(Cross-Posted to DemNotes at http://www.demnotes.com)

Under DNC Chair Howard Dean, the DNC’s use of technology has simply exploded. This is really apparent in its newest digital initiative — called Party Builder.

Part MySpace, part Meetup, part new tools for activism, Party Builder is based on technology built in Colorado by ProgressNow. It takes digital organizing to the next level.

Here’s a few things you can do with PartyBuilder:
– join a network of like-minded friends
– send messages
– join diverse groups
– plan and attend meetings
– create blog postings (DemNotes will be cross-posted there, too)
– write letters to the editor
– track your work online, compared to others

Go online and sign up for a Party Builder account for yourself — try it out at:
http://www.democrats.org/page/content/partybuilder/

And, when you get there, be sure to add me as a friend on your page!

Here’s part of the explanation of PartyBuilder from DNC Executive Director Tom McMahon:

“I wish we had this when I ran for president.”

That’s what Gov. Dean said when we first showed him PartyBuilder.

Back in 2004, we were constantly looking for new ways to organize and motivate people. The Internet helped us reach and energize people like never before, but the Democratic Party’s suite of tools is a huge step forward.

No matter who wins the nomination next year, PartyBuilder will allow you to easily continue your work to help elect a Democratic president. That means the Democratic nominee can hit the ground running with the largest online network of support ever built.

PartyBuilder combines some of our most powerful online outreach resources into one central place, where every Democrat can use them for free. It’s a permanent part of the 50-state strategy and an integral piece of our plan for taking back the White House in 2008.

Today the State House passed Represenative Jack Pommer’s HB-1338, the “Homeowner Protection Act of 2007,” which restores Coloradans’ legal remedies in cases of defective home construction.

In the wake of the 2003 “Construction Defect Action Reform Act,” homebuilders began using contract language which explicitly excluded them from liability for faulty construction. One such contract stated in part:

“To the fullest extent permitted by law, all other warranties, expressed or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, workmanship and habitability are disclaimed, excluded, and waived.” (emphasis added)

Witnesses in the House Judiciary Committee hearing on the bill testified about cracked foundations, faulty roofing, and other major flaws in recently purchased homes. In some cases these flaws compelled these homeowners to leave their homes, despite having just committed most of their savings to them.

The bill will now be heard in the State Senate.

You can read Rep. Pommer’s bill here

Rep. Jack Pommer’s web site

Today Governor Bill Ritter signed two significant pieces of renewable energy legislation to move Colorado’s New Energy Economy forward.

House Bill 1281, sponsored by Senator Gail Schwartz and Representative Jack Pommer, doubles the renewable energy standard created by 2004’s Amendment 37. Large utilities must now generate 20% of their electrical output from renewable sources by 2020, instead of 10%. Municipal utilities and rural electrical generators must achieve 10% renewable production by 2020; they were not covered by the goals set by Amendment 37.

One study showed that House Bill 1281 would provide $50 million in lease payments to farmers, ranchers and other landowners and increase employment by 4,100 person-years.

Senate Bill 100, sponsored by Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald and Represenative Buffie McFadyen requires electric utilies to designate “Energy Resource Zones” every two years - areas where potential electricity generation from wind sources is impeded by insufficient transmission capacity. Utilities would then have to increase transmission capacity from those areas; they would be permitted to recover construction costs.

Both bills enjoyed bi-partisan support. House Bill 1281 passed the House 59-5 and the Senate 27-8. Senate Bill 100 passed the Senate 33-2 and the House 63-2.

To read the full text of the bills:

House Bill 1281

Senate Bill 100

If you get a chance to tune in on Colorado Matters (KCFR-1340AM), you will hear an interview with Dick Wadhams, Republican State Party Chair, and me. It was a fairly civil discussion with Wadhams taking a few jabs at our donors, Rep. Mark Udall, the governor and the legislature. In general, I tried to keep a high tone while responding to some of his remarks. If for some reason you don’t hear the broadcast, you can go to www.kcfr.org, click on Colorado Matters and scroll down to the title of Colorado Political Parties Gear Up for 2008. My reaction is that I didn’t hear anything from Wadhams that I had not heard from his predecessor, Bob Martinez. However, we will see what the campaign season brings.

Labor Education and Advisory Committee (LEAC)

LEAC was created two years ago so that labor could have an opportunity to keep the party abreast of issues they cared about. On Thursday, they invited Don Mares, who now heads up the Department of Labor and Employment. Don talked about what he is trying to accomplish, especially in terms of workmen’s compensation. LEAC also discussed organizing an education seminar for the legislators and other elected officials, finding people to serve on boards and commissions, and making sure that some of them run for delegate to the 2008 convention.

