Evie Hudak, a former Democratic state senator from Arvada who resigned ahead of a threatened recall election in 2013, was one of the revelers on Tuesday celebrating the successful recall election of the conservative Jefferson County School Board majority.

“I was never recalled,” she was quick to remind The Colorado Statesman. “Besides, not all recalls are the same.”

Hudak was smiling as she talked, slightly swaying as the pro-recall crowd at the Denver West Sheraton, pulsing with energy, chanted “Nah-nah-nah-nah, hey-hey-hey, goodbye!”

Hudak resigned her Senate seat as part of a strategy that avoided a recall election and allowed a Democratic vacancy committee to appoint her replacement. She knows she probably dodged a bullet.

Two of her Democratic colleagues in the Senate that year, Senate President John Morse of Colorado Springs and Angela Giron of Pueblo, lost in first-of-their-kind recall elections after they voted for gun-control legislation. They were replaced with Republicans.

“Look, our three seats were targeted because we represented swing districts,” Hudak said. “We all won by mere hundreds of votes. The opposition was just looking to pick us off. It didn’t really have to do with us specifically. Those recalls were orchestrated. That was party politics.

“But this recall is about the board members themselves and their policies. School board recall elections are common, and that’s because public education, public schools are the heart of our communities. This board seemed to disdain teachers. It riled up parents — and everyone knows, you don’t mess with mama bear!”

Hudak said one thing is similar between the Senate recalls and the Jeffco recalls: High energy among the voters.

“Recalls are emotional,” she said, nearly shouting to be heard, waving her arm to the hundreds of people moving and whooping all around her. “Back then, it was guns. Today, it’s schools. People vote with their hearts, what they feel passionate about.

“Voting is about emotion. You get that wrong, and you lose.”

— john.tomasic@gmail.com