November 26, 2013 03:18 PM UTC

Several Republicans Could be Top Recall Targets

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• by: Colorado Pols

Supporters of a recall of Democratic Sen. Evie Hudak have just a few more days (Dec. 1) to finish gathering petition signatures in hopes of getting a recall measure placed in the ballot in Arvada. But if you thought that might be the end of the recall season…think again.

As we noted earlier, Republican Sen. Vicki Marble is apparently hearing rumors about a potential recall attempt in her district. Sen. Marble's district is among those with the largest number of signatures required to trigger a recall (19,550), which is based on the total number of votes cast in the last state senate race. For comparison's sake, Sen. Hudak's district also has a high signature threshold, with 18,962 signatures required.

Democrats have decried the recall process as a subversion of Democracy and an abuse of the intent of the process. Recalls are supposed to be about clear malfeasance — they were never meant to be implemented by an interest group that doesn't like one or two specific votes. It's not just a clever line to say that we already have a recall process every two years.

Yet as much as Democrats may be disgusted by the recall efforts, there is a growing sentiment that they can no longer afford to take the high ground if control of the Senate is in danger of being flipped. Recalls are a difficult process — there's a reason that the Sept. 10 recalls were the first in state history — but the campaigns against Democratic Senator John Morse and Angela Giron were made somewhat easier by lower signature requirements: just 7,178 in Morse's SD-11, and 11,285 in Giron's SD-3.

There are several Republican Senators, however, who are more than vulnerable to a potential recall. Some could be particularly interesting, such as the case of Sen. Owen Hill; it would be curious to see a recall effort take place against Hill while he tries to simultaneously win the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate. 

Here at Colorado Pols, we'd rather see the whole recall nonsense come to an end altogether; as we said earlier, this is not how a recall is supposed to be implemented. But if Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, the Tea Party, and other angry right-wingers insist on promoting recalls, Democrats probably can't sit on the sidelines any longer.

Take a look after the jump to see the signature requirements to trigger a recall in Senate districts held by Republicans:

RECALL TRIGGERS FOR CURRENT REPUBLICAN STATE SENATORS

Republicans were successful in recalling Morse and Giron, but there's a good chance that they will lose at least one of those seats (SD-3) back to the Democrats in the 2014 election, limiting the amount of time they could take advantage of the party switch. Conversely, there are several at-risk Republican senators who aren't up for re-election until 2016, and if Democrats were successful in those recall attempts then they would hold control of the seat for two years.