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The Latest: Parties narrow Colorado gubernatorial field

Posted at 3:57 PM, Apr 14, 2018
and last updated 2018-04-14 17:57:15-04

The Latest on Colorado’s major party state assembly votes for governor (all times local):
  
3:15 p.m.
  
Cary Kennedy and U.S. Rep. Jared Polis have both won spots on the Democratic gubernatorial ballot, setting the stage for a tightly contested primary fight to succeed Gov. John Hickenlooper.
  
Kennedy, a former state treasurer, was the clear favorite of the party faithful at the party’s state assembly Saturday, buoyed by the support of teachers. She won 62 percent of the vote to Polis’ 33 percent.
  
Both candidates brought a similar message to the Broomfield assembly, pledging to push back against President Donald Trump, to expand access to health care, to protect the environment and to boost funding to schools by reforming the state’s strict limits on taxation.
  
Erik Underwood, a fringe candidate for the Democratic nomination who ran for U.S. Senate as a Republican in 2016, did not qualify for the ballot.
  
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11:20 a.m.
  
Colorado’s Republican and Democratic parties are holding state assemblies to help determine who gets to their respective gubernatorial primaries.
  
Republican delegates in Boulder are deciding Saturday whether to send state Treasurer Walker Stapleton, Attorney General Cynthia Coffman and lesser-known candidates to the June 26 primary.
  
Democrats in Bloomfield were voting on leading candidates Cary Kennedy, the former state treasurer, and U.S. Rep. Jared Polis.
  
Contenders need 30 percent of the delegate vote at both events to advance.
  
Stapleton, Coffman and Kennedy are betting on the votes, rather than opting to petition onto the primary ballot.
  
It’s a last-minute choice for Stapleton, who tossed his petitions over fraud concerns.
  
He must now convince delegates in Boulder to vote for him.
  
All want to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper.

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