Archive for November, 2008

Change

Wednesday, November 5th, 2008

(Cross-Posted to DemNotes at www.DemNotes.com)

Today, the sky above the Sheraton in downtown Denver is overcast, but even so, it seems a bit more sunny today; people are walking around a bit more cheerily today. Yes, change is on the way.

Last night was surreal. I’m still not sure it has sunk in. The crowd gradually worked itself up until darned near every person I saw after Senator Obama’s speech was dancing — really dancing. Then, there was literally dancing in the streets. The crowd here at the Sheraton spilled out onto the side streets along the hotel and streets were blocked with the celebratory reveling of Americans who had just elected a President.

Just think how far Colorado has come. In 2003, when I first became a state party officer, Colorado looked very different. We had a Republican Governor — heck, we had Republicans in every major statewide office except for Attorney General. Both of our U.S. Senators were Republican. Five of our seven Members of Congress were Republican. Republicans held majorities in both houses of the state legislature.

Now, everything we knew in 2003 has been stood on its head and reversed. Literally reversed. We have a Democratic Governor; indeed, after Mike Coffman resigns, all but the Attorney General will be a Democrat. Both of our U.S. Senators will be Democrats. With the addition of Congresswoman Betsy Markey (that sure sounds nice, doesn’t it?), we will have five of seven Members of Congress who are Democrats. And we have kept our Democratic majorities in the State House and the State Senate.

Indeed, change is coming.

Thanks to the hard work of so many of you out there, making phone calls, knocking on doors, talking to friends and neighbors, donating your time and your money, change is coming.

Thanks to the leadership of our State Chair, Pat Waak, and her close collaboration with Ray Rivera and the Obama campaign, alongside Mike Melansan and the Udall folks, change is coming.

Thanks to the audacity of hope, change is coming.

Thanks to every one of our Democratic county chairs, who dealt with unique challenges in 2008 from February 5 on to last night, change is coming.

Thanks to every one of the nearly 130,000 people who showed up at the Democratic caucuses on that historic February 5 eveninig, change is coming.

Thanks to Hank Eng, Hal Bidlack, and the hundreds of other Democratic candidates who were unsuccessful last night — whose sacrifices over the past few months may never be truly known and will never be truly honored, but whose hard work paved the way for statewide Democratic victories — change is coming.

Thanks to Congresswoman-elect Betsy Markey, change is coming.

Thanks to Dennis Apuan — now the SECOND Democrat representing El Paso County in the State House (and the third representing the county in the legislature, along with Rep. Michael Merrifield and Sen. John Morse), change is coming.

Thanks to PRESIDENT-ELECT Barack Obama, change is coming.

Thanks to the over 100,000 people who showed up in Denver on a beautiful Sunday afternoon in October for the largest political rally in American history, change is coming.

Thanks to over one hundred million Americans who voted in this historic election, change is coming.

Thanks to the tens of thousands of volunteers who put together the best political convention in the history of the Democratic Party in August here in Denver, change is coming.

Thanks to our troops abroad, who are putting their lives on the line to protect the freedoms we enjoyed to speak out, to campaign, and to vote, change is coming.

Thanks to the hundreds — maybe thousands — of people who left their families, their friends and their homes in locations across the nation to come help us here in Colorado, change is coming.

And again, thanks to all of you who put your own lives on hold for the past few months, who made sacrifices that will never be properly documented or appreciated, change is coming.

Change is coming.

Yes. We. Did.

Posted in CDP, Presidential Campaign 2008 | 2 Comments »

Election Day in Arapahoe County

Tuesday, November 4th, 2008

From the Colorado for Obama blog:

We are now halfway through Election Day, and across Colorado supporters are voting and helping others get out to vote.

There is a lively buzz filling the staging location in Aurora, where dozens of volunteers are making phone calls to remind folks to vote. Other volunteers are stopping by between canvass shifts.

Ginger the staging location director told me about what today means to her.

She said:

We’ve been practicing today for the past two weeks, and we have this down to a fine tuned machine. Barack has elevated this whole area, and empowered this community. I’m inspired by the passion and the people who walk in here step by step. Today I would say we had at least fifty brand new people we’ve never seen before. I am so proud to be a part of this.

Have you voted already? Share your voting story with us and then come help get others out to vote. If you haven’t voted, there are only five hours left until polls close. Find your polling location .

Posted in Presidential Campaign 2008 | Comments Off

The Final Push.

Monday, November 3rd, 2008

(Cross-Posted to DemNotes at www.DemNotes.com)

After leaving Gilpin County, I stopped by the Campaign for Change office in Golden, as well as the staging offices in Elizabeth and Castle Rock.

In Golden, the stream of people in and out of the office that I saw everywhere else wasn’t as pronounced. The reason? The Golden office had been transformed into the “boiler room,” serving several staging areas around Jefferson County. So the calmness in the office was a good sign; a Boiler Room is intended to handle any crises that occur at the different staging areas. Since things seemed to be going smoothly, the boiler room was a calm place to be.

When Pat and I were talking about spending today dropping by the various campaign offices, I asked where I should go. The answer from the campaign? Whatever you do, make sure you stop by the Elbert County office — they need to hear how much we appreciate their work.

