By Zoe Schimke and Cassime Joseph
Last week’s midterm elections surprised Republicans and Democrats alike as a “red wave” failed to materialize. Despite widespread predictions that this midterm election would yield gains of up to 30 seats in Congress for the Republicans, the party failed to take the Senate and gained a narrow majority in the House. Too close to call last Tuesday, the Georgia Senate race between Herschel Walker and Raphael Warnock will go to a Dec. 6 runoff election.
Local election results are all conclusive except for one race: the battle between Lauren Boebert and Adam Frisch for Colorado’s District 3 House seat. Incumbent Lauren Boebert is slightly leading in the race by 1,122 votes, but one week after the election, ballots are still being counted, and both candidates say a recount is likely. As of 6 P.M. on the night of publication, the District 3 House race is too close to call.
Pueblo elected a new county commissioner, Republican Zach Swearingen, who won his race with a nine-point lead over his opponent, Roxy Piganelli. Pueblo County Republicans also saw victory in the coroner’s race, electing Brian Cotter. Still, most of the county positions went to Democrats – David J Lucero won his bid for Pueblo County Sheriff, as did Frank Beltran for county assessor and Kim Archuleta for county treasurer. Archuleta barely won over Republican candidate Michelle Gray, earning a slight victory with 50.7% of the final vote. The position of Pueblo County Clerk and Recorder, previously held by Gilbert Ortiz, is now in the hands of Candace Rivera (D).
Nick Hinrichsen, the incumbent for Pueblo County’s Colorado Senate seat, won his reelection bid last week in a hard-fought battle against Republican Stephen Varela. Our newly elected slate of state representatives includes Tisha Lyn Mauro (D-46), Ty Winter (R-47), Stephanie Luck (R-60), and Matthew Martinez (D-62).
Colorado voters last Tuesday passed Proposition 122, a ballot initiative to decriminalize psychedelic mushrooms statewide and allow the use of some psychedelic substances as natural medicine. The Associated Press called the vote last Friday morning – 92% of the votes were in, and 52.3% of the voters favored the measure. Though the win was narrow, this is a conclusive victory for proponents of psychedelic drug use and is the broadest legalization of psychedelics in the nation. Now that the resolution has passed, the state will create a natural medicine-regulated access program to oversee the medicinal use of legal psychedelic substances.
Among other resolutions that passed were Prop 123, an initiative allocating state funds for affordable housing. Prop 121, an initiative to decrease the state income tax rate from 4.55% to 4.40%, and Prop 125, which will allow grocery stores with an existing license to sell beer and other malt beverages, to sell wine on-site without needing to apply for a new license.
State ballot measures that failed were Prop 124, which would have increased the number of liquor licenses in the state, and Prop 126, which would have allowed vendors to deliver alcohol to persons 21 or older through third-party delivery services.
