QUIDNUNC: Gaylord gold shines bright despite NASCAR lump of Christmas coal

QUID HAS HEARD the people the sing, singing the song of status quo when it comes to allowing NASCAR or some other vroom-vroomers set up shop somewhere on the outskirts of town. Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, but he didn’t bring every last thing on Mayor Steve Hogan’s wish list. Sure, he’d already unwrapped his Gaylord gift the week before, and re-election was already stuffed deep in his stocking hung with care. But the toy cars he was really hoping for? Seems the folks in south Aurora considered the shilling for shelling out economic incentives for a racetrack enough to warrant holding back a fully unfettered Election Day victory.

AND QUID HAS HEARD that the saddest election story this week came not from the host of candidates who’d wagered their entire candidacies or causes, only to be callously put aside by the fickle electorate. No, the story that brought a tear even to Quid’s terminally jaded eye was that of the state’s dean of political reporters, Lynn Bartels. For years, and years, Bartels has been The Source of political news, from the pages of the slain Rocky Mountain News and more recently the trembling Denver Post. Ask anyone on either side of the aisle under Denver’s gold dome, and it’s always been Bartels by a length when it comes to the political hack among us that delivers the most, the best. That was until this summer when Bartels caused a widespread gasp by announcing she was taking a Denver Post buyout and going to the well-paid dark side as a flack (Google it) at the Colorado Secretary of State’s office. Tuesday night was her first election spent behind enemy lines. Bartels has long been a woman who thrives on scoop and tweet, and her discomfiture played out through the night as others clambered to be the first to tell the gory details of what is virtually Christmas for hacks: Election Night. Her 30,000 twitterpations to almost 10,000 followers during the past few years have always been as much a legend as her uncanny ability to get Republicans and Democrats alike to cough up rather than simply spill the beans. At one point on Tuesday, Bartels discovered that even her faintly maudlin tweets about missing the tweets were somehow limited by the state tech gods, which essentially shut her down: “ I think I’m going to call it a night. If I can’t tweet, what’s the point? #copolitics.” Let that be a lesson to hacks and misfits at this shuddering fish-wrapper and litter-box liners all across the state. The pay and hours suck, but nobody shushes our twitter and blather.

AND THAT’S ALL THE NEWS THAT FITS.