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Ranking the Top Political Stories in Colorado for 2011

by | 6:21 am, December 22, 2011 | Comments Off

People’s Press Collective has thrown together a quick, informal, and non-intended-to-be-scientific-but-fun-anyway survey for our readers to rank their Top Political Stories in Colorado for the past year.

There have been some doozies, which would be an understatement.

Nominees include the two most obvious stories, redistricting and reapportionment. The decennial battle to redraw district lines in Colorado had its fair share of partisan acrimony and alleged political subterfuge. The battle over so-called “Amycare” and SB 200? Check. The momentous Lobato decision? Yep. Green jobs failures? Certainly. Rep. Sal Pace’s, um, “leaks”? Heh. Those too.

We did a bit of crowdsourcing on Facebook to establish a consensus on nominees, but unlike the climate change-mongers, the rankings aren’t “settled.”

We’ve compiled 27 different stories, or storylines, for your perusal. Some, like Occupy Denver, have a long narrative track, extending over many months, with several facets and players and interpretations. Others stories are more one-dimensional, but were also quite notable. Whether the stories could have been anticipated to develop in 2011 (redistricting and reapportionment occur every 10 years), or were spontaneous outgrowths that could not have been foreseen even by those with “conventional wisdom” in the political arena, these stories are what made the past year in politics in Colorado so damned interesting.

Some thought 2011 would be a quiet year in contrast to 2010′s clusterf**k or 2012′s media circus. Looking back on the past several years, this political observer can only say that he agrees with our state’s border welcome signs–welcome to colorful Colorado!

There is, however, no intent to judge the merits of the particular stories themselves; i.e., to re-litigate, debate, critique or reassess the stories. We’re just concerned with what the readers found most memorable or most newsworthy compared to the other stories that emerged in 2011. Some might base their ranking on the sensationalism of the story, or perhaps their personal involvement in the narrative (like defeating Prop 103). Others may eschew the flashier but not all that impactful stories in favor of the more wonky stories that will have a meaningful influence on Colorado politics for years to come. Any method you, our readers, use is ok by us.

Just let us know what you think! The voting will close Thursday, December 29 at 5pm MST. We’ll post the rankings on New Years’ Eve eve, with links to relevant news outlets and blogs who played key roles in uncovering, reporting, and detailing the stories that come out on top. No comprehensive recaps, just a quick flashback to PPC’s favorite political moments in 2011.

Thank you.

**A special thanks to Ben DeGrow and Mary Ila MacFarlane for beta testing the survey. Any faults are solely that of the author, and formatting, well, blame SurveyMonkey. Cheers.

Category: 2012 Election, Barack Obama, Blogging, Capitalism, Colorado Democracy Alliance, Colorado Politics, Colorado Supreme Court, Democrats, Economics, Elections, Events, Featured, First Amendment, Grassroots, Occupy Movement, Political Commentary, PPC, Press Release, Rallies, republicans, Transparency

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