Larimer Dems Going from Red to Blue … to Green?
(Cross-Posted to DemNotes at www.DemNotes.com).
The Larimer Democrats held their annual President’s Day Dinner last night in Fort Collins (yes, they knew it was St. Pat’s Day last night). The theme was interesting and very appropriate — “Rocky Mountain Blue — Going Green”. Unlike the average county party dinner, which usually features speeches about the Party’s successes and opportunities generally, this dinner focused attention on the issue of environmentalism and energy, and how the Party can be an agent for change in those areas.
Governor Ritter spoke first; however, I missed his speech due to unusually heavy traffic, and a late departure from a 5th CD meeting in Colorado Springs (more on that later). I heard from the others there that the speech was unusually good, even for Gov. Ritter. There was a buzz generally in the room about how impressive of a speaker the Governor has become.
After dinner, Congressman Mark Udall spoke to an energetic crowd. He spoke about the need for Democrats to use energy independence and environmental protection as lynchpins for electoral success in the West. Congressman Udall also spoke about the need in 2008 to run campaigns based on hope, not cynicism. He received the biggest applause from this Northern Colorado audience when he encouraged the crowd to join him in his campaign for the U.S. Senate. There was a lot of electricity in the air surrounding Udall’s efforts to win the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Republican Wayne Allard.
Congressman Udall’s brother, Randy, spoke later in the evening about resource efficiency and how people can work to protect natural resources in Colorado. Unfortunately, I missed that speech — I’ve come down with a pretty agressive stomach flu which required me making an early retirement to my hotel room. I felt bad about leaving the event early, but I can tell you that the crowd was another HUGE Larimer County crowd, which is a testament to the ongoing leadership there in Larimer County.
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Earlier in the afternoon, I stopped by a meeting of the newly-elected Fifth Congressional District Executive Committee. The 5th CD, centered in El Paso County and counties to the west, has long been the most Republican of strongholds in Colorado. However, the Democrats across the district are working well to change that tendency. The discussion at this meeting was a great start in terms of identifying short-term and long-term goals for the District Dems, as well as to identify the concrete things that the officers of the 5th CD are going to have to do in the months ahead to keep the momentum that was launched by an amazing campaign last year by Democratic nominee Jay Fawcett.
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Tomorrow, I’m headed back to Denver (health permitting) to participate in a day-long meeting with the folks who put together the 2004 Democratic Convention in Boston. I’ll try to write about that, at least to the extent I can, tomorrow night or Tuesday morning.