Mountain Area Democrats

Saturday morning I drove through the rain into the snow and met with a room full of Democrats to discuss CDP and where we are going both as a party and as a part of the 2008 convention. This group always feels like famly because many of them work closely with my husband, Ken Strom, on bird conservation through Audubon. However, it was good to see other faces, like Marilyn Roger from NEA and Linda Rockwell, who ran for office in Jeffco last year. One of the issues we discussed concerned trying to do a better job of notifying folks when someone special is coming to town. In particular, some of the group did not get notification of Barack Obama’s visit until the morning of the event.

Morgan County’s Big Ten Dinner

Having promised to get there this year, it was great to see 80 people out in the rain for this annual event in Fort Morgan. Linda Iungerich did a great job as the emcee. She is stepping down as chair, but she will remain as treasurer. Her shoes are being filled by Tom Proctor. Tom has been chair of both Logan and Morgan counties in the past and brings much experience to the job. Congrats to Lesle Bundy, who was announced as the Democrat of the Year.

The highlight of the evening was Colorado State Treasurer, Cary Kennedy. She once again demonstrated her knowledge of the state’s budget. Some points made included the fact that currently the state has 4% of its budget in reserve for emergencies. She would like to increase budget savings to 6-8%. Cary has also been appointed as one of the co-chairs of the panel on transporation finance by the governor. Transportation is showing in excess of a billion dollars in short fall annually. Much needs to be done to improve the transportation, but we need to find a way to pay for it. Cary also mentioned that the state has $300 million in unclaimed funds being held by the office of the treasurer. Everyone should be checking to see if they are on the list.

Chair’s Travels

Next weekend I will be in Routt County for their Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner.

Pat

I never got to meet Bernice, even though she was a Colorado resident from 1947 to last year. Bernice was born on January 19, 1920 in Michigan. She came to Denver to work for the Department of Interior, where she was employed until retirement in 1980.

Bernice moved to Boulder in the 1950s. She was a member of her local church and the American Business Women’s Asoociation. She played the piano, read, gardened and spent time with her friends.

Bernice also was one of those quiet Democrats. Today, the executor of her estate arrived with a check for $5,000 made out to the Colorado Democratic Party. So we thank this good Democrat for remembering us. She becomes a posthumous member of the Chair’s Council. Thank you to Bernice for her gift. May she rest in peace.

(Cross Posted to DemNotes at www.DemNotes.com)

600%.

That’s the increase we saw in Canon City’s participation last night at Drinking Liberally.

Okay — that’s a little misleading. Canon City has a new chapter of Drinking Liberally, and their second meeting ever was last night. At the first meeting, two people attended. Last night, a dozen attended the event at Brother’s on Main Street in Canon City. Now, I’m expecting that trend to continue each time we meet. In two months (four meetings), we should have, oh, just over 15,000 there — the total population of Canon City. Right? Right?

Maybe not — but the meeting was a good sign of continued activism in the Republican area of Fremont County. Several new people who had not been active in the Party in the past showed up, along with some familiar faces, including new County Chair Kevin Bradley. I explained Drinking Liberally last month, when I wrote about my trip to the one in Colorado Springs, but for those of you who missed it, DL is a relatively new phenomenon where like-minded progressives get together (usually twice a month or so) and have a drink or two and just talk politics. It’s relatively informal, with a speaker or two, but mostly just a chance to meet Dems over some drinks. Its a simple — yet powerful — premise.

And it’s a premise that’s catching on in lots of places in Colorado. Just recently, new chapters in Boulder (a second one), Canon City, Lakewood, and Longmont have started. They join chapters in Denver, Highlands Ranch, an original Boulder chapter, Colorado Springs, and Fort Collins. For a list of all of the Colorado chapters, and when they meet, go to:
http://www.drinkingliberally.org/locations.html#co

Here’s my challenge, though: there are too many places where we SHOULD have chapters, but don’t. Where’s Pueblo? Greeley? Steamboat? Frisco? Grand Junction? Durango? Glenwood Springs? If Canon City can do this (and last night’s attendance and interest was evidence that we can), Pueblo and Greeley — at a minimum — can surely do this! This is a great opportunity to draw in new, often younger, folks into the county party. Go to the DL site and find out what it takes to start up a chapter in your community (not much, by the way), or attend a DL event if you already have a chapter.

