Pat Steadman Wins Senate District 31 Seat from Field of 10

Denver Democrat Pat Steadman won the race to fill a vacancy in the State Senate seat from Senate District 31 on Wednesday, May 20th, rising from a field of 10 candidates to claim victory by a margin of 20 percent over his closest rival.

A passionate fighter for Civil Rights and justice in his capacity as a lobbyist at the State Capitol, Steadman united one of Colorado’s most diverse senate districts, covering parts of both Denver and Adams Counties.

“It is an awesome responsibility to represent all of you and to carry our values forward and make sure that we remain Democrats, we remain true to our Party platform, and we do things that we can all be proud of the next day,” Steadman told the crowd of Democratic Party activists at Morey Middle School Wednesday night.“I hope I can count on all of you to be part of my team going forward, because this is one Senate District, and it doesn’t matter what county you live in, or your race, or your gender, or your religion, or your sexual orientation. We’re all Democrats, we all have a common purpose, and we’re all going to be in this together."  

Steadman replaces Jennifer Veiga, who was in her final term as State Senator and resigned following the close of the legislative session so that she could move to Australia to be closer to her partner’s family. Veiga was the first openly gay member elected to the Colorado General Assembly, and Steadman is the first openly gay man to serve in the Colorado State Senate.

The fact that this has happened on the 13^th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Amendment 2 case is really personally significant for me, because that was the galvanizing event in my life that called me to political action,” Steadman said, referencing the controversial amendment approved by voters in 1992 and overturned four years later in the nation’s highest court.  “The idea that people could put a constitutional amendment forward, vote on whether or not I had rights, and exclude me from the protection of the law, was something I knew was unconstitutional from the first day, and the Supreme Court of the United States of America 13 years ago confirmed that.”

Steadman, 45, beat nine other candidates to become Colorado’s newest State Senator.  His closest competition came from former State Representative Ann Ragsdale of Adams County, who won 40% of the vote on the final ballot, and Director of Communications for Denver Public Schools Alex Sanchez, who won 28% of the vote on the second ballot.

The remaining candidates, in order of their first round results, included Jill Conrad, At-Large Member of the Denver Public Schools Board of Education; Patrick Byrne,  a budget and policy analyst for the Colorado Department of Transportation; Butch Hicks, a bus driver and instructor for the Regional Transportation District, treasurer for the Colorado Democratic Party and the Adams County Democrats, and former Westminster City Councilman; John Maslanik, president of Frontier Capital, Inc., an investment management firm; Doug Williams, a real estate developer and Secretary of Senate District 31; John Wren, a business consultant and adult educator; and Tom Anthony, a member of the Vacancy Committee who nominated himself from the floor Wednesday night and used his time as a platform to discuss the issues facing the Elyria neighborhood.

“We are proud to add Pat Steadman to the group of folks representing Denver in the State Legislature as the new Senator from Senate District 31,” Democratic Party of Denver Chair Cindy Lowery said.  “He has shown a lifelong commitment to progressive values in Colorado, and I am confident he will continue to fight for us at the Capitol.”

Colorado statute provided for Senator Veiga’s seat to be filled by a special election of the Senate District 31 Vacancy Committee, a body of 185 members representing Denver County and Adams County.  The vast majority of the members are Precinct Committee Persons from the district who were elected to two-year terms by Democratic voters in the precinct at the February, 2008 caucuses.  The remaining members of the Vacancy Committee, all residents of Senate District 31, were Party officials from Senate District 31, Adams County, Denver County, and the state of Colorado, and Democrats holding elected office who live in the District.  Seven of the 10 candidates served on the Vacancy Committee, with Steadman, Sanchez, and Byrne the only three not on the committee.

It took three rounds of voting for Steadman to win a majority of the 164 members of the Vacancy Committee present when the voting began.  Ragsdale led the first round of voting with 56 votes.  The candidates with the top four vote tallies continued to the second round, at which point Conrad withdrew from the race and threw her support to Sanchez. 

Steadman won 63 votes in the second round with Ragsdale earning 53 votes and Sanchez taking 44.  Steadman and Ragsdale continued to a third round, which Steadman won with 93 votes to Ragsdale’s 63.

“This is democracy in action,” Steadman told the crowd of some 300 activists Wednesday night.  “This is healthy for our party.  We should all be proud of ourselves for our participation in this process. 

“I’m truly humbled to be selected to be your new State Senator.  I’m very much looking forward to rolling up my sleeves and getting to work as your State Senator.  There’s a lot of work to do.  There are very important things happening this Interim.  We’re going to study our School Finance Act, to study our tax policy and our constitution.  I want to be very involved in all of that, and I want to keep you involved in all of that.  Ultimately some of these things are going to have to come back to you the voters, to help be part of that solution.  Together, we can get these things fixed and we can keep our state moving forward.”

Steadman is expected to be sworn in next week along with Michael Johnston, who won a Vacancy Committee Election in Senate District 33 on May 11.79