DENVER – Note to Republican presidential contenders: Colorado’s political terrain is as rocky as its mountains.
Once solidly Republican, the state turned just as solidly Democratic in the 2000s as the population swelled with people moving into the state. Colorado’s traditional bases of conservatism — evangelical Christians and Western individualists — became less influential.
Democrats rolled up big victories statewide and, in 2008, Barack Obama became the first Democrat in two decades to carry Colorado’s nine electoral votes.
Today, however, unemployment is near 8 percent, and Coloradans are gloomier about the economy and their elected officials. Republican front-runner Mitt Romney and his rivals in Tuesday’s party caucuses are counting on that mood to redeliver Colorado to the GOP this November.
“Whoever the Republican candidate is going to be, there’s going to be support for that person in Colorado,” Republican state Sen. Kent Lambert said, pointing to a state unemployment rate on par with the national average as a reason.
The path to the party’s nomination cuts through Colorado on Tuesday, when Romney will try to continue his winning streak after back-to-back victories in Florida and Nevada. The former Massachusetts governor carried the state in 2008, with 60 percent of the vote. His campaign started working
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