While legal wrangling over Colorado’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights, TABOR, makes for good satire, the overarching political fight represents the state’s most existential ideological battle.
With a ballot measure for repeal marching toward Election Day for the first time in nearly three decades, the TABOR campaign will have more lasting consequence than any individual election cycle.
Even last year’s Democratic decimation of the Republican Party won’t have the same long-term effect likely to come about from a vote on TABOR.
For example, in a tickling bit of irony, Democrats may owe their takeover to TABOR.
While Democrats turned Colorado from reddish-purple to blue over the past 15 years, it remains a centrist state. Consequently, to reach their goal, Democrats needed to employ a pragmatic approach that resisted a lurch to the left and made room for candidates who didn’t always adhere to the progressive agenda.
As Republicans perfected the circular firing squad and nominated candidates unable to attract moderate voters, Democrats began winning more and more districts.
