Tag: Senate District 16

Muhammad Ali Hasan, a Beaver Creek filmmaker and former Republican candidate for state treasurer and state House District 56, says he has no plans to run again in that district in 2012 after the resignation of Democrat Christine Scanlan.

The balance of power isn’t likely to change, but a few Colorado state legislative races are still up in the air nearly a week after last Tuesday’s midterm elections. Votes are still being counted in Senate District 16 and House District 61, where legal maneuvering has been intense.

State Senate District 16 candidate Tim Leonard shocked the mainstream Republican Party and a lot of Democrats when he trounced moderate 5th Judicial District Attorney Mark Hurlbert at the GOP’s SD 16 assembly back in May. Portraying himself as pro-business and anti-big-government, Leonard seemingly rode a tea party wave of disaffection to a 71 to 29 percent victory over Hurlbert, who had the backing of mainstream Republicans like state Sen. Al White and Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry.

Government officials from Vail to the Front Range foothills agree it will take an Olympian effort to fix winter weekend skier traffic snarls and summer tourism gridlock on Interstate 70 between Denver and Colorado’s most popular mountain resorts. But with a price tag of $9 billion for high-speed rail from Denver to Vail, some observers say it will literally take the Winter Olympics coming to Colorado to secure the federal and state funds needed to make the rail solution a reality.

State Rep. Christine Scanlan, D-Dillon, a rising star on the Colorado political scene, says any talk of her becoming the next Speaker of the House is pointless if Democrats can’t hold onto their current 37-27 House majority in November.

Mark Hurlbert, who will forever be known as the “Kobe DA” for his unsuccessful prosecution of NBA superstar Kobe Bryant on sexual assault charges...