CHAPTER 27 ELECTION DAY - AND BEYOND The November 8, 1994, general election was one of the most interesting in United States history. A great Republican tide swept across the nation, driving large numbers of Democratic incumbents out of office. For the first time since the early 1950s, the Republicans won a majority of the seats in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. The GOP also took control of the United States Senate and won a majority of the gubernatorial elections, particularly in heavily populated states. It was a great night to be a Republican running for political office - almost any political office. The strong 1994 Republican tide swept into Colorado, too. GOP candidates were elected state attorney general, state treasurer, and state secretary of state. The Republicans gained seven seats in the state House of Representatives, which they already controlled. The Republicans neither gained nor lost seats in the state Senate, which they already controlled. The only down note for Colorado Republicans in 1994 was the governor's race. Democratic incumbent Roy Romer defeated Republican challenger Bruce Benson in a walk. Romer polled 55 percent of the vote compared to only 39 percent for Benson, a 16 percentage point spread.1 Most of the post-election day analysis attributed the national Republican sweep to the unpopularity of incumbent Democratic president Bill Clinton. Roy Romer, although a loyal Democrat and a personal friend of Bill Clinton's, went out of his way during the Colorado gubernatorial election campaign to distance himself from Clinton and his, at that time, ill-starred presidency. Romer also was helped by the fact that it was Bruce Benson's character, and not Roy Romer's or Bill Clinton's, that was the defining issue in the Colorado gubernatorial election. Election night for Roy Romer included the customary victory celebration in the ballroom of the Radisson Hotel in Denver. As ever, 2 FLAWED PATH TO THE GOVERNORSHIP the Romer grandchildren were much in evidence. For 15 minutes of that joyous evening the newly reelected Colorado governor had a cellular telephone against his ear. President Bill Clinton had called from the White House in Washington, D.C. The U.S. chief executive wanted to talk with Colorado's chief executive about why things were going so badly for the Democrats and why Roy Romer had been able to stem the tide - and stem it very well. "People had expectations that [Clinton] didn't deliver on," the victorious Romer told Time magazine. Governor Romer said he told President Clinton to "get out with the people more," something which Romer had done and which Romer thought was a big part of his winning campaign in Colorado.2 "We were swimming against a nationwide tide that was not favorable to Democrats," Romer said in his victory speech. "We were swimming against a tide favorable to newcomers.... I feel very grateful for people saying, 'We want you to do it again.'"3 BENSON ATTACKS THE PRESS When the pre-election day newspaper polls showed that Bruce Benson was going to lose the election, the Republican candidate openly criticized the Colorado political press corps. Benson accused the news media of playing up his shortcomings and, at the same time, playing down Roy Romer's. The GOP candidate argued that the sensationalized news coverage of his drunk driving and difficult divorce would discourage qualified people from running for political office in the future. "After what's happened to me," Benson said, "people just shake their heads and say, 'Boy, you've got to be crazy to run for office.'"4 Benson made it clear that he blamed the media, particularly KUSA- TV Channel 9, for opening his divorce file and making it such a prominent issue in the campaign. Three days before election day Benson told the Rocky Mountain News: "If my divorce papers hadn't been opened, I'd be 10 points ahead today."5 ELECTION DAY - AND BEYOND 3 Benson's family, campaign staff, and supporters gathered at the Sheraton Hotel in the Denver Tech Center, a large office park close by Denver's upscale southern suburbs. Benson gave an unemotional concession speech and, as if to show the news media what he thought of them, refused to answer any questions. When a television reporter shoved a microphone in Benson's direction to try and get a live comment, some of the youthful campaign workers standing with Benson moved to keep the TV reporter away. A brief scuffle ensued between Benson's campaign workers and some of the reporters. Observers said a news photographer was pushed into an elderly man, who fell to the floor. At the end, the animosity between Bruce Benson and the press became briefly physical.6 WHY BENSON LOST? There was no shortage of opinions available after the election as to why Roy Romer won and Bruce Benson lost. Almost all observers gave Romer credit for being a popular and successful governor, projecting a moderate-to-conservative image in a moderate-to-conservative state, and, although a Democrat, successfully separating himself from unpopular Democratic president Bill Clinton. "Romer got reelected," opined Denver Post political columnist Fred Brown, "chiefly because his Republican opponent, Bruce Benson, could not credibly paint him as a 'Clinton liberal'...."7 Most observers, however, saw Bruce Benson's entanglement in character issues as more critical to the outcome of the election than any positive steps taken by Roy Romer. Denver talk show host and political columnist Mike Rosen attributed Benson's defeat to "the Four D's: DIA, DUIs, Divorce, and Debates."8 Denver International Airport was a bad issue for Benson to try to use against Romer because it was so easily shown that Benson had supported DIA himself. The Driving Under the Influence charges began to cast a negative light on Benson's character, a negative light which was greatly strengthened by the revelations in the 4 FLAWED PATH TO THE GOVERNORSHIP divorce file. Cutting off the debates with Roy Romer, after saying publicly that he would debate, completed the job of destroying Bruce Benson's credibility with Colorado voters. A fifth "D" can be added to Mike Rosen's list: detouring around the Republican precinct caucuses and county assemblies. Two Denver Post editorial columnists, Bill Hornby and Tom Gavin, saw this as contributing to Benson's electoral demise. Hornby wrote: "Voters turned down a gubernatorial candidate in Bruce Benson who had openly scorned the Republican Party procedures for nomination."9 Tom Gavin's comment was somewhat more direct: "So what did Bruce Benson do? He gave his own political party organization - the people who ring doorbells - the finger by getting on the ballot by petition, not the party nominating process."10 Another reason cited in the Colorado press for Benson losing the election was the television ad where he walked away from the camera and talked apologetically about the DUIs and the divorce file. Benson also was criticized for turning to negative television ads - such as the one accusing Romer of being a "liberal" on tax issues - in a state that had shown its dislike for negative television advertising in the past. An additional problem - Benson relied too openly and too heavily on out-of- state political advisors who never seemed to understand the special nature of Colorado politics and elections. "At times, it seemed that Benson's campaign was woefully out of touch with Colorado voters," wrote Denver Post editorial editor Chuck Green. "He was relying too heavily on advisers who were out of touch with the state. That shouldn't have been any surprise since his top campaign adviser, Ed Rollins, was calling the shots over long-distance phone lines while juggling campaigns in other states, and his advertising campaign was designed by still another out-of-state consultant."11 The Colorado political press corps was divided over whether the revelation of the contents of Benson's divorce file was the "defining event" of the 1994 governor race. The divorce papers were just "gossipy but hardly devastating," wrote Gil Spencer, a former editor of the ELECTION DAY - AND BEYOND 5 Denver Post.12 "The media didn't defeat Benson," said Gene Amole of the Rocky Mountain News. "Publicity about his DUIs and his divorce was insignificant."13 On the other hand, Peter Blake of the Rocky saw the divorce as a critical factor. In a column telling Colorado Republicans what they could learn from the many failures of the Benson campaign, Blake wrote: "A final lesson: If you've had a bad divorce and quick remarriage, let the situation cool before rushing into politics.... It's not the divorce that hurt Benson; lots of politicians have them now. But the wounds were still open, and polls showed the image of the aggrieved ex-wife rankled voters, particularly females."14 Some observers argued that, given the great extent of Republican victories throughout the United States on election night 1994, Bruce Benson may have been the only Republican candidate who could not beat Roy Romer for the Colorado governorship. Roy Romer implied as much a few days before the election when he told a magazine writer that "people came to this race ready for any reasonable alternative." It was lucky for Roy Romer, the magazine writer wrote, that "what they got was Bruce Benson."15 A DEFINING EVENT It is the author's opinion that the forced unveiling of Bruce Benson's divorce file was the "defining event" in the 1994 Colorado gubernatorial election. Benson's standing in the public opinion polls collapsed the minute the contents of his divorce file were made public.