I dropped by the Elizabeth office — the staging area for Elbert County — later in the afternoon. The sight was probably the nicest I’ve seen. A local restaurant had closed down for two days solely for the purpose of providing the campaign a large enough space to use as a staging area. Dozens of people were doing a variety of jobs — some making calls, some working on data entry, still others working on getting things ready for more canvassing. I arrived just minutes after several others had left to go on a shift of canvassing.

There were enough people in the Elizabeth office that they actually stopped everybody and I gave a short thank-you talk to folks on behalf of the State Party. But I kept it short (really, I did!) so folks wouldn’t be taken for too long from their important jobs of calling and canvassing. And, with the location being a restaurant, the food was top-notch. I had to demur several times the many offers for me to eat dinner there (we’d made plans to have dinner later this evening with my brother).

Finally, I headed over to Castle Rock for an unannounced visit to their main staging area. My last stop was also the busiest stop. The Castle Rock office was HUGE, with every space being taken by a volunteer working hard for the election tomorrow night. I had a great conversation with the Campaign for Change field director for the office and the Udall field director for the office.

We talked about how tough things are for Democrats in Douglas County, and the CFC director told me her goal was — point blank — to win Douglas County. If we were able to do that, there is really no way the Republicans could win the state. They talked about how happy they’d been with the volunteer response so far — they wanted to get to every contact twice in the past couple of days, but instead were able to contact everybody on their lists THREE times in the past couple of days!

Everybody in the offices I’ve visited in the past couple of days has seemed cautiously optimistic (or, as I just heard on the news, “cautiously nauseous”). But there’s also been a nervousness about over-confidence. The key is tomorrow.

The key is tomorrow. Election Day. D-Day. Where all of our work should pay off.

If you show up.

Posted in CDP, Counties, Presidential Campaign 2008 | Comments Off

GOTV day two: Californians canvass Colorado

Sunday, November 2nd, 2008

From the Colorado for Obama blog:

Coloradans aren’t the only people working to help Barack win the Rocky Mountain State — thousands of volunteers from states such as Utah, Maine, New York, South Dakota and even Alaska have traveled to Colorado and are knocking on doors and calling folks to get out the vote.

I spoke with a couple of Californians who had arrived in Denver yesterday. Danielle told me why she came to Colorado for the last few days.

There wasn’t much we could do in California so we decided to come to Colorado. This is our big push to get people to vote — to not be complacent, to not get over confident about Barack being ahead in the polls. We’re making people to get out and vote and just do everything we can to make sure we actually win.

Angelo, another Californian, had just returned from knocking on doors when I spoke to him. He told me about one of the people he had met while canvassing.

There was a Republican on my list who I started talking to. He had voted Republican his entire life but he was on the fence — he didn’t like McCain but he didn’t know anything about Obama. I know a bit about Obama, I’m not going to say I’m an expert in any way. But I talked to him. I asked him what mattered to him and tried to put it into context — that it would help you and the ones you care about more if you vote for Obama rather than McCain. And he said he would vote for Barack.

It’s not to late to join the campaign. Sign up to volunteer.

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Barack has two words for Colorado

Sunday, November 2nd, 2008

From the Colroado for Obama blog:

Yesterday, the streets of Pueblo were filled with thousands of people, as Barack stood on the corner of South Union and D Street, talking to Coloradans one last time before Election Day.

He said:

Colorado, I have just two words for you: three days. Three days. After decades of broken politics in Washington, eight years of failed policies from George W. Bush, 21 months of a campaign that has taken us from the rocky shores of Maine to sunshine of California, we are three days away from bringing fundamental change to the United States of America.

Don’t believe for a second that this election is over. Don’t think for a minute that power will concede anything without a fight, we’re going to have to work like our future depends on it these last few days, because it does. But I know this Colorado, the time for change has come, we have a righteous wind at our backs. And these last few days, if you will knock on some doors for me, if you will make some phone calls for me, if you will stand with me and fight by my side, then I promise you we will not just win Pueblo, we will not just win Colorado, but you and I together we are going to win this election and we are going to change the country and we are going to change the world.

Sign up to volunteer and make sure Barack wins Colorado this Tuesday.

Posted in Presidential Campaign 2008 | 1 Comment »

Get out the vote, Colorado!

Saturday, November 1st, 2008

From the Colorado for Obama blog:

Today marked the beginning of the end. Today was the start of GOTV – the final four days, the time when hundreds of thousands of supporters across the nation knock on doors and call voters reminding them to get out the vote.

This evening, we stopped by a staging location in Colorado Springs that was run by a volunteer named Marco.

He said:

We had over 100 phone bankers and nearly 100 canvassers, including about 18 people who came in and hadn’t even signed up to canvass. It’s a wonderful thing.

Steve, the phone bank captain at the staging location, took a second between training volunteers to tell us about his day.

He said:

We had teenagers phonebanking, we even had an 11 year-old making calls with her dad. Everyone had such an upbeat positive attitude, it has been great.

We need all the help we can get these last few days, sign up to volunteer near you!

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