After Last Night, Colorado Matters Even More!
(Cross-Posted to DemNotes at www.DemNotes.com)
What an exciting night last night for the Democratic Party! Again, we saw record numbers of people vote in the Democratic Primary in New Hampshire. And again, we saw a close race among some amazing candidates for the Democratic nomination.
As most of you know, I’ve endorsed Senator Barack Obama (and was proud to welcome yesterday the second Colorado SuperDelegate to the Obama Campaign, when Congressman Perlmutter endorsed Senator Obama, as well). So it was with some mixed emotions that I watched the votes come in last night. Obviously, I would have liked to have seen Senator Obama win the New Hampshire Primary; however, such a win would probably have meant that there would be a lot less riding on the Colorado Caucus on February 5. Now, when the candidates roll into town next month, Colorado will matter.
There’s a lot of speculation about what will happen in the two contests between now and February 5, but one thing is for certain: regardless of the outcomes in Nevada and South Carolina, we won’t have a “presumptive nominee” by super-duper-tsunami-Tuesday in February. That means candidates for President will have to come to Colorado in the next month to stump for votes. That means that staffers will have to spend time organizing precincts in Colorado. That means that each of you in Colorado will be asked — perhaps by multiple campaigns — to help get your friends and neighbors out for your candidates.
We’ve already seen a lot of this. Senator Clinton has a state office with staff and a very competent state director, Tyler Chaffee. They are doing caucus trainings statewide. Senator Obama was the first candidate with staff in Colorado (Ray Rivera is his energized and amazing state director), and has opened a number of offices statewide (there will be several new offices holding grand openings tomorrow — I will be in Colorado Springs for their grand opening, but they are also opening offices tomorrow in Pueblo, Boulder and Fort Collins — with more to come on the Western Slope, from what I hear). Both campaigns have been active phone-banking, making tens of thousands of calls and identifying tens of thousands of people for the caucus. While I have not yet heard of staff in Colorado for John Edwards, he has several chapters of his volunteer “OneCorps” around the state. Governor Richardson, Senator Gravel and Representative Kucinich all also have a presence in Colorado, with state coordinators for each campaign in place.
Historically, we’ve usually had between ten and twenty thousand Democrats statewide attending caucus — in a good year. I’ve been telling people to expect somewhere around forty to fifty thousand Democrats statewide, but now, I’m not sure we shouldn’t be looking at numbers closer to 100,000. Such a turnout would be beyond historic — it would be phenomenal (that would be about one in every 8 or 9 Democrats attending a caucus)!
So, here’s my message: get ready! In the next few weeks — especially the last week of January and the first few days leading up to February 5, you are going to see a lot of activity in the Centennial State. You are sure to see Senators Clinton and Obama make stops in Colorado, as well as the other candidates. And I’d bet you’ll even see a few television ads hit the airwaves. In the end, we’ll come together and support our nominee, but until then, get out and support your favorite candidate and help make February 5 a ground-shaking event in Colorado that will be heard across the nation!