Why is Colorado politically purple, instead of right-red or left-blue? Maybe it's the fact that it's a crossroads home to so many of the "
Twelve States of America" mapped by economics-demographers Dante Chinni and James Gimpel. Colorado's economy is like its landscape: High and low and multicolored. And what's missing in Colorado may be as important as what's here. It may surprise some residents to learn that, as a matter of general categories, Colorado is not only low on African Americans but also low on empty nest white folks and evangelical voters.