A Busy Weekend of Events on the Front Range
(Cross-Posted to DemNotes at www.demnotes.com)
Starting tonight, this weekend is a pretty busy time for county party dinners. Take your pick, and try to attend at least one…
Tonight, Governor Ritter will be in Pueblo for the Pueblo Dems’ annual St. Patrick’s Day Dinner (yeah, they know St. Pat’s day is really tomorrow). The event is being held at the Union Depot, just off of downtown, in Pueblo. Cocktails are at 5:30; Dinner is at 6:30. The cost is $25; I’m not sure if they’re sold out or not. I’ll be there, and I hear that State Chair Pat Waak will be there as well!
Tomorrow night, I’m headed up to Fort Collins for their annual fundraising dinner in Larimer County. It’s their President’s Day Dinner (and, yeah, they know that was last month, too!). Gov. Ritter will be there as well, along with Congressman Mark Udall and Randy Udall. The theme is “Rocky Mountain Blue - Going Green,” and it promises to be a great evening. Tickets are $85 - for more information, go to the Larimer Dems’ website at:
http://www.larimerdems.org/
However, that’s not all that’s going on. El Paso Dems are holding their own annual St. Patrick’s Day dinner in Colorado Springs on Saturday night. Their dinner is from 7 pm to 9:30, and ALSO features Gov. Ritter (don’t ask me how he’s going to be in both Larimer and El Paso Counties the same night — maybe the State Patrol has a hand in that). The event wil be at the Patty Jewett Golf Club, and tickets are $50 per person and $75 per couple. Find out more at the El Paso Dems’ website at:
http://www.peakdems.org/
In fact, if you’re in the Colorado Springs area tomorrow, you might want to stop by and help with the St. Patrick’s Day parade entry. Democrats will be lining up at 11:15 a.m. at Dale and Cascade; their entry is number 89. They’ll have candy for the kids and festive hats to wear to show the Irish spirit!
Finally, next weekend, if you’re in northeast Colorado, get out to support the Weld Dems or the Morgan County Dems at their annual fundraising dinners!
I’ll write more tomorrow morning about the Pueblo event tonight. See you there!
PS - I do finally have photos up from the La Plata reorg and the State Reorg Meeting / JJ Dinner. Take a look at:
http://www.demnotes.com/photos/
(I don’t have captions up, though.)
March 16th, 2007 at 11:15 pm
Both Sen. Salazar and Gov. Ritter won major office by taking the high road, rejecting devisive ideology and embracing problem-solving approaches that focus on our overriding goals. Fully financing education is such a goal. If we do not generously fund education k through college, neither Colorado nor America will be able to compete with China or India, much less both.
Highly funded education = a highly skilled workforce = attracting high value-adding business = high paying jobs that, with tax rates the same, increase state revenues on the higher salary base thus paying for the enriched education. Should we lose such jobs to India and China, because we quibbled about which tax to use to fund a true world class education, we shall not have a second chance to catch up. As early as 2009, the marketplace — blind to geography and to nationhood — will only seek to know one thing: did we get the workforce educated. Did we spend what it took to compete, rather than thinking we could do it on the cheap.
Nearly two decades ago Ireland chose to find whatever money it took to educate its people from k thru college. It now has the most vibrant economy in Europe, and high paying companies falling all over themselves to take advantage of that workforce. It doesn’t even take a beer on St. Paddy’s day to follow that role model. If we do, guess who’ll be wearin’ more of the green by the end of our next president’s term!
March 17th, 2007 at 11:11 am
Last night’s dinner in Pueblo was a real tribute to the Pueblo County Democrats. Over 400 people attended the dinner and celebrated Pueblo’s outstanding wins in 2006. In addition, to hearing Governor Ritter, Senator Abel Tapia made remarks. Rep. Buffie McFadyen and Rep. Dorothy Butcher both were in attendance. I personally enjoyed the opportunity to talk to so many Democrats in one place. Congratulations to Pueblo Dems and to their new officers, including Chair Terry Hart.