Democrats in Action in Greeley
Today, I made the three-hour (well, normally three-hour) trip to Greeley to speak to the “Democrats In Action” group. The Weld County Democrats hold a “First Friday Lunch” on, well, the first Friday of every month. They try to feature a different speaker each month; this month, I was honored to be invited to talk to the group.
Ray Peterson, who is the former County Chair in Weld County, introduced me to the 20-30 folks in the packed side dining room of the Golden Corral in Greeley. I’d warned him that I really didn’t have a strongly motivational speech prepared, but he still introduced me as “one of the most enthusiastic speakers among Colorado Democrats.”
Normally, I do have a pretty decent “stump speech” prepared — I figure my job is to rally the troops, and I often feed a Democratic crowd a lot of red meat and abstract imagery. Not so much this time. This time, I spent my time giving more of a factual, concrete, “this is where we are, and this is where we’re going” speech. So, I’m afraid I may have disappointed those who came looking for some fire and brimstone.
That being said, I think we did engage in a good conversation about the future of Democrats in Colorado. I particularly enjoyed the question-and-answer session, which included some great questions about things like mail ballots, changes to the caucus timeline, the technical aspects of the Denver 2008 planning process, and the redistricting process coming up in 2011.
We also had a wonderful surprise guest: Representative Jim Riesberg. Rep. Riesberg emerged from a tough re-election battle last year with a convincing victory in this tough Republican-leaning area. That success is indicative of the kind of success Democrats saw in Weld County last year - folks in Greeley are really fired up about the fact that Bill Ritter won Weld County, and that they were able to play a part in making the Fourth Congressional District race so close. They’re already spending a lot of time talking and working on winning the Fourth CD race in 2008 — the final piece in the puzzle to transform Weld County into a consistently “swing” area.
The weather on the way back notwithstanding (my car arrived in Canon City encased in ice tonight), it was another wonderful trip up to Greeley to see some great folks and familiar faces that I had gotten to know so well in my time working on the State Assembly planning last year and in 2005. With the great leadership in Weld County’s Democratic Party, I’m sure that they will continue to surprise the state with their success for Democrats on the ballot!