Obama's Latest Colorado Visit Goes To Fiery Battleground
DENVER (AP) - President Barack Obama has had what has so far proven to be a preaching-to-the-choir campaign style in Colorado this year after campaigning three times at college campuses, where students give him a boisterous welcome.
But he changes course Thursday with a visit to Golden, just west of Denver. It's in Jefferson County, perhaps the most intense battleground in Colorado.
It's a vote-rich county of more than a half-million people divided about evenly between Republicans, Democrats and independents. It's got aging suburbs and a rapidly growing poverty rate, but Jefferson is also home to sprawling mountain mansions and reliably conservative enclaves.
Jefferson is the home of conservative stalwart Tom Tancredo, who made national headlines for blistering attacks on illegal immigrants and briefly ran for president in 2008. That year, though, Jefferson gave Obama a 9-point margin of victory. It was a dramatic swing from a county that chose former President George W. Bush over Democrat John Kerry in 2004.
Republicans say the key to success in Colorado could be winning back "Jeffco." Republicans Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have both visited recently. Obama's visit signals Democrats plan to hang on here.
"We're a big county, and we're evenly divided" politically, said county Democratic Party chairman Chris Kennedy. "All the pieces are here. I think it still leans Republican at the bottom of the ticket, but Obama is resonating at the top. When people talk about winning Jeffco, it's all about this huge number of unaffiliated voters and who sells them."
Neither side is too confident how Jefferson will go. The Obama campaign says it has stepped up its ground game here, while Republicans say Romney's outreach effort is far superior to that of Republican John McCain. Romney chose Jefferson County's largest city, Lakewood, for his Colorado headquarters, and Republicans have two outreach offices here, as opposed to one in 2008.
John Andrews, a former state senator and Republican candidate for Colorado governor, works in Lakewood now and said he sees a dramatic improvement in how Romney is campaigning.
"The situation on the ground in 2012 as opposed to 2008 dramatizes as well as anywhere the fundamental question on which this election will turn - are you better off than four years ago?" Andrews said.
Jefferson's unemployment rate was 7.8 percent in July, just below the national average and below the county's worst months in 2010. Like many suburbs, though, home foreclosures remain a concern and many are underemployed.
"There's no getting around it. The country is suffering, the state is suffering and the county is suffering," said Jeffco GOP Chairman Don Ytterberg. "Colorado used to enjoy unemployment that was several percentage points below the national average. Not anymore."
Democrats are seeing the economy play a big role this year, too, though of course they believe it plays in their favor.
"I see it in my own district as I walk through communities. I have a lot more people tell me they can't find a job, that they're afraid of losing their house," said Democratic state Sen. Evie Hudak, locked in a tight race of her own against a Republican challenger.
"People are still struggling, but they also see it getting better," Hudak continued. "They're more realistic about Obama, they're looking not at what he will do but at what he has done. I'm confident Obama will keep Jeffco."
Ytterberg disagreed, saying the economic uncertainty makes Jefferson a likely pickup for Republicans. Ytterberg pointed out that Obama's 2008 win here relied on a great deal of independent and even Republican support, support he believes has vanished over the last four years.
"People here may have sided with Obama. But they're a little disenchanted," Ytterberg said.
- By Kristen Wyatt, AP Writer
(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
