Answered prayers?

The base turned out for the GOP candidate -- and against gay marriage -- in Haggard's home turf, but the mood was blue.

By Lauren Sandler

Read more: Politics, News, 2006 Elections

Photo: AP/David Zalubowski

Doug Lamborn, the Republican candidate for Colorado's 5th Congressional District seat, stands in his campaign office in northeast Colorado Springs, Colo.

Nov. 8, 2006 | COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- At Mr. Biggs Family Fun Center in Colorado Springs, where Republican candidates were sweating out the local, congressional and gubernatorial elections on Tuesday night, the mood was hardly raucous. As party members trickled in to nibble cheese cubes and wait for word of victory, in a cavernous space off a go-kart track smack in the center of this blood-red district, everyone was looking a little, well, blue.

The mood was subdued while a volunteer wearing an American flag cap that partially covered her mullet circulated through the room, lighting red, scented candles, as a swing band set up on a stage festooned with giant banners blaring candidates' names. Campaign workers hanging placards wore tight smiles. People casually referred to the "enemy" -- which, in this conservative Christian crowd could refer to the Party of Pelosi or Satan himself -- favored in the polls nationwide. A volunteer named Robin Koran hustled around in a cloud of hairspray and a flash of pink sequins, assembling balloon bouquets while discussing the "integrity" of Doug Lamborn, the Republican House candidate here, who Koran assured me was "a good Christian man."

Though Lamborn was favored to beat his opponent, a retired Air Force officer named Jay Fawcett, the race had become tighter in the past couple of months than anyone could have predicted when Fawcett launched what was called by local newspaper columnists "a quixotic quest." But the race became a nail-biter, especially after Rep. Joel Hefley, whose seat was up for grabs Tuesday night, said he refused to endorse his fellow Republican, a "disappointment" running "one of the sleaziest, most dishonest campaigns" he had seen. Even prayer -- or the endorsement of the Christian Coalition and the NRA -- couldn't cover up that stinging public condemnation with "moral values" chatter, especially in national elections that hummed with talk of corruption.

Wednesday morning the two candidates were considered to be in a dead heat. In this area, which has elected a Republican to the House ever since the district was first drawn 34 years ago, a victory under these circumstances hardly felt like victory at all. Much less when considering who would be in charge of the House. And forget simply despising Nancy Pelosi's liberal ways; these folks were deriding the "liberal Republicans" on the five military bases here who expressed anger against "stay the course" war addicts like Lamborn. Accustomed to the confidence that came with their decisive role in recent national elections, the Christian base here seemed shaken. For once, nobody seemed sure that all their prayers would be answered.

As the band struck up a Muzak-y rendition of "Just the Way You Are," in came the local candidates in their dark suits and American flag ties, smacking their supporters' shoulders and nervously scanning a screen listing exit polls. The song made for an ironic soundtrack to the scandal surrounding the man whose name has been spoken more in this district this week than any political candidate: Ted Haggard, the fallen pastor of this town's nerve center, the New Life Church. Before the news broke last week that he had conducted a three-year affair with a male escort, Haggard had campaigned hard for Amendment 43 here, an initiative to ban gay marriage. It was clear that in this political congregation, no one liked him just the way he was.

But by the time the band struck up "The Best Is Yet to Come," spirits seemed to lift a bit. The numbers coming in on the gay marriage ban, and on a referendum supporting civil unions, looked promising to a crowd that quivered in disgust at any mention of homosexuality, much less homosexuality with equal rights. Of all people, Mike Jones, Haggard's accuser, was being credited with those returns. A volunteer in a black suit and red shirt named Dave Cavanagh -- who calls Dick Cheney, whom he met campaigning this week, a "good man" -- says plenty of blasé voters were spurred into action by the notion that Jones came out with his story in order to have an impact on the amendment effort. "That this was used as a political ploy to affect voting made everyone I know really angry. It was a backlash; it benefited the effort," he said. Jones has said that he publicized his relationship with Haggard explicitly because of the marriage amendment.

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