Both Polis and Fitz-Gerald camps believe they’ve done well.
While the Colorado presidential caucus results are reasonably clear cut, the two contenders in the 2nd Congressional District are still working to tally their wins and losses from the wild night.
The campaigns of both Jared Polis and Joan Fitz-Gerald say that they did well at the caucuses, but neither is able to quantify their support yet. It may take until next week to get some sense of their relative strength.
The ultimate goal of the congressional candidates is to achieve at least 30 percent of the vote at the May 10th congressional district assembly. At the caucus last night, delegates were selected to move on the county assemblies based on their presidential preferences, not their preferences for a congressional nominee. This makes tallying support for a congressional candidate difficult.
Polis, a Boulder entrepreneur, and Fitz-Gerald, former president of the state Senate, are both taking the caucus route to qualify for the ballot. The third candidate in the race, environmentalist Will Shafroth, is bypassing the caucuses to qualify by petition. A candidate can petition onto the ballot by collecting the signatures of 1,000 registered voters.
Polis spokeswoman Dayna Hanson said:
“We won’t have any clear idea of the outcome today. But we think we did very well.”
There was reportedly considerable variety in the approach at the precinct level. Hanson said, “Some did straw polls, some selected delegates. Some did neither. One precinct captain said her precinct drew delegates out of a hat for the congressional race.”
Matthew Moseley, spokesman for Fitz-Gerald, said:
“We feel pretty good about the reports and the enthusiasm for Joan. But we don’t have any numbers. What really matters isn’t the straw votes, but who became delegates. We’re cross-checking with our supporters. Then we’ll have a better handle on the numbers.”
Both Polis and Fitz-Gerald are expected to easily capture the 30 percent of the vote required at the May assembly to qualify for the primary ballot.
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