—————————

I did leave DL a bit early last night to participate in the first meeting of the CDP’s Site Selection Committee. Pat Waak has appointed me to chair the SSC again this year. Our job is to solicit bids for the 2008 Colorado Democratic Convention and Assembly. We’ve learned that by bringing the Convention and Assembly to a community that wants it, and will work for it, the delegate experience (and the nomination experience) works so much better. This morning, I sent an e-mail to all county chairs detailing the site selection process — here’s the e-mail (with a fix to the at least one grammatical error I found after the e-mail went out):

Dear County Chairs:

As many of you now know, the Colorado Democratic Party now has a standing committee on Site Selection to help choose the site of our biennial State Assembly and quadrennial State Convention. Every two years, the State Party solicits bids from counties and communities interested in hosting these major events.

State Party Chair Pat Waak has recently appointed the Site Selection Committee for the 2008 Colorado Democratic Assembly and Convention. I am honored that she has selected me to chair this Committee for the second straight term. By rule, the Committee must consist of ten members (not including the chair), and at least one must be from each of Colorado’s seven Congressional Districts. This year, the Committee consists of:

– Daniel Willis, Denver (CD1)
– Angie Layton, Louisville (CD2)
– Butch Hicks, Westminster (CD2)
– Terry Hart (Pueblo County Chair), Pueblo (CD3)
– Mary Beth Pyle (Mesa County Chair), Grand Junction (CD3)
– Nancy Galvin, Greeley (CD4)
– Jay Ferguson (El Paso County 2nd Vice Chair), Colorado Springs (CD5)
– Maritza Carrera, Highlands Ranch (CD6)
– Jen Walmer (Arapahoe County Chair), Littleton (CD6)
– Dennis Larsen, Arvada (CD7)

Over the next few weeks, the Committee will be working to develop a Request for Proposals to send to all county chairs in the state. We anticipate that the RFP will be sent to county chairs approximately April 9, 2007, with a deadline for proposals to the State Party by May 7, 2007. It is the Committee’s goal to make a decision and recommendation to the State Executive Committee by mid-June.

The draft Delegate Selection Plan has a tentative date set for the State Convention and Assembly of May 17, 2008. Also, please note that the draft DSP also calls for Congressional Districts to meet on May 3, 2008, instead of at the State Convention, which may make it easier to find venues in your community for the State events.

We’re sending you this e-mail as a county chair to alert you to this process so you will have time to discuss this with your various county parties. While we are sending this e-mail, and the RFP, to all counties, we recognize that many counties won’t have the infrastructure or capacity to handle the State Convention and Assembly. Rather than attempt to identify the counties that can handle this job, we have decided that you are much better at determining whether it makes sense for your county (or group of counties) to be submitting a bid or considering submitting a bid.

If you do feel you may have the capacity and/or infrastructure to host the State Convention and Assembly, I would encourage you to explore the interest level in your community for doing such a job. What we’ve learned in Greeley in 2006 and in Pueblo in 2004 is that this event creates hundreds of thousands of dollars in income for a community, and it revitalizes the volunteer base of a county party. Weld County went blue for the first time in years in 2006, and a portion of that was due to the exposure and volunteer base from the 2006 Democratic Assembly held there last May.

So, if you’re interested, please look for the RFP in your e-mail inbox on or about April 9. And if you have any questions in the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact me.

– Dan Slater

First Vice Chair, CDP
Chair, CDP Site Selection Committee

If you’re interested in your county bidding for the State Assembly and Convention, talk to your county chair and county party officers, as they’ll be the ones in the driver’s seat of the decision whether to bid. I’ll keep everybody updated as the process moves along, at least to the extent I can.

(Cross-Posted to DemNotes at: www.DemNotes.com)

Scott McInnis was my Congressman for a while when I first moved back to Colorado. In the 1990s, Fremont County was split nearly evenly between the 3rd CD (McInnis) and the 5th CD (Hefley). Hefley had less than a half-dozen counties in his district. McInnis had about half of Colorado’s counties in his district — over 30, if I recall correctly. Yet, McInnis visited Fremont County easily three times as often as Joel Hefley.

Often overlooked by the Denver crowd is the fact that Scott McInnis is a powerful politician — perhaps the best Republican “politician” in the State of Colorado. He understands how to appeal to moderate voters, and he’s a personable guy. If you lived in the Third CD - the Western Slope or Pueblo — during McInnis’ tenure, you know what I mean. Just ask Mary Beth Corsentino, the long-time Chair of the 3rd CD Democrats. She’ll tell you how tough it was to challenge McInnis electorally.

To be sure, McInnis has a lot of problems — mostly surrounding his ethics, his close ties with Tom DeLay, his employing his wife to run a campaign that didn’t exist, etc. He’s now a lobbyist — and a very successful one at that. As Democrats, we were prepared to take on “McLobbyist” with zeal, exposing what a McInnis senate seat might look like and comparing that to what a Udall senate seat will look like. But I’ll be honest — from my perspective, Scott McInnis was the best candidate (for the GOP) the GOP could run against us in the open U.S. Senate race in 2008.

