Twelve Feet of Sandwich: Not Enough for San Luis Valley Dems!
(Cross-Posted to DemNotes at www.DemNotes.com)
Last night, I drove down to Alamosa to give caucus training to the San Luis Valley counties. While I did not take a roll call, I recognized folks from pretty much every county in the Valley: Alamosa, Saguache, Costilla, Conejos, and Rio Grande were all well-represented there. The crowd was huge — about 100 people packed the standing-room only conference room at the Alamosa Recreation Center.
Prior to my caucus presentation, Sky Gallegos with the DNCC spoke about the Democratic National Convention in Denver. It was a “Convention Conversation,” which has been taking place statewide. Originally, Chair Pat Waak was to assist Gallegos, but Pat was in Texas due to the death of her father. After Gallegos’ presentation, she took a number of questions from the audience, many of which focused on what folks in the San Luis Valley could do to help the convention effort and to draw conventioneers to the Valley either before or after the Convention.
I missed the first half-hour or so of the convention presentation, primarily because MapQuest (and Google Maps, and BlackBerry Maps) all sent me about six miles south of Alamosa, to some remote, dirt-road location. I don’t know how, but after driving back into town, I just came across the Recreation Center and made it on time for my presentation.
Between my presentation and Sky’s presentation, folks heard from Darryl Grant, who is the DNC’s Field Organizer for the Southwest portion of the state. Darryl showed the group a video from the DNC explaining the 2008 field program and the role of neighborhood volunteers in that program.
Also before my presentation, there was a break for snacks. Among the things available were two six-foot long Subway sandwiches. One would have imagined that would be enough. One would be wrong.
The crowd was so big (and hungry, apparently) that the sandwiches were devoured in a matter of minutes. When I finally got to the refreshment table to grab a bite myself, I was greeted with a couple of crumbs of bread and some lettuce remnants.
The vanishing sandwiches were another reminder of what I’ve seen this year in Colorado. This was my last scheduled caucus training — we have 12 days left now until February 5. One thing has been confirmed: the phenomenon of Democratic interest in the caucuses in 2008 is a statewide phenomenon. Whether in Estes Park, Canon City, Rocky Ford, Montrose, Frisco, Pagosa Springs, or Pueblo, there is an intensity about things that we’ve not seen in recent years. I spoke briefly yesterday with CDP Executive Director Sherry Jackson — I say “briefly,” because she did not have time to talk. The phone at the State Party headquarters is almost literally ringing off the hook. There is now talk of needing more lines at headquarters to deal with all of the phone calls in recent days dealing with the caucuses. I’ve never seen anything like it.
One last point: Nevada is a good comparison to Colorado. In 2004, when their caucuses did not matter, they had 9,000 people attend statewide. In comparison, Colorado had around 12,000-15,000 Democrats attend statewide in 2004. In 2008, caucus attendance in Nevada spiked to around 144,000 Democrats! If Colorado saw even half of that kind of spike, we’re in for an exciting year!
The real test, as I’ve been telling groups in caucus training, will be whether we can keep these new people after February 5. If we can keep these new people involved, active, and interested through September and October, we will have an ability to change the debate and the elections in November. If we can pass that test, we truly will be turned completely blue in 2008!