Joey DiSlavo won the Pitkin County Sheriff's race to replace retiring Bob Braudis, garnering a whopping 79% of the vote.

DiSalvo’s campaign centered on a promise not to make any sweeping changes to the office Braudis has run since 1987, and to continue the local tradition of community policing and building public trust, begun by Sheriff Dick Kienast in the 1970s. In that time, the sheriff’s office has garnered attention for progressive policies like running a comfortable jail, training locals as officers rather than hiring experienced outsiders, and not conducting undercover investigations.

TalkLeft first endorsed DiSalvo in April, when he announced his candidacy. Follow-up posts on the race, including his stance in favor of legalization of drugs for personal use, opposition to use of undercover cops and views on drug policy are here, here and here. Favorite line of the campaign, considering it comes from a law enforcement officer:

[DiSalvo said] he had no interest in whether people in their own homes “fire up a joint or do a line on [their] table.”

Congrats to Aspen and Joe DiSalvo.

Senator Michael Bennett rally at Noon, Civic Center Park in Denver. (Update: I removed the embed since it was a live stream and the rally is over.) Here's what was said and some followup on what message to take from Coloradans' vote yesterday:

Udall opened, standing next to Bennet, saying the outcome of the race was never in doubt. Everyone laughed. Diana DeGette, Jared Polis and Ed Perlmutter were right behind them.

Bennet speaks. He has been moved by the people of Colorado and their support. (Later he repeats, adding humbled and inspired.)

He says the Pundits don't know what happened in Colorado. They are scratching their heads, looking for a message for the rest of the country. He's going to help them out. [More...]

Kevin Drum writes:

Lots of Democrats, including me, have been pointing out that structural factors alone predicted a 45-seat loss in the House this year. In other words, the bulk of the expected Democratic losses weren't due to healthcare reform or Obama's remoteness or liberal overreach or anything like that. It was baked into the cake all along. But the model I wrote about, which comes from Douglas Hibbs, only predicted a 45-seat loss, and it looks like Dems are likely to lose at least 60 seats. That means Democrats underperformed the Hibbs model by 15 seats or so, which is a record for them. [. . .] It really does look like there's a fair amount of scope to place a lot of the blame for tonight's Democratic debacle on both tactical and policy missteps.

I think that the model Drum relied upon is flawed in that our economic statistics understate the level of misery in the country. I could point to tactical and strategic political errors that exacerbated the result a bit, but I really think almost all of the result is due to the economy. That means to me, "policy missteps." Governing well is the best way to win elections. The Obama Administration and the Democratic Congress simply were not good enough on economic policy. The "bums" were thrown out. Of course the old bums were reinstalled. And catastrophe is what we can expect. But that's how elections work. You throw out the bums you have, even if it means bringing back the old bums.

Speaking for me only

The latest: the Denver Post has called the Senate Race in Colorado for Michael Bennet.

Updates to follow, I hope they are right.

In a fairly banal and not as bad as I expected Op-Ed, Evan Bayh pleases the Beltway with this line:

[Dems]were too deferential to our most zealous supporters. During election season, Congress sought to placate those on the extreme left and motivate the base — but that meant that our final efforts before the election focused on trying to allow gays in the military, change our immigration system and repeal the George W. Bush-era tax cuts. These are legitimate issues but unlikely to resonate with moderate swing voters in a season of economic discontent.

(Emphasis supplied.) There are two interesting points about this passage. First Bayh is arguing that motivating your base during election season is bad politics. Instead persuading "moderate swing voters" is the way to go. I think that's wrong, but it is an argument. Second, Bayh seems to not see a connection between governing performance and electoral results. He thinks it is all about appearances. That is just plain stupid. And of course, with regard to "placating those on the extreme left," Paul Krugman says it best:

So, we’re already getting the expected punditry: Obama needs to end his leftist policies, which consist of … well, there weren’t any, but he should stop them anyway.

Anyway, Evan Bayh is running for President in 2016. Hillary Clinton can stop him though.

Speaking for me only

A historic loss for the Democrats last night creates opportunities for progressives around the country. Now more than ever, the primary process should give progressive candidates chances to capture Democratic nominations around the country.

While the Beltway and The Third Way will argue that Democrats need to run moderate Republicans as their candidates in the next election, the reality is the Beltway and The Third Way can no longer get a single person elected in a Democratic (or Republican, for that matter) primary.The era of the smoke filled room is over.

Progressives can be the change they are looking for. But they need to start now. And they need to focus on Dem primaries for House seats.

As Rahm Emanuel said, a crisis is a terrible thing to waste. Progressives should not waste this one.

Speaking for me only

Final Update: 12:45 am: Ken Buck has moved back into the lead by about 6,000 votes. Which means there could be an automatic recount. Senator Bennet decided to release a statement rather than address his supporters in person at the end of the night (He had addressed them earlier in the evening.)

Seems to me they are crunching numbers, and if they think the only votes outstanding are from rural pockets of Colorado, that's not a good sign for Bennet. On the other hand, parts of Adams county are still out and that's got a bigger population and more Democrats than pockets of rural Colorado. Looks like this race won't be resolved before morning.

Media Goofs on Vote Counts [More...]

Rep. John Salazar has lost his House seat to Republican challenger Scott Tipton. Four years ago, Tipton ran against Salazar and lost by 60,000 votes. This time he won by 10,000 votes.

Salazar didn't start campaigning until August. He's been playing catch-up ever since. Tipton tied his ads to Nancy Pelosi, with the tag line "Say No to Nancy Pelosi," accusing Salazar of voting with her too often. From the Aspen Daily News: [More....]

Bump and Update: Prop 19 has been defeated. On to 2012.

Update: Real-time Prop 19 results coming in here. It's not doing well. While only 10% of the vote is in, it seems to be losing in every county which has results showing.

Polls close soon in California. The LA Times says exit polls show Prop 19 hasn't been a driving force among voters. They are more interested in the Governor's race. But LA Weekly reports some polling places near college campuses ran out of provisional ballots.

What happens if it fails? Activists try harder in 2012. Whatever happens in California, Colorado activists will launch their petition drive for legalization in 2012 on Wednesday in Boulder.

The media is over-focused on the Republican's House gains. Republicans and tea-partiers aren't going to take the Senate, and as I opined early this morning, the House win is of limited duration and it will be tough for them to get anything of substance passed.

Republicans will make gains in the House and they will crow about it until January, but it will be empty posturing. The radical right won't get any serious legislation passed during the next two years. They'll have greater success at being obstructionist and blocking Democratic proposals, just like they've done the past two years, only on a bigger scale. It will backfire on them in 2012. We'll be in worse shape and the voters will rightfully blame them and boot them out.

It's pretty clear the Democrats will keep control of the Senate. The headlines should read, Tea Partiers Fall Short.

Voters in Larimer County, Colorado have voted not to retain Judges Jolene Blair and Terry Gilmore. Both were prosecutors in the case of wrongfully convicted Tim Masters, who received a $10 million settlement after DNA evidence proved him not guilty of murder. Masters served 10 years in prison.

Blair and Gillmore were censured by the Colorado Supreme Court for misconduct in failing to comply with proper defense discovery requests and engaging in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice. The Blair decision is here and the Gilmore decision is here.

Jerry Brown will be the next Governor of California, and Barbara Boxer has kept her Senate Seat. Hopefully this bodes well for Prop 19.