Growth Takes Center Stage In Battle For State Senate D 20 Seat

WHEAT RIDGE — By John Herrick for The Colorado Independent. Al Graham sat outside a church watching cars whiz past. Across the street, construction workers paced back and forth across scaffolding, pounding nails into a new, multi-story building. Wheat Ridge is a quiet place to live, Graham said. But that’s changing.

“Traffic is definitely a major problem,” said the 84-year-old retired nuclear physicist.

In a state that has swelled in population by about half a million since 2010, residents in this Denver suburb surrounded by sprawling subdivisions and strip malls say they see more traffic, smog, and, like elsewhere across the Front Range, a rising cost of housing.

Wheat Ridge is in the heart of Senate District 20, which is roughly the shape of Florida stretching from suburbs west of Denver to open space at the foothills of the Rockies. The seat was recently vacated by Cheri Jahn, a term-limited Wheat Ridge Democrat-turned-independent. In 2010, when Jahn was first elected, Democrats made up the largest voting bloc here. That changed after redistricting, and in 2014, Jahn, then still a Democrat, held on to her seat by just 439 votes, less than one percentage point.

Today, unaffiliated voters dominate the rolls here, though Democratic voter registrations are on the rise — and at much faster clip than Republican registrations, which have barely budged. In 2016, Hillary Clinton bested Donald Trump in this district by nearly 10 percentage points.

This November, House Speaker Pro Tem Jessie Danielson, a Democrat from Wheat Ridge who has served in the House since 2014, is facing off against Republican Christine Jensen, a mortgage banker from Arvada.

With this seat, Democrats, who have a solid grasp on the House, see a chance to capture the Senate. Republicans hold only a one-seat majority in that chamber. And with the balance of power at stake in the Legislature, outside groups on both sides are together spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to persuade voters with TV ads and mailers.

The stakes are high. With the Democratic nominee for governor Congressman Jared Polis polling ahead of his Republican rival, state Treasurer Walker Stapleton, Democrats have a chance to seize control of the Capitol. The last time Democrats had control over both the state Legislature and the governor’s office was in 2014.
Graham could name Jensen and Danielson as the two candidates hoping to represent the district. But he said he’s not familiar with their policy positions, let alone what they plan to do about growth. And like many residents in the area, Graham was also unsure what the path forward ought to be.

“What are you going to do?” he said. “Too many people. Not enough roads.”

Images: Jessie Danielson & Christine Jensen via campaign websites

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