Normally elections at the state senate level do very little to attract national attention, in fact, often times they even have trouble attracting any sort of attention within their own states. That's why it is such an oddity that an attempt to recall two Democratic state senators in Colorado, president of the Senate John Morse and Sen. Angela Giron, has attracted international media attention and millions of dollars coming in from out of state. Of course, this election isn't really about recalling two senators; it's about the nation's most polarizing topic, gun control, according to the New York Times.
Over $2 million has been donated to the campaigns so far. $2 million may not sound like all that much when compared to the amount of money spent on presidential elections but for a recall in a state senate it is an astronomical amount of money. The majority of the money has gone to the two senators facing recall, according to the New York Times.
The funding is coming in from all of the usual suspects when it comes to battles over gun control; Mayor Michael Bloomberg has donated $350,000 to the embattled senators while the National Rifle Association has thrown $109,000 toward radio and TV ads, reports the New York Times.
Earlier in the year the Colorado Legislature, which is currently controlled by Democrats, passed measures that required universal background checks and banned magazines over 15 rounds. After the law was passed gun rights advocates attempted to recall many of the legislators that supported the gun-control measure but were only able to get enough signatures for Morse and Giron, according to the Daily Beast.
"Here in Colorado, we had the two largest tragedies in our country [Aurora and Columbine], it would be a tragedy not to address that," Giron told the Daily Beast. "I think we did that in a very common sense approach. Elected officials have to have the courage to do the right thing."
Colorado is an interesting state in that it tends to lean liberally, this past year same-sex civil unions and marijuana were legalized, yet it has a long history of hunting and gun culture. Political analysts think that this recall election can serve as an example of how voters will react after gun-control laws are passed, according to the New York Times.
"There's symbolic importance to both sides," Eric Sondermann, a political analyst based in Denver, told the New York Times. "If they're recalled, it would be interpreted as a rejection of the gun control agenda, a rejection of what Colorado passed. If these two prevail, then maybe that's one more nick in the armor of the NRA and the gun advocates."
