My husband, Ken Strom, and I made a great trip to Routt County this weekend. We actually went over to Craig on Friday to look at one of the wildlife sites he is working on. We saw 60 elk and 26 pronghorns, as well as a nesting Bald eagle, lots of gadwalls, mallards, coots, shovellers, Sandhill cranes and Canada geese. One goose has mistaken herself for a hawk, because we spied her 75 feet up nesting on an old hawk nest. After spending the night in Craig, we noted over breakfast at the Serendipity Cafe that there were no Democrats running for City Council or Mayor. However, we did see our own Terry Carwile that night, who is the former chair of the Moffat County Dems. He is still a member of the Craig City Council.

Our main purpose for the trip was to attend the Routt County Jefferson-Jackson Dinner. Over 200 people showed up, including Sandy Briggs, chair of Summit County Dems and Ted Crook, chair of Moffat County Dems. Terry is the vice chair these days in Moffat County.

I got to be the first speaker, which was tough because it was a crowd that was having a great time. However, it was an opportunity to talk about the responsibility we have for governing and doing it well. We all helped to maintain our leads in the state house and senate, as well as elect a governor and state treasurer. We also helped to get the Democrats in charge of the U.S. House. But there is still another U.S. Senate seat and a Presidency to win.

Kay Wieland, the county clerk and recorder, was in attendance to talk about changes that are being made to make the voting process easier. Routt was one of the counties with long lines and machine problems. Kay is a Republican, but she had a good time last night.

Speaker of the House, Andrew Romanoff, gave a strong report on the health of the state. Despite comments from the other party, the legislature has crafted good legislation on behalf of the citizens of Colorado. Andrew stressed the importance of bilateral support, especially for education and renewable energy. The big issue for next year will be health care reform.

After entertainment and dessert, U.S. Rep. Mark Udall gave the keynote speech on from “Red to Blue to Green.” He recounted all of the accomplishments to date of this Congress which we helped to get into the control of the Democrats. The war in Iraq is still a major issue, and Rep. Udall stressed the resolve of the members of Congress to support the troops while bringing an end to the war. He also talked about the need for everyone to help with his upcoming run for the U.S. Senate.

I learned from one of our Jackson County friends that we lost Franklin Murphy recently. Frankln was the former vice chair and a long-time Colorado Democrat. He was a great friend to me, and I was sorry to hear that he had passed away. I am sure that Franklin is busy convincing all the other souls that Democrats have the right answers.

Routt County always provides great home hospitality. I have stayed with Lynn and Chuck Abbott on more than one occasion. This time Ken and I were guests of Gale and Cynthia Rozell. Gale and Cynthia are both former Peace Corps Vounteers and U.S.A.I.D. employees, like me. So we had a great time, and Ken was quite tolerant of our “war” stories. We shared the apartment out back with three cats, who played constantly. We enjoyed their dogs and horses. Then we took the long way scenic way home.

Thank you Routt County and the great Democrats, including Ken Brenner, Catherine Carson and so many others. You are doing important work.

Pat Waak

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 1st, 2007 at 9:16 pm and is filed under Counties. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.