Denver Republicans haven’t had much to toast in the aftermath of elections for the past decade — beyond camaraderie in the face of mounting Democratic wins -— but this year it was different.

“Don’t we have a lot to celebrate this year?” asked Denver Republican Chair Wendy Warner at the county GOP’s Christmas party on Saturday. The hundred or so revelers gathered at the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association headquarters raised their glasses to toast the candidates who won statewide, due in part to closer-than-usual margins in Democratic-dominated Denver.

Warner credited volunteers and hard-working candidates, including state Sen.-elect Tim Neville, R-Littleton, whose sprawling Senate District 16 includes a hefty chunk of southwest Denver precincts, accounting for roughly 20 percent of his constituents.

“They got out there and worked hard and contacted voters, and we got some record percentages,” Warner told the crowd. “Even if we didn’t win, we got really close.”

For his part, Neville tipped his hat to House District 1 candidate Ray Garcia for walking door-to-door alongside him in neighborhoods where their districts overlap, helping run up the numbers in heavily Democratic territory enough to defeat state Sen. Jeanne Nicholson, D-Black Hawk, and hand control of the Senate to Republicans for the first time since 2004.

Other recent candidates in attendance included Republican Senate District 32 nominee Dawne Murray and House District 2 nominee Jon Roberts. There were also a few Denver City Council candidates enjoying the festivities, including John Kidd — he ran for the HD 1 seat two years ago — and a pair of Democrats, Liz Adams and Kendra Black, who both stressed that they’re seeking support from everyone in the upcoming nonpartisan municipal election.

“It’s an unusual year because, for the first time in a number of years, we’ve had some great wins,” Warner told The Colorado Statesman after briefly addressing the party-goers. In addition to electing U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner to the U.S. Senate, she said she was thrilled that state voters had sided with State Treasurer Walker Stapleton, Attorney General-elect Cynthia Coffman and Secretary of State-elect Wayne Williams.

Dawne Murray, who was a state Senate candidate in the recent election, and former state Rep. Ruth Prendergast, R-Denver, visit at the Denver Republican Party’s Christmas party on Dec. 6. Murray, said Prendergast, was her favorite candidate this year.

Layla Aspinall visits with Bob Arnold at the Denver GOP’s Christmas party on Dec. 6 in Denver. She’s the granddaughter of the late Wayne Aspinall, a Democrat who represented Colorado’s 4th District in Congress for 12 terms, and says that he’d be a Republican in today’s political environment.

Past legislative candidates Jon Roberts and Raymond Garcia are among those enjoying the Denver Republican Party’s Christmas bash on Dec. 6 at the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association headquarters in Denver.

Photos by Ernest Luning/The Colorado Statesman

“I think the message is getting across. I think people are concerned about government intrusion,” Warner said. “There comes a point in people’s lives when they don’t think the government has to run everything in their lives. They’re perfectly capable of making their own decisions and don’t want to have a nanny state. People are waking up to that. I think people are looking for a change, even in Denver County. They may not be the majority in Denver, but we did very well, it was a lot of votes.”

While some Republican officials and campaign operatives credited the GOP’s improved turnout efforts with securing wins this year, Warner said that it was more a matter of voters rejecting a decade of Democratic rule.

“Democrats,” she said, “have to worry that the voters themselves have woken up to their agenda. That agenda of so much control (by) government is not the American way, and people are saying, ‘I don’t really want that.’ Certainly it’s not a Western type of philosophy. It’s not a matter of get-out-the-vote or the party effort — I think it’s the voters waking up and realizing what is at stake.”

— Ernest@coloradostatesman.com