But he’s not running.

That’s the news today. I’m sure you’ve heard it from several sources by now. Scott McInnis has announced that he won’t run for the U.S. Senate in Colorado in 2008. Why? Well, to put it simply, the Republican faithful haven’t deemed him “right-wing” enough. They wouldn’t support him. They labeled him as a “RINO” (Republican In Name Only), even though he was as conservative as it comes on a lot of issues, including environmental protection on the Western Slope.

The Republican nomination is now up in the air. Over the next year and a half, they’ll figure it out, and we’ll be ready for them when they do. But today is definitely a VERY good day for Colorado Democrats.

We’ll have to keep our noses to the grindstone. We’ll have to keep working hard. But in the end, if we do all that, Coloradans will help Democrats expand their majority in the US Senate by picking up a second Senate seat in Colorado!

Press Release from the Colorado Democratic Party

McInnis Too Moderate for Colorado Republicans?

Denver, Colorado - The announcement today by former Congressman Scott McInnis that he would not run for the U.S. Senate in 2008 may give a signal that Colorado Republicans are not interested in moderate candidates. Rep. McInnis has a history of voting against a gay marriage ban. He also opposed Colorado’s Referendum A, the water grab project.

“There has been a whispering campaign in the background to the effect that Rep. McInnis is not acceptable to the right wing of his party,” said Colorado Democratic Party Chair, Pat Waak. “If that is the reasoning behind his announcement, it is sad that the Republican Party still doesn’t understand that the state, and the country, is looking for solutions, not ideologies.”
###

Press Release from the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee

REPUBLICANS LOSE MAJOR RECRUIT IN COLORADO

McInnis Drops Out of Race to Fill Allard’s Senate Seat

Senate Republicans lost one of their leading recruits today, with former Congressman Scott McInnis declaring he will not run for the Senate seat in Colorado being vacated by Republican Senator Wayne Allard. McInnis announced in January that “there was no question” he would run for the Senate, but today reversed course and withdrew. His candidacy had been touted by national and state Republicans as key to their hopes of retaining the seat.

“Scott McInnis’ withdrawal from the race is a major blow to Republican efforts to hold onto a Senate seat in Colorado and another sign that the political environment continues to be extremely poor for the GOP,” said DSCC spokesman Matthew Miller. “Republicans in Colorado now have to start from scratch with a new candidate who will trail in both fundraising and political organization.”

McInnis Two Months Ago: “No Question I Will Run” For Senate. In early January 2007, McInnis told a reporter that if Wayne Allard decided not to seek re-election, there was “no question I will run.” [Denver Post, 1/16/07]

McInnis Would Have Started the Game With Nearly $1 Million In the Bank. McInnis has nearly $1 million left over from his House campaign account that could have been transferred to his Senate campaign, along with anything he may have raised in recent months. Meanwhile, likely Democratic candidate Mark Udall had over $1 million in his House account at the end of 2006 that he can transfer to his Senate campaign. [Denver Post, 2/27/07]

Committee chairs met last Friday. A larger meeting took place yesterday. It started with a welcome by Mike Dino, CEO. Then Katherine Archuleta discussed the values that are being placed on the convention planning and execution. 1) They want it to be a “wow” experience; 2) Inclusiveness is really important - delegates will be taken care of, others want to be involved; 3) It will be a “green” convention; 4) It is possible that the nominee for President or Vice-President will be a woman, an African-American or a Hispanic and this provides for great educational opportunities.

There was a presentation on having a green and sustainable convention with a guest speaker who is working on the Olympics to do the same. Beth Conover introduced this section. She is working on sustainability in Mayor Hickenlooper’s office. (She is also married to my former assistant, Ken Snyder).

An overall session was held with the folks who worked on the Boston convention. Steve Kerrigan, from the mayor’s office in Boston, led the discussion and answered questions that included everything from how they dealt with the homeless to communications and transportation. Breakout sessions continued after lunch. I attended the one on volunteers. In a separate conversation, I talked to Steve about how the Boston committee worked with the Massachusetts State Democratic Party to recruit and train volunteers. An added challenge for Mass. was that the nominee was from that state and had need for volunteers to go into New Hampshire almost immediately.

After the breakout sessions, my committee on organizational outreach met. Co-chairing this commitee are Ramona Martinez and myself. Our major goal is “to communicate with all national, state and local organizational stakeholders to seek input into the 2008 convention planning.” We will be taking information to the upcoming Association for State Democratic Chairs meeting and the Western Regional Caucus. I am also contacting other state chairs for input. In addition, we will begin putting out regular information to county chairs so that we can get volunteers involved locally until the convention is ready for them. There is much work to be done.
Pat