Last night a crowd of Democrats from Baca, Prowers, Bent, Otero and Crowley Counties gathered at the Best Weston on Route 50 outside of Las Animas for training and general discussion. County Chairs: Kay Hefley (Baca); Randa Tice (Prowers); Tom Florez (Crowley); and the organizer, Alex Netherton (Bent) attended. County Commissioner Bill Long, County Clerk and Recorder Patti Nickell, and County Assessor Guy Wagner were also participants. I was able to provide two powerpoint presentations and handouts.

The first portion of the training was to discuss the “State of the State” politically. In 2004 Sen. Salazar carried 27 out of 64 counties. In 2005 we began to implement the 64-county strategy that was followed by the DNC’s State Partnership Program. Four rural Field Directors were placed in the four corners of the state.

In 2006, Governor Ritter won 38 out of 64 counties. Of those 11 counties that shifted, all were rural counties except one. The new data projections show that we can increase our margins in almost every county in 2008. But that will require work on the part of every active voter in the state.

We discussed the difference in the roles of the DNC, DNCC and the Denver Host Committee in preparation for the convention. Tomorrow evening the DNCC will hold the second of its community conversations. This one will be in Pueblo, and Gov. Ritter will attend. Over 12,000 volunteers have signed up to help with the convention, and the CDP will need volunteers as well during that busy week.

The next portion of the program was to explain the delegate selection process and to train participants in conducting precinct caucuses. Almost everyone present has been to a caucus in the past. Handouts explained the specifics processes, numbers of delegates, where they will be chosen and what needs to be done to get reporting in on time. The major handout is available on the CDP website.

We then reviewed a powerpoint presentation of the Neighbor to Neighbor project. This project is designed to increase our grassroots level outreach across the state. Each county will be receiving training in precinct organizing and use of the augmented voter file. The Field Directors have to recruit 150 precinct leaders by March 1, 2008. A.J. Sanchez, the field director for this region, explained that she will be working with counties to organize house parties to occur next month. More materials will be forthcoming as follow up.

It was a full meeting and there was a lot of question and answer sessions in each portion. This cluster of counties is planning another meeting next month to talk with Rep. Mark Udall about his Senate race and Betsy Markey, who is running for Congressional District 4.

Pat Waak

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 16th, 2007 at 12:32 pm and is filed under CDP, Counties, DNC, Democratic Issues. 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.