Republicans triumph, incumbents falter, and more takeaways from Pueblo's 2023 election

Pueblo conservatives had a reason to celebrate Tuesday night like they haven’t in a very long time.

Democrats have long had an advantage in Pueblo politics, but Republican-aligned candidates were victorious in the majority of races — and some of them weren’t even close.

Pueblo voters also sent a clear message about incumbents: none of the sitting members on the Pueblo School District 60 board won reelection.

Here are five key takeaways from Tuesday night.

Republican-aligned candidates succeeded

While municipal and school board races are technically nonpartisan, Democratic-aligned candidates did not perform well Tuesday night. For what could be the first time in Pueblo politics, Democrats will not have a majority on the board of county commissioners nor Pueblo City Council.

Michelle Gray, the chair of the Pueblo County Republican Party, told the Chieftain that a result like this hasn’t happened in Pueblo before.

“Democrats have been in charge for a very long time and I think people are wanting change,” Gray said.

She said that the mobilization of party members and other conservative groups in town — including Forging Pueblo, the Pueblo Patriots and the Pueblo Pachyderm Club — helped boost turnout and support for Republican-aligned candidates. These groups did not directly collaborate, Gray said, but all worked to get out the vote.

“If you're a Republican in Pueblo and you want to see the results that we saw on (Nov. 7), you have to work hard,” Gray said.

Just one of the candidates promoted by the Pueblo County Democratic Party won outright Tuesday night — school board candidate Bill Thiebaut, who is a registered independent, according to Pueblo County records.

Retired Judge Dennis Maes is a registered Democrat. He was elected to the school board but was not promoted by the local party or supported by large donations from the teachers union.

There will now be two Democratic city councilors on the seven-member body: at-large Councilor Dennis Flores and District 3 representative Sarah Martinez.

The Chair of the Pueblo County Democratic Party, Bri Buentello, told the Chieftain in a text message that the results from Tuesday are “unfortunate” but said that “community organizing and strong grassroots outreach (are) vital to any successful campaign.”

“We look forward to another year of outreach, organizing and reflection as we recruit another round of candidates that will work for Pueblo voters, and not far-right extremists pushing a religious agenda,” Buentello said.

Incumbents had a weak showing

Not a single incumbent on the Pueblo D60 board won their race Tuesday night.

Anthony Perko, an incumbent running for a two-year term on the school board, was unseated by newcomer Brian Cisneros. Cisneros received 13,628 votes and Perko received 12,213 votes, according to unofficial election results.

Sol Sandoval, another incumbent, fell just 154 votes short of being elected to a four-year term. Tommy Farrell, the board’s outgoing president, received 3,053 less votes than Sandoval.

Incumbents losing school board elections in Pueblo County isn’t a new phenomenon. In 2021, Pueblo County School District 70 had three incumbents running – Staphanie Cordova-Catalano, Paulette Frye and Frederick Quintana. None of them were elected.

Sitting officials in city government also struggled, according to unofficial election results.

Incumbent Mayor Nick Gradisar told the Chieftain before polls closed that he was hoping to win outright with more than 50% of votes to avoid a runoff. While Puebloans will actually decide on the future of the mayoral office in January, Gradisar came in second place on Tuesday.

The only incumbent city councilor on the ballot, Vicente Martinez Ortega of District 4, was defeated by a significant margin by Roger Gomez. And the incumbent water board candidate Sandy Gutierrez, who ran as a write-in candidate after barely missing the signature requirement to get on the ballot, received only 10.2% Of the votes.

Partisan politics not as pertinent in D60

While Pueblo D60 school board elections are nonpartisan, the Pueblo County Democrats and the Pueblo County Republican Party endorsed candidates that they felt best aligned with their respective party’s values.

Pueblo County Democrats endorsed Farrell, Perko, Sandoval and Bill Theibaut. The Pueblo County Republican Party told voters to support Cisneros, Dan Comden, Sue Pannunzio and Roger Wright on the party’s website and Facebook page.

However, voters didn’t necessarily vote “along party lines” in the 2023 school board races. Maes, a registered Democrat, was not endorsed by either party. He still received 10,446 votes — the second most of any candidate running for a four-year term on the board.

Maes will join Republican-backed candidates Cisneros and Pannunzio, along with the Democrat-backed Thiebaut on the school board.

Cisneros’ defeat of Perko combined with the fact that Pannunzio had more votes than any other candidate running for a four-year seat on the board may lead one to believe that more Republicans voted in school board elections than Democrats.

That doesn’t seem to be the case: Democrat-endorsed candidates received a combined 39,304 votes compared to the 36,690 combined votes for Republican-endorsed candidates. Those totals aren’t even factoring in the 10,446 votes for registered Democrat Maes.

Forging Pueblo saw some success

Candidates backed by Forging the Future, the political arm of the conservative Christian group Forging Pueblo, did not all succeed in the school board election but won in two out of three contested city council seats.

However, two candidates backed by Forging the Future succeeded in the school board race while only one union-backed candidate was elected.

The organization’s pick for mayor, Chris Nicoll, came in third place among nine candidates.

Quin Friberg, the founder of Forging Pueblo, did not respond to a request for comment from the Chieftain prior to deadline.

Committees set up for school board and city races raised and spent a few thousand dollars, but Friberg previously told the Chieftain that the organization’s strength was in its network of volunteers.

More undervotes in District 4

Undervotes, which occur when someone doesn’t cast a vote for a candidate, were similar in some of this year’s municipal races when compared to previous elections. The District 4 race, however, was a clear outlier.

There were 544 undervotes in this year’s District 4 race, where Roger Gomez bested incumbent Vicente Martinez Ortega to take the seat. There had been just 277 in the race in 2021 when Martinez Ortega handily defeated Brandon Martin and Todd Rogers.

Though there were more people who voted in the race this year, there was a higher rate of undervotes at 10%. Just 6% of voters didn’t choose a candidate to fill the seat two years ago.

This year’s District 2 race had 7% undervotes, which tracked similarly with District 1 and District 3 races in 2021.

Gomez, who was endorsed by Forging the Future, used to be a registered Republican but has been unaffiliated since 2016. He told the Chieftain that he considers himself an “independent conservative.”

Anna Lynn Winfrey, James Bartolo and Josué Perez are reporters for the Pueblo Chieftain. Please support local news at subscribe.chieftain.com.

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo Republicans triumph, and 4 other takeaways from election night