… Long a swing state, Colorado has lately leaned to the left …. Voters remain split roughly evenly between Democrats, Republicans and “unaffiliated”. Despite this the two parties are further apart in Colorado than anywhere else bar California, according to Boris Shor, a political scientist at the University of Chicago. Mr Shor’s data, which run up to 2010, suggest that Colorado’s polarisation is mostly the result of a rightward drift among Republicans since the mid-1990s. Their fondness for selecting unelectable puritans as candidates, as well as demographic changes, have allowed a well-funded, disciplined Democratic Party to dominate state politics. [cont.]
The Economist