Northglenn Thornton
Sentinel
November 8, 2012
50 cents
A Colorado Community Media Publication
ournorthglennnews.com, ourthorntonnews.com
Adams County, Colorado • Volume 49, Issue 13
CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT 7
132,727 JOE COORS
REPUblICAn
Coors
171,874 ED PERLMUTTER DEMOCRAT
Perlmutter
8,404
BUCK BAILEY lIbERTARIAn
Bailey
* Unofficial results
U.S. House District 7 Democrat Ed Perlmutter claps as he sees an update on a giant screen TV at Joe Palooka’s Sports & Spirits in Thornton on Election Day. Photo by Andy Carpenean
Perlmutter seizes fourth term Incumbent fends off a neighborhood challenge By Glenn Wallace gwallace@ourcoloradonews.com Voters in Jefferson and Adams counties granted the 7th Congressional District incumbent, Democrat Ed Perlmutter, a fourth term in congress Tuesday, by a 13-point margin over Republican rival Joe Coors. “We did just about everything we could to get our message out in mail and TV,” Perlmutter said Tuesday. “When you run against someone as well known as Coors, with his kind of resources, it makes it a formidable race.” The Coors campaign manager Michelle Yi reported that Coors gave his concession speech shortly before 10 p.m., and called Perlmutter to congratulate him. “We ran a spirited campaign. Joe thanked everyone for their support and
voting with their hearts,” Yi said. Coors is the great-grandson of brewery founder Adolph Coors. His first political ads of the season introduced himself to voters by saying that he was not a beer. He is the former CEO of CoorTek, an international ceramic manufacturing company. As the Republican Party candidate, he ran on a business-friendly platform, criticizing Perlmutter about his support of the 2008 stimulus package and the Affordable Health Care Act. His brother Pete Coors made an unsuccessful run for senate in 2004. Yi said Coors would take things “one day at a time,” when asked what his future plans might be. Perlmutter, 59, is a lawyer by trade. He had previously served two four-year terms representing Jefferson County in the State Senate. Perlmutter said his major goals after re-election included seeing the Aurora VA Hospital completed, and extending the wind energy tax credit.
“The main thing is that I continue to work with Democrats and Republicans to move this country forward.” American Constitution candidate Douglas “Dayhorse” Campbell and Libertarian candidate Buck Bailey both earned around 3 percent of the vote. Bailey said he was disappointed that third party candidates were not invited to candidate debates, like they were two years ago, when he also ran. “Well, I don’t know about (running) next time around. It really comes down to the big money, and not having to work for a living while you campaign,” Bailey said. Combined, the top two candidates spent more than $6.8 million. Much of the money in this race has gone toward a flurry of TV ads from both sides. Perlmutter’s campaign received high marks from ad watchers for an ad featuring a retired Navy SEAL and his wife. The Perlmutter camp also inadvertently provided the footage for the Coors campaign’s funniest ad. Outtakes from a
Perlmutter ad were posted to YouTube, allowing Coors staffers to add a sarcastic voiceover and captions. Coors began the televised portion of his campaign early with his “Not a beer” ad campaign. One attack ad by Coors, which criticized Perlmutter for his ex-wife’s participation in lobbying for Solyndra, was named one of the five worst political ads of campaign season by USA Today. The Coors and Perlmutter families have a long history as neighbors in the Applewood neighborhood of Congressional District 7. Coors and Perlmutter’s father were next-door neighbors for years. Perlmutter hired one of Coors daughters to his law firm. When asked if the mudslinging in the campaign may have done permanent damage to the relationship, Perlmutter said he didn’t think so. “Come tomorrow we’ll each shake it off. We’ll still be neighbors. I waved at Joe driving down his street the other day, and he waved back.”
Voters expand county board Number of commissioners set to increase from 3 to 5 By Darin Moriki
dmoriki@ourcoloradonews.com Adams County voters approved a measure that increases the number of county commis-
sioners from three to five members. The vote in favor of the first part of Ballot Question 1A was 57 percent to 43, based on unofficial results posted early Wednesday morning. Voters also had three options for the election of the new county commissioners: Three district commissioners and two at-large
commissioners to be elected by the entire county; three district commissioners elected by district residents and two at-large commissioners elected by county residents; or five commissioners in districts to be elected by county residents. The choice to have five district commissioners was favored by the most voters after receiv-
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ing 57.52 percent of the total votes cast. Ruth Kedzior, the assistant county administrator, said Adams County was able to pass on the ballot measure to voters because provisions in Article XIV of the Colorado Constitution allows for counties with more than 70,000 people to increase its representation from three to five commissioners. She said the remaining two commissioner seats will not be decided by voters until 2014. Critics say the ballot measure would increase government and spending costs to create the two new positions, while proponents say the benefits of increased representation outweigh the concerns. Thornton city councilman Val Vigil, Ward 2, was in favor of
the ballot measure and said he was pleased that all five at-large commissioners would be elected by county residents. “The whole concept of being closer to the people you represent outweighs anything else, including the costs,” Vigil said after the results were released. “The costs in proportion to the overall budget are minute, so I’m really glad that we’ll be able to do that. Republican Gary Mikes, who lost his bid for the District 1 Adams County commissioner seat, disagreed. “It’s very disappointing to me, because I’m not at all in favor of increasing the size of government,” Mikes said. “We need to scale government down to make it leaner, less expensive and less cumbersome on citizens.”