'Landslide Linda' appears to win Senate seat by a hair

Democrat Linda Newell has likely won the Senate District 26 seat, held by Republicans for decades, by the thinnest of margins.

But the election is headed for a recount, and so official results might not be ready until December. With all provisional votes counted, Newell today was leading Republican Lauri Clapp by 191 votes out of the more than 60,000 cast, mostly in Arapahoe County. Newell said that her margin of victory was .36 percent, still low enough to trigger an automatic recount under state law. 

"I still don't know for sure," Newell said, but based upon her current lead, "it's a good sign that I can anticipate a victory speech in our future." 

Republican leaders admitted it was unlikely Clapp would make up the difference in a recount. 

"Obviously, we continue to hope that the election falls the other way, but almost always at this point it's extremely unusual for the results to change," said Sen. Josh Penry, R-Grand Junction. "It was a classic headwind loss. Obama won that district by a healthy margin, which, in the end, was the difference." 

Reached by phone, Clapp, 45, a former state representative from Centennial, said she was too busy to discuss the race but would make a statement later. 

"You've caught me at work," Clapp said. "I am working on a press release." 

Arapahoe County Clerk Nancy Doty said the recount would begin on Monday. She said election workers would have to re-count nearly 200,000 mail-in ballots along with regular and provisional ballots to sort out those with District 26 votes. 

"Every ballot will be looked at for voter intent,” Doty said. 

The painstaking process must be completed by Dec. 4, she said. 

Newell, 51, a business consultant from Littleton who has never held office before, said the last few weeks had been nerve-wracking. 

"I've hardly slept the last 10 days," she said. "I'm very looking forward to a good night's sleep." Newell's photo-finish election earned her a tongue-in-cheek nickname from her fellow Democrats in the Senate: "Landslide Linda." 

"I think it's hilarious," Newell said of her moniker. "It would be wonderful in my next election to make that come true."  

No Democrat has held the seat, almost all of which lies in Arapahoe County, since the late 1980s. 

"I live in a purple district now," Newell said. "I absolutely have my work cut out for me." 

Bookmark/Search this post with: