Colorado Springs City Election No Surprise

In 'off years', Colorado Springs has gone to mail in elections. It saves a bunch of money and time, but also drops the participation rate. Yesterday was the ballot deadline, and the results were not really very surprising. Only 1/3 or so voted. The biggest controversy was the proposition called 1a, which was to allow the city to use an expiring mill levy to recruit and retain employers to the city. For $10 / year or so, it sounded good to me, but this is a pretty tax resistant bunch here, and so even this went down to defeat. We need more jobs here, the local unemployment rate is over 8% at this point, but they won't be coming from this measure.
We got a touch of summer yesterday, with the temps around 70, and more of that today before another cold front hits. I need to get one more ski day in before they close the resorts for the season! I did manage to get my hot tub refilled and cleaned.

Got questions about living in Colorado Springs? Call me at 719-590-4768 or 888-568-6784!

The election is finally over. I won't recap election results for Colorado Springs here (here is a link if you want some of that: Colorado Election Results), but a couple of things seem worth mentioning.

1. Most tax increases were shot down, whether school related or not. Exceptions were Academy School District 20 and Fountain - Fort Carson School District 8, which both got approvals for their ballot measures.

2. While the numbers for the state showed a shift to the Democratic side, that was less so here, with still 57% of the county voting Republican on the presidential ticket.

Like most elections, I suspect that when all the dust settles and speeches are over, not a lot will really change from this one either.

The thing that I hope DOES change, is that people can get back to focusing on living life. Much like after 9-11, the financial market problems and election news have been great distractions. Hopefully they can start thinking about buying houses again, especially in such a great place as Colorado Springs.

We are expecting some snow showers today, and much cooler weather. We'll see if it shows up. Weather forecasters in Colorado are the only people I know of who can be wrong most of the time and still have jobs!

Today's photo is of 2 of my grandkids on Halloween night. Now THERE is the future for you!

We wrote a contract for another new build this week, in the Falcon area, northeast of Colorado Springs. The ability to get a nice new home on a 1/2 acre lot in the mid 300's is still very attractive. I think the builder wrote 3 contracts this week on that site.

Fall weather has set in here, it was not even 60 degrees yesterday, though today should be back above 70 at least. Our normal fall pattern is for sunny warm dry days and cool nights, broken up by a series of cold fronts that progressively bring the temperatures lower until our first snow storm, usually by Halloween. Perfect football weather!

With Democratic Party Convention in Denver last week, I guess it was only fitting that John McCain and Sarah Palin would make Colorado Springs one of their first stops after the Republican Convention. They were expecting a big crowd at the airport today as the campaign kicks off in earnest. Enthusiasm for the race seemed to pick up enormously here in Colorado Springs after the Sarah Palin announcement. As I have mentioned previously here, this is a pretty strong Republican stronghold, but Romney and Huckabee seemed to get more enthusiasm than McCain in the primaries. That seems to have changed now.

Statistics for August Colorado Springs home sales are not official yet, but the preliminary figures are not as encouraging as last month. Sales were down 17.7%, and the average price was down a whopping 9.3%. It appears that distressed properties have cast a shadow once again over our market, with 23.3% of the sales being foreclosure and/or short sales.

Yesterday was primary election voting day. In Colorado Springs, that is usually most important for the Republican Party, but is very important for everyone, because in many cases, the Republican candidate runs unopposed in November. This year was no exception, with several key races being decided. I was particularly pleased to Douglas Bruce voted out. His "cut spending until you bleed" approach to public funding and his "in your face" style of politics is not conducive to keeping Colorado growing and a great place to live, and his replacement I think will do a much better job without being wasteful. It was also interesting to see a 3 way race for the congressional seat when the incumbent in running, but I was a little relieved to see Doug Lamborn re-elected, as it seemed like he had done a credible job in his first term, and was not quite deserving of being tossed out on his ear "just because". The DA race was also interesting, because the winner, Dan May, made his last minute decision to run based on an expose' piece on TV, that showed the incumbent drinking heavily at a local pub in the middle of the day, and then getting into a county vehicle and driving away. Not exactly what you expect from the guy who prosecutes drunk drivers.
Todays photo was taken yesterday from Palmer Park, and is a view of Garden of the Gods at sunrise. The red rocks pick up the sun nicely in the morning. It is getting cooler in the mornings (low 50's), the annual cool down toward fall is beginning. I can't believe they are already closing the city outdoor swimming pools, school hasn't even started yet! Whatever your politics, fall is a great time to enjoy Colorado. The cool air, warm sun and blue sky mornings are just glorious!

Barack Obama came to town yesterday, and spoke to a select audience at UCCS, aka University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, or CU Springs. Colorado Springs is not normally a big stop on the democratic presidential "train", and it was interesting that he chose to make this stop at this time, since everyone will be in Denver in August for the Democratic National Convention. This is normally viewed as a Republican stronghold, but who knows how this next election will go? He sure picked the right place to talk about increasing the size of the Army and Marines, although he did not mention the Air Force.

It was great to get some rain yesterday. It never really got very hot, and the rain was very refreshing and much needed. Maybe the wildflowers will finally come out. Today is supposed to be pretty nice, and maybe even some more rain before a scorching hot weekend. I don't think we have actually really gotten to 90 degrees yet, but Sunday is supposed to get to 94!

Today's photo is from Snowmass, taken last June.

Politics in Colorado Springs tend to be a bit lopsided toward the Republican majority. Not that there aren't disagreements, but they tend to play out in the primaries, not the general election. Many seats are uncontested by the time the general election comes around. We are a caucus state, which makes the process a little less than well understood. Precinct level caucus meetings appoint delegates to the county convention, and there will be a presidential straw poll as well. The congressional election this year will be interesting, as the incumbent Doug Lamborn is being challenged by the same 2 people who he had to contend with in the primary originally for the seat, Jeff Crank and Bentley Rayburn. It was actually a very hard fought primary last time, so who knows? El Paso county tends to run about 60% toward whomever the Republican presidential candidate is. In 2004, it was almost 67% for Bush / Cheney, statewide it was just under 52%.
The state as a whole is more of an "up for grabs" deal. The last election we went from a Republican governor and legislature to a Democratic one, and that swing back and forth at the state level will likely go on for a long time, as Denver and Boulder and to a certain extent Pueblo tend to offset a more conservative "rest of the state".
We had a late start school day today again. It sure doesn't seem to take much snow anymore for them to declare a late start. I think we only had an inch or 2 of snow even in Briargate.