Weekend Caucus Training Included Pueblo, Canon City, and Pagosa Springs
(Cross-Posted to DemNotes at www.DemNotes.com)
This weekend, I was busy traveling the state for training (and a little R&R).
The weekend began with me driving over to Pueblo to attend their caucus training. I wasn’t giving my traditional caucus presentation; instead, my job in Pueblo was to introduce the crowd to the concept of “preference polls” for the Presidential race. Easily over 150 Pueblo Dems attended the standing-room only training at the Steelworkers Hall.
If you’ve attended any of my caucus trainings, you know that I briefly mention that you should not try to explain the way the other 62 counties do caucuses to folks in Pueblo and Adams counties, because they have a very different way of doing things there. In most counties, you just elect delegates to the county assembly and the county convention — and electing just those two sets of delegates can sometimes be confusing enough. In Pueblo and Adams, however, caucus-goers elect six different types of delegates. In addition to the county assembly and convention delegates, they also directly elect congressional district and state assembly delegates, as well as congressional district and state convention delegates.
(Warning: arcane rules discussion ahead!) One of the reasons that they’ve been able to do this is because they have worked under the assumption that all delegates that are elected are elected as “Uncommitted” delegates. In other words, they simply replace the complex math formulas used for the preference poll with the complex variety of delegates elected. That has worked for quite a while now because nobody has challenged this paradigm.
However, the Party rules are very clear: you have to have a preference poll on the Presidential race, and you have to use the results of that poll to apportion these delegates. The rules do allow counties to select their state and congressional district delegates from the precincts if they so choose, but they still require the use of a preference poll. Presidential campaigns are depending on the results from Colorado to determine who will win on February 5, and it is certainly possible that one (or more) might challenge Adams or Pueblo if they choose to proceed without a preference poll.
In any event, my explanation of the caucus math worksheet received mixed reviews, at best. One gentleman got up and said it was too complicated for anybody to do. My response? It’s not too complicated for the 62 counties that already do it; I had confidence that Puebloans could figure it out. His next complaint? This process would result in lawsuits, because it discriminates against those who are poor at math. (It hasn’t yet, and essentially the same math process is used in other states, such as Iowa and Nevada, with nary a lawsuit.)
In the end, it was an interesting venture into Pueblo Democratic Party politics. In fact, I had assumed that I’d see a lot more complaints and negativity than I saw on Saturday. For the most part, Pueblo Dems were very nice and accommodating to the news I was delivering. Chair Terry Hart has been very helpful throughout this process in working with the State Party and the campaigns in resolving this issue.
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After Pueblo, I had to rush back to Canon City. There, I was greeted with a great surprise. I was to do caucus training for Fremont County Dems. The organizers expected around 30 people for the training. In 2004, only about 90 people even attended Democratic caucuses in Fremont County.
Boy, were they wrong! Nearly 100 people packed the Golden Age Center to hear my presentation and to participate in a mock caucus (using ice cream flavors as candidates). It was so exciting to see the same levels of excitement in my home county that I’m seeing everywhere else I go. The Fremont Dems even re-created the check-in procedure, issuing caucus credentials (don’t worry if your county doesn’t have caucus credentials — this is the first time I’ve seen that level of organization in a county caucus organization), and checking names.
There were a lot of new faces there — and plenty of supporters of all three of the major Democratic candidates for President. It was a good send-off for my trip to Southwest Colorado. And with the training in Fremont County, I estimate I’ve trained at least 1,500 people on caucuses this cycle (remember, there were only about 15,000 people who attended the Dem caucuses statewide last time, and my trainings have pretty much been outside of the Denver / Boulder / Colorado Springs metro areas).
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We then headed down to Durango. I was going to be doing a caucus training on Sunday in Pagosa Springs, and we turned it into a very miniature vacation. We took a short trip over to Mesa Verde on Sunday morning, went to the Pagosa hot springs on Sunday afternoon / evening, and went skiing on Monday at Durango Mountain Resort / Purgatory (outstanding beginner ski trails!!!).
Sunday afternoon, I met with a group of about 30 Archuleta County Dems, along with Jean Walter, the provisional county chair for La Plata County, to go over caucus training with them in Pagosa Springs. They are definitely hardy souls. I arrived with a warning from Bob Nash, the county chair, that the meeting room would be a bit cold. It was — forty degrees cold. After about thirty minutes of the heaters working, when the meeting started, the room was about 46 degrees. About the only pocket of warmth was that right around the computer projector.
But nobody left. Nobody even really complained. They just sat there and asked questions about the caucus process.
Archuleta county Dems are looking at a potential primary for county commissioner — which is pretty amazing, considering that the county has historically been pretty Republican. Democrats in Archuleta County are looking forward to seeing some real gains in 2008, and it looks like there will be an impressive push to elect a Democratic county commissioner there. It was a very heartening trip, to say the least.
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Tomorrow night is my last scheduled caucus training, to be combined with a National Convention conversation, in Alamosa. After that, I think I get to go back to making more entertaining speeches. Here is a bit from the State Party’s press release:
In keeping with the mission of creating a regional Convention for the Rocky Mountain West, Democratic National Convention Committee (DNCC) Deputy CEO for Intergovernmental Affairs, Sky Gallegos will conduct a Convention Seminar on Wednesday, January 23 at 5 p.m. at the Alamosa Family Recreation Center, 2222 Old Sanford Road, Alamosa. Gallegos will discuss opportunities for involvement in the 2008 Democratic National Convention, including running for delegate and volunteering opportunities. Democratic National Committee (DNC) member Dan Slater will join Gallegos and lead a delegate training session for attendees.
“Our mandate is clear: to make the 2008 Democratic National Convention the most inclusive, accessible and engaging in our Party’s history,” said Gallegos. “We aim to make this a reality by traveling the state and hearing what folks have to say. We want to make sure everyone has an opportunity to get involved in the Convention experience.”
The Neighboring communities in the San Luis Valley are also urged to attend the seminar in Alamosa.
Originally, State Chair Pat Waak was to attend, as well. However, her father passed away in Texas late last week, and she has been in Texas with her family taking care of the arrangements down there. Please keep Pat in your thoughts and prayers as she goes through this difficult time. Here is the information on what you can also do, if you would like:
Flowers are accepted. However, you may give a contribution in memory of Boxly Waak to the Alzheimer’s Association, 225 N. Michigan Avenue, Fl. 17, Chicago, IL 60601-7633.
Cards can go to Pat at her home at 4225 County Road 1.5, Erie, Co 80516.