3 days Ago By Dick Wadhams
The livelihoods of ranchers and communities in rural Colorado are being threatened due to the overwhelming votes of just two urban counties. A slim statewide majority approved Proposition 114 in 2020 that requires the reintroduction of wolves in northwestern Colorado. That vote is often characterized as being driven by the more populous Front Range versus rural Colorado.
But a closer look at the 2020 results shows it was really the Denver-Boulder liberal axis that outvoted 62 other counties statewide. Proposition 114 was approved by just 56,986 votes, 50.9% to 49.
1%, by those who voted on the measure in the 2020 election, 1,590,299 to 1,533,313 Denver County approved the measure 66.3% to 33.4%, 249,877 to 126,776.
Boulder County approved it 67.8% to 33.2%, 132,607 to 62,955.
The combined Denver-Boulder axis results were 66.8% in favor, 33.2% opposed, 382,484 to 189,731, a margin of 192,753.
If one looks at just the other 62 counties, the measure failed 47.4% to 52.6%, 1,207,815 to 1,343,582, a margin of 135,767.
Without the Denver-Boulder liberal axis, Proposition 114 would have failed even with the narrow support of the Front Range counties of Adams, Broomfield, Jefferson, Arapahoe, Larimer and even the historically Republican El Paso County. Five other more liberal counties outside the Front Range also approved 114: La Plata, Pitkin, San Juan, San Miguel and Summit. The rollout of the wolf reintroduction program just one year ago has been nothing short of a disaster although Jared Polis, the lame duck governor of the State of Denver-Boulder, defiantly blames the ranchers for its sloppy, dangerous implementation.
When asked by a Grand County commissioner if the program could at least be delayed while the fiscal impact on the state and the economic toll on ranchers and rural communities could be assessed, Polis recoiled with arrogant disdain. Grand County is in the crosshairs of the failed wolf program but that made no difference to the governor of Denver-Boulder. Polis can wear all the cowboy hats he wants when he does visit counties outside the Front Range, but it does not change the reality that he is the first governor in Colorado history to promote fake meat over the real meat products of Colorado’s agricultural community.
Polis and his fellow Democrats love to shout “Follow the science!” when it seems to suit their environmental agendas but in the case of wolf reintroduction, the “science” seems to be determined by First Gentleman Marlon Reis, who is an animal-rights activist with a record of opposition to farmers and ranchers. The obvious failure of the wolf program over the past year appears to have impacted the 2024 election when Proposition 127, which would have banned the hunting of mountain lions, lynx and bobcats, failed by 45.3 % to 54.
7. Professional wildlife managers argued that hunting is necessary to control and maintain a healthy population, and voters responded by defeating the proposal. Some of this real-world, professional, indeed scientific background would have been a welcome addition to the lopsided emotional debate over wolf reintroduction in 2020.
Meanwhile, Denver voters rejected an animal-rights proposal to ban slaughterhouses in Denver County which, had it passed, would have severely impacted ranchers across Colorado and destroyed the jobs of hundreds of largely Hispanic workers who owned the only slaughterhouse in Denver. Perhaps even Denver voters are now looking past the emotional, extreme arguments by those who want to destroy Colorado agricultural producers and communities. Unfortunately, thanks to the Denver-Boulder liberal axis in 2020, the damage has already been done to northwest Colorado ranchers and communities as another group of wolves is scheduled for release in January 2025.
Dick Wadhams is a former Colorado Republican state chairman and a native of rural southeastern Colorado..
