Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper didn’t have to wait long Tuesday night to learn he will be Colorado’s next governor.
Hickenlooper was projected to have won out over American Constitution Party candidate Tom Tancredo and the largely abandoned Republican Dan Maes a little more than an hour after the polls closed.
At 9:30 a.m., Hickenlooper was leading with 50.5 percent of votes cast, or 836,083 votes. Tancredo, a former House Republican, had 36.8 percent, or 610,689 votes; and Maes had 11.2 percent, or 185,700 votes.
Republicans worried that Tancredo and Maes would split the conservative vote, but Hickenlooper was on pace to garner more votes than his two main challengers combined.
Hickenlooper called it a bittersweet victory, coming just three days after the death of his cousin, filmmaker George Hickenlooper.
Standing underneath a U.S. flag and surrounded by supporters waving blue and white campaign signs at the Denver Marriott City Center, Hickenlooper called on all four corners of the state to come together to make a better future.
“The global recession didn’t start here, but we intend to stop it here,” said Hickenlooper, flanked by his wife, Helen Thorpe, son, Teddy, and running mate, Joe Garcia.
“Tonight, the political campaign may be over, but the business of putting Colorado back to work is just beginning.”
Hickenlooper will replace fellow Democrat Bill Ritter, who did not seek re-election. Hickenlooper said he believes he won so comfortably because his team ran a positive campaign.
“Our focus was on the issues,” Hickenlooper said. “We focused on what we were for, not what we were against. Our problems are too big for partisan politics.”
As governor, Hickenlooper will oversee the redistricting process — a plus for his party. But he has a tough road ahead. Analysts have predicted the state could face up to a $1.1 billion shortfall in the budget year that begins in July 2011.
Hickenlooper’s win left the major gubernatorial drama of the night the fate of the Colorado Republican Party. That and who might run to replace Hickenlooper as Denver mayor.
Maes’ final vote count is a matter of high stakes for Republicans: The state GOP falls to minor-party status if Maes finishes with less than 10 percent of the vote.
Taking the stage as the song “La Bamba” played, Tancredo thanked more than 300 supporters gathered at the Stampede Mesquite Grill & Dance Emporium in Aurora.
He recalled the start of his candidacy just three months ago and marveled at the money he raised and the support he garnered.
“I still believe to this very day, every step we took was the right step,” said Tancredo, who raised less than a quarter of what Hickenlooper generated.
And he reminded supporters that “the loss of a race does not mean the loss of a cause.”
A crowd that had been two-stepping just a few minutes earlier briefly booed when Tancredo mentioned Hickenlooper’s name. Tancredo called the mayor to concede and congratulate him.
Maes, speaking to his supporters in Colorado Springs, said, “You know, we fought. We never quit.”
He encouraged supporters to keep in mind the bigger picture.
“This is a good night that will forever change the direction of our state and our country,” Maes told about 50 supporters at the Colorado Mountain Brewery in Colorado Springs. “Republicans and conservatives are taking back control because of what you’ve done.
“Whether I go to the governor’s office or not doesn’t matter at this point. You are engaged. You are taking back your country.”
But Maes’ fans expressed anger at the media for what they felt was unfair treatment — and at Tancredo for jumping into the race.
“The fight starts now,” said Lana Fore, publisher of the Constitutionalist Today and a Maes supporter. “The current GOP is going down. We will see to it.”
Maes voter Tom Myers of Arapahoe County said he too is disgusted with the way Republicans treated his candidate.
“Why should I ever participate in the system again when they were going to just throw their own guy in there anyway?” Myers said, referring to efforts to get Maes to step aside so Republicans could choose another contender.
The initial clear GOP frontrunner, former Congressman Scott McInnis, saw his huge lead over Maes evaporate after he was embroiled in a plagiarism scandal. Tancredo issued an ultimatum to both candidates: Pledge to get out of the race if the winner was trailing Hickenlooper in the polls the day after the primary or Tancredo would get in as the American Constitution Party candidate. They both refused, and Tancredo entered the race at the end of July.
Two weeks later, with the help of Tea Party supporters, Maes edged out McInnis by 1 percentage point.
Maes quickly fell out of favor among Republicans through a combination of misstatements, exaggerations and blunders on the campaign trail that dragged him down to single digits in some polls heading into Election Day.
Campaigning against illegal immigration and for states’ rights, Tancredo filled the candidate vacuum for conservative voters. He spent much of his time on the campaign trail bashing his Democratic opponent and gaining in the polls.
Staff writers Karen E. Crummy, Jessica Fender and Christopher N. Osher contributed to this report.