's the
question I've been
asked often since I beat Pete Coors by
5 percentage points in 2004. The
answer lies in choosing the right
issues, telling your own story and
being authentic, and convincing the
voters that you understand their real,
everyday concerns.
When word got out that the
Republicans had recruited Pete Coors
to run for the Senate, a lot of people
felt that the race was over. Not only is
Pete from a famous family that owns a
famous brewery, but the family seems
to have some kind of business in just
about every county -- or at least a ball
field named for the family. Pete had
name recognition and a long record in
the civic life of Colorado. And, of
course, he brought with him millions
upon millions of dollars.
I had almost none of those things. I
come from a very humble background.
My parents were 11th generation
immigrants whose families had
farmed in the San Luis Valley for 150
years. None of my ancestors had been
to college. And while I had served as
Colorado attorney general, I had never
run for a statewide office with this
kind of national attention. But we
went into it with everything that we
had. In seven-and-a-half months we
raised over $9 million. Yet money was
only part of the challenge.
What made the biggest difference
was that I emphasized the right issues.
I was able to connect with the people
of Colorado in a way that made them
feel that I was going to be on their
side. People just weren't sure that
Coors, the CEO of a big company,
would ever be able to understand the
issues that they were facing every day.
They understood that I would be a
strong supporter of the issues that the
people in Colorado care about every
day.
During my campaign, I often
talked about what it's like to get up in
the morning and wonder what the day
holds for you. People wonder whether
they're going to have a job; whether or
not they're going to have health insurance
for themselves or for their families;
whether or not their children will
be able to get access to higher education;
whether or not there is a level of
violence around the world that has
become really dangerous.
Security first. The number one issue
on people's minds is security. As a
Democrat who had spent six years
working with 14,000 law enforcement
officers and who had argued numerous
criminal law cases, I knew that security
was central to the election. And as the
person who had dealt with major crimes
such as the Columbine school shootings,
security was an especially important
issue to me.
So I told people that, in our post-
9/11 world, security was at the very
top of our agenda. The function of the
national government is to make sure
that we have a strong defense and the
safest homeland we possibly can.
Because of my work with law enforcement,
I had support from most of the
law enforcement organizations. This
theme strongly contrasted me with
Coors, who had no experience
working with security issues.
The second defining theme for
me was my work in the rural parts
of Colorado. As the son of farmers,
I made it a point to spend a lot of
time as attorney general working
to protect water resources for
farmers and ranchers. I also
worked on rural law enforcement
issues, such as the methamphetamine
crisis and law enforcement
training for deputy sheriffs
in our rural communities.
I promised to visit all 64 counties
in the state, no matter how
small -- and I did. People in smaller,
rural communities always feel
that the golden curtain somehow
drops at the city limits of the bigger
cities and that rural areas are
forgotten. They appreciate the fact
that somebody cares about them. I
made rural America a major part
of my agenda -- and I got treated
very well in comparison to other
people who were running.
The third key issue was faith. I'm a
Catholic, but I didn't talk about my
faith in a way that people found offensive.
I presented it simply as a very
important part of who I am. My family
founded the city of Santa Fe, N.M.,
in 1598. They named it the City of
Holy Faith. The valley where I grew
up is dotted with names that come
right out of the Bible. The Sangre de
Cristo Mountains, which means
Blood of Christ mountains, bordered
us to the east, and the San Juan
Mountains bordered us to the west.
And the rivers that run through our
ranch are named after saints as well.
My first campaign commercial was
a biographical spot that included a
picture of the oldest church in
Colorado. It's a Catholic Church with
a cross on top -- the church where I
was married. My great-grandfather is
buried under that church. In that
commercial, I wasn't trying to accentuate
my faith so much as just say:
This is who I am. If someone asked me
about my faith, I explained that much
of my own decision to become a public
servant was based on my faith.
As a Christian, I think the
Beatitudes and other doctrines that I
learned growing up taught me that I
should help as much as I can to serve
other people. My public service has
very much been a part of that journey.
Besides the issues, the most
important thing that a candidate can
do is to be authentic. If a candidate
tries to wear religion like clothing
without really having it, that tactic
will backfire. I think that someone
could very well be president or win
political office without having to say
very much at all about religion.
What's most important is that the
candidate be authentic. For some
people, faith is a very important part
of who they are. It ought to be okay
for people who are running for office
to talk about their faith.
There was one issue that I decided
not to talk about: abortion. This is a
hot button issue that sometimes
entraps people running for office.
In 1998 and 2002, my good friend,
Tom Strickland, ran for the U.S.
Senate. I supported and worked for
Tom's campaign. NARAL and other
organizations were very supportive of
him. He ran many TV ads about a
woman's right to choose, making abortion
a central part of that campaign.
But Tom lost.
I didn't want that to happen in my
campaign. I was not endorsed by
NARAL or Planned Parenthood
because, frankly, I support parental
notification and other kinds of restrictions
on abortion. I think that was a
significant contrast between me and
Tom Strickland.
I think abortion is a very personal
question, one which by necessity
should be an issue of conscience for
people who are involved in dealing
with that particular decision. Even
though my pollsters told me that all
the surveys indicated that I ought to
be running ads that dealt with abortion,
I made the decision not to do that.
Perhaps the key thing Democrats
need to remember is that we must
have a message of optimism. We need
to stand for something and not just
draw the contrast between ourselves
and the mistakes of Bush and Cheney
over the last six years. We need to
stand for a strong nation and strong
homeland defense. We need to be very
strong on security.
The right vision. We can take our
cues on this from the generation of
World War II. When I speak in
Colorado, I tell people that I think
about my father who served in the war
and about my uncle who lost his life
on the soils of Europe. It's in that generation
that I find my own vision.
They believed in very strong defense
and homeland security. They wanted
us to have a more secure America than
the one they lived in during World
War I and World War II. They wanted
to make sure that we were creating a
safer, more secure world for those who
were coming behind them. Their
vision ought to be the vision of the
Democratic Party.
Democrats also need to stand for
the proposition of opportunity.
Those fighters in World War II were
fighting for the opportunity of all
Americans. My parents never had the
opportunities that I've had in life.
They never had the opportunity to
go to college. We grew up in a place
that didn't have electricity and didn't
have a telephone, and we studied
around a kerosene lamp in a place
that was far removed from any city.
And yet my parents knew that somehow
opportunity was the keystone to
being an American. They pushed us
all to get a quality education. And
the result is that all eight of their
children became first-generation college
graduates.
They had faith and hope in the
future of America. I think we need to
have that same faith and hope in the
future of America on domestic issues.
It means that we have to work for
health care solutions because that crisis
is affecting so many American families
and businesses. That means that
we need to work to make sure that
educational opportunity stays alive
and well.
It means that we need to have the
courage to achieve energy independence
so we don't mortgage our
national security or economic security
to the sheiks and kings of the Middle
East. We have to have a positive agenda
that America can be a very strong
country.
With an optimistic campaign based
on key issues, I not only beat Pete
Coors, but we picked up another congressional
seat for the Colorado
Democrats. That was my brother's seat
in the 3rd Congressional District on
the Western Slope, a rural area of
Colorado. And we won the
Legislature. For the first time since
John Fitzgerald Kennedy was president
of the United States, Democrats
control both the House and the Senate
in Colorado.
There is great hope for Colorado
Democrats in 2006. The governor's
seat could go to a Democrat. We will
continue to build our majorities in
both the House and the Senate.
There are also a number of congressional
seats that look competitive.
For the first time in a long time,
there's a sense that Democrats have a
chance just about everywhere in this
red state.
