Johnston to replace Groff

Don Knox, State Bill Colorado

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Thornton school principal Michael Johnston, just 34, last night won ex-Sen. President Peter Groff’s vacant Senate seat in a surprising first-round vacancy committee election victory.

An auditorium packed with 300 delegates and observers broke into wild applause as Democratic party official Chris Martinez announced the vote count.

The magic number was 64, and that was the vote Johnston got in what turned out to be the only round of balloting.

Finishing second for the Senate District 33 vacancy was term-limited state Rep. Rosemary Marshall, with 41 votes, and businessman and Barack Obama delegate Anthony Graves, with 18. Party activist Renee Blanchard received no votes.

Before and after the ballot, Johnston spoke about fighting for equality in a district that’s been led by pioneering African-American leaders like Groff, the first African-American Senate president; Groff’s father, Regis, also a senator; Gloria Tanner; Marshall and Penfield Tate III, a former mayoral candidate. Peter Groff last week exited the legislature for a top education job in the Obama Administration.

The northeast Denver district is roughly one-third white, one-third Latino and one-third African-American.

Johnston, who is white, said he spoke about equality because “this district has an incredible history of legislators who’ve fought over the years to push forward the cause of equality, and in difference parts of history, that’s meant different things.”

Today, Johnston said, it means “How do you make sure everyone has access to health care, high-quality education skills and the background to compete for family wage jobs. Those are all the big ones.”

Johnston’s story proved irresistible for some: a Vail-bred youth who attended Yale but spurned a law degree to work in impoverished communities in Denver and on the Mississippi Delta.

Immediately after the vote, both Graves and Marshall congratulated the senator-elect, who still must be sworn in and who, under state rules and the confines of Groff’s term, must run again in 2010 and 2012 to keep hold of his seat for a maximum of seven years.

Graves called Johnston “an impressive candidate who worked hard and grew at each opportunity.” Only 32, Graves nevertheless won support from leaders including Tate, former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb and First Lady Wilma Webb, and state legislators including Daniel Kagan, Joe Miklosi and Abel Tapia.

Asked whether he’d seek elective office in the future, Graves, most recently of Sun Microsystems, said, “I will absolutely look for another opportunity to serve this community.”

Marshall, who was chair of the House Business Affairs and Labor Committee until begin term limited, was backed most notably by House Speaker Terrance Carroll. “Rosemary Marshall has proven her mettle over and over and over again,” Carroll said, citing her work in fighting predatory lenders, among others.

— Distributed by Colorado Capitol Reporters.

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