Congrats, Commissioner Cordova!
(Cross-Posted to DemNotes at www.DemNotes.com)
Last night, I went to Pueblo to attend their county Central Committee meeting at the Sangre de Cristo Arts Center. The primary purpose of the meeting was to fill a vacancy in the office of County Commissioner, which had been held by Loretta Kennedy. Commissioner Kennedy left the position to become the District Director for Congressman Salazar.
The vacancy committee election is one of the great parts of the Colorado political process. You get to see some unusual characters (more on that later), raw politics, and high-level drama all in one energy-filled meeting. Pueblo County Dems did a great job running a smooth and contention-free election.
Four candidates were nominated last night for the vacancy: John Cordova, Larry Howe-Kerr, John Rodriguez, and Rep. Dorothy Butcher. Each had their own points to make, and each did a great job with their nomination speeches. Cordova emphasized his experience working with the county government, and his architectural experience as the county builds several new facilities in the next few years. Howe-Kerr emphasized his focus on the future for Pueblo County, as well as the challenges that the county and Southern Colorado are facing. Rodriguez (who, in the interests of disclosure, did a great job working for me as my interim campaign manager for the first few months of my state senate campaign) gave an energized speech about the need for youth, new ideas, and a new generation of leadership in Pueblo. Rep. Butcher rounded out the quartet with an emphasis on her legislative ability to get things done and her records of accomplishment in the Legislature.
Not that those were the only four in the race. One other fellow tried to run, but learned that he couldn’t, as he’d only registered as a Democrat last month. The Party allowed him to speak for a couple of minutes, though, and he announced that he’d be running for the seat next November. The, um, odd part of the “announcement”? He began by talking about how he’d had 8 felony charges filed against him, but was “still in favor of law and order”. Like I said, you see some interesting stuff at these meetings…
Anyway, after all the speeches were done, the 160-plus folks there voted. A candidate had to get a majority for a win, so multiple ballots were a possibility. The Party had set rules that after the first ballot, anybody with less than 15% of the vote would be dropped from the second ballot. The first ballot results were as follows:
– Cordova 72
– Butcher 66
– Howe-Kerr 17
– Rodriguez 11
For those of you out there without blazing-fast math skills, I’ll tell you that Howe-Kerr and Rodriguez didn’t meet the 15% threshold for the second ballot. This left a final second ballot between Cordova and Butcher. As soon as the results were announced, the Party went into the second round of voting. There was a degree of tension in the air as folks waited to hear the outcome, and to find out who would be their new county commissioner. In the end, here was the final tally:
– Cordova 94
– Butcher 70
Both Cordova and Rep. Butcher spoke briefly after the results were read. Rep. Butcher emphasized that she “received a clear message” - that the Democrats in Pueblo wanted her to return to the Legislature and continue to fight for issues important to Pueblo. Commissioner-elect Cordova, who is by nature a pretty quiet and deliberate fellow, spoke even more succinctly. He thanked the Democrats on the Central Committee and promised to work as hard as possible to be as good of a Commissioner as possible.
It was a great evening, and there seemed to be a positive attitude among almost everybody in attendance, regardless of who they were supporting.
Congrats, Commissioner Cordova!