State Rep. Barbara McLachlan, D-Durango, cruised to victory in House District 59 with 56 percent of voters favoring her and 44 percent backing independent challenger Paul Jones of Gunnison, according to unofficial results from the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office.
In La Plata County, 59 percent of voters supported McLachlan and 41 percent backed Jones.
“I appreciate District 59 voters putting their trust in me for another two years,” McLachlan said Tuesday night at the La Plata County Democrats victory party at the Strater Hotel.
“I’ll continue to work across the aisle and for Southwest Colorado, and I’ll continue listening,” she said.
Results in District 59 reported by the Secretary of State’s election website came from all the district’s counties – La Plata, Archuleta, San Juan, Ouray, Hinsdale and Gunnison.
McLachlan said the race was unusual as she faced an independent rather than a Republican.
“It was a very different race, because I didn’t know what the voters were doing, and I had $300,000 spent against me, not from Paul Jones, but from Unite Colorado,” McLachlan said of the independent expenditure committee that backed a slate of five independents running for the General Assembly across the state.
State House District 59
McLachlan said as other independent candidates’ chances across the state dimmed, Unite Colorado focused on her race.
“I couldn’t keep up with that, so I just went door-to-door talking to voters. That’s how you convince voters anyway,” she said.
A good night for Colorado Democrats talking control of the state Senate and electing Jared Polis as the next governor, McLachlan said, wouldn’t change her efforts to work across the aisle in Denver.
“It’s important to me to have Republican support on all my bills, because that’s my district, and it’s important to me to represent my district,” she said.
In an era of hyper bipartisanship, old-fashioned comity and working across the aisle took center stage in the campaign in which McLachlan, a retired teacher, faced Jones, a retired aquatic biologist.
The unusual campaign came about after a failure of the Republicans to nominate a challenger to McLachlan.
McLachlan, who retired from Durango School District 9-R, touted her strong bipartisan relationship with state Sen. Don Coram, R-Montrose, and state Rep. Marc Catlin, R-Montrose, in representing Southwest Colorado and fighting proposals that would hurt the largely rural 59th House District.
She credits her 20 years as a teacher with making her a better listener as a legislator.
“If you’re not a good listener, you’re not going to be a very good teacher,” she told The Durango Herald last month.
But for Jones, bipartisan good will was not good enough. He chose to run as an independent looking for a new political era in which politicians move beyond party labels.
McLachlan bests independent challenger in state House race
Jones said independents have a broader ability to reach consensus and broker deals among conflicted stakeholders.
“Right now, politics is divided into teams, and when you’re a team player, it means you’re focused on the team’s ideals, whether Democrat or Republican. But we need to be willing to be able to sit down with anyone to craft solutions,” Jones told the Herald last month. “When you’re on a team, you’ve got a coach, and when you don’t do what the coach says, you get benched.”
The Committee to Elect Barbara McLachlan has raised $108,710 for the current campaign and has spent $108,268, according to the latest campaign-finance documents filed Oct. 29. McLachlan’s candidate committee listed $22,219 cash on hand.
Jones for Colorado raised a total of $32,093 and spent $21,171. His campaign had $10,922 cash on hand as of Oct. 29.
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