Colorado: The Hidden Swing State

Much has been made about the election-deciding power of swing states such as Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan. But Colorado, with nine electoral votes (one more than in 2000) is currently tracking as a toss-up (47% Bush, 47% Kerry) with a heated campaign around an open Senate seat. The Senate race pits Ken Salazar (D) against Peter Coors (R) -- and Salazar has the potential to draw additional Hispanic voters to the polls, voters who will likely also pull the Kerry lever. A bit of history:

In 1992, Colorado's 8 electoral votes went to Clinton over Bush Sr., but approximately 23% of the vote in the state went for Perot (probably close to Perot's overall popular vote average). Clinton pulled in 40% (or 629, 681 votes) versus Bush's (562, 850 votes).

In 1996, Colorado went narrowly for Dole with close to 46% of the vote (691,848) going Dole versus 44% of the vote (671,152) for Clinton. Perot captured 6.6% of the vote.

In 2000, Colorado gave close to 51% of its vote (883,748) to Bush and 42% (738,227) to Gore. Nader pulled in 5.3% of the vote.

It seems that the presidential candidates are belatedly waking up to the swing-ability of Colorado. Bush routed through yesterday for a rally with John Elway and Edwards motorcaded around town last week. The question remains come election day, though: will Colorado stay true to its name and go red?