Mike Johnston Wins Dramatic First Round Victory as Colorado's Newest State Senator

In a stunning first round victory Monday night, Mike Johnston won the State Senate seat previously held by Senate President Peter Groff, who resigned at the end of the legislative session last week to accept a post in President Obama’s administration.  Johnston will represent Senate District 33 in the Colorado General Assembly.

“The idea of the promise of equality was easy,” Johnston said as he took the stage at Smiley Middle School to accept victory. “What we knew was going to be hard was actually the courage and conviction to live out that promise every day. What we knew was going to be hard when we wrote that Declaration was the idea that Americans would have to walk arm-and-arm into battle to defend that promise, that Americans would have to walk arm-and-arm into fire hoses and onto picket lines to defend that promise.

“Now today, Colorado faces a new challenge,” Johnston said. “And the question is, how will we answer that age old promise of equality? If you believe, as I hope you do, that it’s actually possible for us to rise to that promise now, then I thank you so much for standing with me tonight, but more importantly, I ask you to stand with me tomorrow, when the real work begins.”

Johnston, 34, is a Colorado native and a nationally recognized high school principal, author, and education reformer who has served as a policy advisor to President Barack Obama, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Governor Bill Ritter, U.S. Senator Michael Bennet, Senate President Peter Groff, and Speaker of the House Terrance Carroll. He lives in Stapleton with his wife, Courtney, and their 17-month-old twin sons, Emmet and Seamus.
 
Johnston brought together a diverse Senate District and surprised many in the crowd of over 300 Democratic electors and observers by winning a majority vote from a field of four strong candidates on the first ballot. With 126 of the 146 members of the Senate District 33 Vacancy Committee present Monday night, a candidate needed 64 votes to win a majority.  Johnston got exactly 64 votes on the first ballot, more than all the other candidates combined, for an 18% margin of victory over the closest contender.
 
“There’s no clearer indication that every vote counts than tonight,” Johnston said as his one vote majority of the eligible voters present avoided additional run-off rounds of voting.
 
The race was marked by mutual respect and admiration among a core of four well-qualified citizens eager to work on behalf of their community. The runner-up, with 41 votes, was former Representative Rosemary Marshall, who had served eight years in the Assembly until term limits kept her from seeking re-election last November. Anthony Graves, who was elected as a Democratic National Committee member last year, came in third, and longtime party activist Renee Blanchard was fourth.
 
“It was an honor to sit on my home district’s vacancy committee tonight,” Democratic Party of Denver Chair Cindy Lowery said after the election.  “We had a truly distinguished group of candidates, and I look forward to having Michael Johnston represent me and everyone in Senate District 33.”
 
In keeping with Colorado statute, Senator Groff’s seat was filled by a special election of the Senate District 33 Vacancy Committee. Senate District 33 is entirely within the City and County of Denver, and the 146-member committee consists of Democratic activists on the Democratic Party of Denver’s Central Committee who live in Senate District 33.
 
The vast majority of the committee members hold the title of Precinct Committee Person (PCP) and were elected to two-year terms by Democratic voters in their precinct at the February, 2008 caucuses. The remaining members of the Vacancy Committee were elected Party officials from Senate District 33 and Denver County Democrats holding elected office who live in the district. As a DNC member, Graves was the only candidate currently serving on the Denver County Central Committee and the Senate District 33 Vacancy Committee.
 
All the candidates attracted legions of supporters to SmileyMiddle School Monday night, with non-voters outnumbering the members of the Vacancy Committee. Candidates spent the final hours before the election talking to voters one-on-one in front of the school and inside the auditorium, working hard for every vote up until the last possible moment. Each candidate had eight minutes to address the crowd, including nomination and seconding speeches from the likes of former Senator Penfield Tate, who seconded Graves, City Councilman Michael Hancock, who nominated Marshall, CU Regent Michael Carrigan, and Speaker Terrence Carroll, who both seconded Marshall.
 
The crowd waited anxiously for the votes to be counted, as Senate District Chair Chris Martinez explained the process that would be implemented for the second round of voting. As Martinez read the results from the first round, the room burst into applause and celebration upon hearing that Johnston had received the necessary votes to be Colorado’s newest State Senator.
 
“When this goes back to being a regular auditorium and we all go back to our regular lives and you’re not having us harass you by phone and e-mail and knocking on your door all the time, that’s where the real mutual pledge of our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor to do something honorable really comes into place,” Johnston said at the close of his acceptance speech. “And if we learned anything from history, it’s that we can’t get there alone, but together we can’t be stopped.”