He emphasized compromise and displayed a remarkable, Bill Clintonesque talent for triangulation on immigration, abortion and birth control.
Romano says if more Colorado Republicans follow his re-packaging strategy in 2016, it could make a big difference. He is far more knowledgeable about elections than I am (I spent a bit of time with him in Iowa covering a Romney house fundraiser during the 2007 caucuses so I know this.) Nonetheless, I would point out that despite the repackaging, Denver County voted overwhelmingly for Udall. Gardner only got 25% the county's votes. So Gardner's repackaging had no positive effect on Denver, which has the largest number of registered voters in Colorado. (Registered voter tallies are here.)
Similarly, only 22% of Denver voters chose gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez.
I think yesterday's election was less about the approval or repackaging of Gardner and more about low turnout among Democrats. Of Denver's 450,000 voters,
171,000 are registered Democrats while only 55,000 are registered Republicans. Voter turnout was low in Denver,
only 200,000 of more than 450,000 registered voters showed up to vote, about 43%. Turnout was much higher in El Paso (55%), the largest Republican-dominated county, as well as the medium sized Douglas County (over 60%.) Gardner won the state by less than 100,000 votes. I think Denver alone could have brought it home for Udall, had more of its voters just showed up to vote.
Also, Gardner only won by 1,000 votes in Jefferson county, and by 600 votes in Larimer County, both of which are larger, predominately Republican counties. So Gardner's repackaging didn't have much of a winning impact in those counties. It could be argued he should have won by a larger margin, and his repackaging cost him votes.
Similarly, Gov. Hickenlooper beat Republican Beauprez in Jefferson County by 12,000 votes and by 8,000 votes in Larimer Counties, both of which have larger numbers of Republican registered voters.
El Paso County (Colorado Springs) will always be strongly Republican, whoever is running, but as we saw in 2008 and 2012, El Paso, Douglas, and the smaller rural and Western Slope conservative counties together aren't enough when Democrats in the urban areas turn out to vote.
Colorado has 3.6 million voters. While 1 million are unaffiliated, I think recent history (2008 and 2012) has shown that when Democrats turn out to vote in the larger counties, they take the state. I don't think it matters much how Republicans repackage themselves for 2016. In my admittedly non-expert opinion, what matters more is getting the Democrats to actually vote.