Craig Daily Press / Election 2012

As Obama wins re-election, Romney out of sight

His reach for the presidency thwarted, Mitt Romney stayed out of sight late Tuesday as news organizations including The Associated Press announced that President Barack Obama had won a second term. Dejected Romney supporters milled around a hotel ballroom where the Republican hopeful had planned to declare victory and groaned as key battlegrounds moved Obama's way. Obama's victory in closely fought Ohio narrowed Romney's path to the 270 electoral vote. The Democrat also was declared the winner in other swing states including New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Colorado and Iowa. Michigan and Pennsylvania, which Republicans hoped to put in play, stayed in Obama's camp as well. Florida and Virginia remained too close to call. Romney supporters cheered a win in North Carolina, which Obama captured four years ago. But it was a rare prize in an evening that broadly favored the presidency.

Kinkaid, Grobe win county commission seats

In what many have considered a huge upset, John Kinkaid beat Dave DeRose 3,130 to 2,669 to win the race for county commissioner of District 1. Prior to receiving the results, Kinkaid said he wasn’t as nervous as he thought he would be throughout the day. “It’s been a great day. This whole thing’s been a great adventure. People have been so wonderful to me,” Kinkaid said.

Moffat County election results taking shape

Polling places located throughout Moffat County open until 7 p.m.

With 13 out of 14 precincts reporting and only provisional and absentee ballots still to be counted, election results in Moffat County are:

Obama leads; Romney with chance in electoral race

President Barack Obama enters the final hours of the 2012 campaign with an edge in the hunt for the 270 electoral votes needed to win and more ways to reach that magic number. Yet the race is remarkably close in at least six states that could go either way, giving Republican Mitt Romney hope that he can pull off a come-from-behind victory. If the election were held now, an Associated Press analysis found that Obama would be all but assured of 249 votes, by carrying 20 states that are solidly Democratic or leaning his way — Iowa, Nevada and Pennsylvania among them — and the District of Columbia. Romney would lay claim to 206, from probable victories in 24 states that are strong Republican turf or tilt toward the GOP, including North Carolina. Up for grabs are 83 electoral votes spread across Colorado, Florida, Ohio, New Hampshire, Virginia and Wisconsin. Of those, Republicans and Democrats alike say Obama seems in a bit better shape than Romney in Ohio and Wisconsin, while Romney appears to be performing slightly better than Obama or has pulled even in Florida and Virginia.

Pace visits Yampa Valley during final tour of Western Slope before election

CD3 candidate thanks Steamboat Springs volunteers

Last week Sal Pace, Pueblo Democrat running for the Third Congressional District of Colorado, made his final pitch to Yampa Valley voters when he visited with two-dozen volunteers at the Team Obama Office in Steamboat Springs. The event in Routt County was the first of a four-stop tour of the Western Slope that also included visits to Grand Junction, Rifle and Edwards. During his 10-minute discussion with local democrats Pace thanked volunteers who have been canvassing Steamboat Springs neighborhoods and calling Yampa Valley voters on his behalf.

Birch leads health care reform discussion as election looms

The election is days away and the big issue on the minds of voters, after jobs and the economy, is health care reform. Gov. Mitt Romney, the Republican Party candidate for president, has pledged throughout his campaign to repeal the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, if elected. That’s music to the ears of a lot of small business owners in Craig and Moffat County who have raised concerns since Romney’s campaign stop in May about potential rate hikes for employee health insurance under the Act. But regardless of who wins the office Tuesday Sue Birch, executive director of the Colorado Department of Health Care & Financing, said Friday the state would continue to press forward with its reforms for health care in Colorado.

Obama, GOP scramble for early votes in Colorado

With the presidential campaign back on after a storm-related pause, both sides rushed to Colorado to court voters in the final hours of early voting in this crucial battleground. President Barack Obama spoke to about 10,000 people in the Democratic stronghold of Boulder, and Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan was headed to Colorado for a rally Friday. Both campaigns are seeking to run up the score in parts of the state where they're strongest before early in-person voting ends Friday.

Romney Victory Center opens Saturday in Craig

Office to serve as hub for final campaign push

With polls predicting a statistical dead heat in the race for the presidency a group of Moffat County voters plans to open a campaign office for the final push to Election Day. Frank Moe, Moffat County Republican project manager, announced Thursday by news release the Mitt Romney Victory Center will open its doors Saturday in the meeting rooms of the Hampton Inn and Suites at 377 Cedar Court in Craig.

Moffat County law enforcement officials: No on Amendment 64

We are law enforcement leaders in Moffat, Routt and Grand counties, and we wanted to express our concerns about Amendment 64, the effort to legalize “recreational” use of marijuana in Colorado. First, we are concerned about any steps that might increase use of marijuana among children. Studies indicate that increased availability and increased perceptions of acceptability will increase underage use of marijuana, which already accounts for 67 percent of teenage substance abuse treatment in America. The evidence is also compelling to us that marijuana is a gateway drug that leads to use and abuse of even more dangerous drugs like heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine. Because of the permanent, lifelong debilitating effects of marijuana on young people, we are gravely troubled about Amendment 64’s potential long term harm to our community’s youth. Second, the argument that the government should tax marijuana like alcohol and tobacco, and use those tax revenues to address the potential impacts, totally overlooks how little tax revenue is actually collected compared to the social costs of alcohol and tobacco use.

Bill Clinton stumps for Obama in Colorado

Former President Bill Clinton stumped for President Barack Obama at two stops in Colorado on Tuesday, as Hurricane Sandy prompted the president to cancel his own event planned for today. Clinton derided Republican Mitt Romney as vague and backward in remarks to a small, but enthusiastic, crowd of Democrats at a high school just north of Denver, and to a larger gathering in a central Denver high school Tuesday evening. Obama scrapped a planned campaign event in Colorado Springs on Tuesday in order to monitor hurricane recovery efforts from Washington. Clinton filled in. "You got people taking this seriously?" an incredulous Clinton rhetorically asked an absent Romney on what Clinton called fuzzy plans to erase the national debt. Clinton went on, "Some days I feel like I got lost in a fun house."

General Election early voting under way in Moffat County

Beckett: Voters who have not received a ballot should contact elections office

Moffat County Elections Supervisor Stephanie Beckett reported last Wednesday that 1,346 voters already had cast their ballot in the 2012 general election. That’s because mail-in ballots were sent Oct. 15 to registered voters all across the state. But ballots were only sent to voters that had requested them. In Moffat County, 2,953 ballots were mailed to voters, Beckett said. Voters could begin returning those ballots or vote by machine at the Moffat County Courthouse, 221 W. Victory Way, on Oct. 22 when early voting opened throughout Colorado.

JoAnn Baxter: I am ready to serve

I am asking the voters of Moffat County to vote for me to be your state representative in House District 57. Redistricting has opened this seat to the possibility of having a Moffat County resident elected to the state legislature for the first time since 1968! My husband and I raised our children in Moffat County. I love this part of the state and I understand the issues that are important to people in this area. I am a native Coloradan and a 38-year resident of Moffat County. I taught at Moffat County High School for 29 years and served on the Moffat County Board of Education for 8 years, four as president.