November 12, 2010 03:01 AM UTC

Dems Throw Down in HD-29

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• by: Colorado Pols

Check out this email update we just got from Minority Democratic Leader Sal Pace–where the heck was this guy a week ago? A stronger statement early on the undecided nature of Rep. Debbie Benefield’s HD-29 race, along with a few others, might have made a difference; perhaps not least on the presumptuousness of now-vacationing Speaker* Frank McNulty.

Republicans are claiming victory in the State House–and are claiming a slim one-seat majority. The voters deserve better than this. They deserve to have the vote counted first!

Currently, there are thousands of outstanding ballots in key house districts that won’t be counted until early next week. It is presumptuous and disrespectful for Republicans to close the door on thousands of Colorado citizens who have exercised their right to vote. Democrats will honor the vote.

Right now, in HD-29, Rep. Debbie Benefield is down by 208 votes in the preliminary tally-with at least 687 uncounted ballots in that district. Our analysis shows that this race remains too close to call. There are simply too many uncounted votes for Republicans to shut the door on the democratic process. I want you to know that we are going to use every resource to make sure that these ballots are counted and counted correctly. I am calling on the Republicans to take this same pledge to honor the will of the people.

It is the voters who deserve to have the last word in this election!

With the HD-29 race still too close to call, the State House chamber stands at 32 Democrats and 32 Republicans. The outcome of the HD-29 count will be a pivotal moment in Colorado’s history. It will decide the majority just ahead of Congressional redistricting. It will decide whether Governor Hickenlooper will have a legislature that will work together to fix Colorado’s budget-or an ideologically-driven and obstructionist Republican majority that refuses to solve problems. As caucus leader, I am committed to ensuring that we do everything possible to protect the integrity of the vote.

Therefore, I have directed the House Majority Project to do everything possible to support Rep. Benefield’s re-election as the votes are counted, and to prepare for a possible recount…

Now that sounds like a man who wants to be Speaker of the House. Again, we don’t know who was deciding things in the critical couple of days after the election, when the spin was in the formative stages and Democratic leaders were congratulating McNulty on taking control, but if anything they should have stayed consistently with what they’re saying now. Being on the side of “every vote counts” is ethically as well as politically preferable, not to mention the uncertainty highlights the narrow majority Republicans are operating with–assuming they have one at all.

But belatedly or not, until this outcome is no longer arithmetically in doubt it doesn’t look like Pace wants you to get too comfortable with those new committee names.