(Cross-Posted to DemNotes at www.DemNotes.com)
Yesterday, mere hours after our return from a very long drive back from Oklahoma, we jumped back on the Reorganization Circuit, stopping in Adams and Denver counties for their reorganization meetings.
As with so many other counties, both Adams and Denver are undergoing some pretty big changes; both counties elected mostly-new slates of officers, including new chairs and vice-chairs.
Adams County was the first stop, up at the Pipefitters’ Hall on North Broadway. The room was packed with precinct committee persons and politicians from all stripes. It was great to see so many new faces there mingling with the familiar ones. We spoke toward the beginning of the meeting, along with Governor Ritter, Congressman Perlmutter, and former Speaker of the House Andrew Romanoff. We all spoke just before the officer elections; Marty Wisniewski was selected unanimously as the new Adams County Chair. He’s the former Mayor of Thornton; I had a brief chance to meet him on Sunday, and he seems like he will do a good job keeping the county solidly blue.
We had to get down to Denver before the officer elections in Adams, but I’ve heard that Linda Sands is the new First Vice Chair and Julia Hicks (my predecessor as State Party First Vice Chair) was selected as the Second Vice Chair. So congrats to all of the new officers!
We then drove down to Denver for their reorganization meeting. Denver’s Dems run a well-oiled machine, and they had the agenda set forth down to the minute. That was impressive, but what was even more impressive was how frustrated the leadership seemed to get when they got about 5 minutes off of the schedule. That’s a sign that expectations are certainly high in Denver, and the level of activism and excitement continues to impress me every time I visit.
Another thing that impresses me is the youthfulness of the Party leadership in Denver. The outgoing chair and vice chair (Jennifer Coken and Rachel Kienzler) proved that you don’t have to have been involved for 50 years to successfully run a county party. New Chair Cindy Lowery has been incredibly active as a Young Democrat and has proven her ability to organize and plan; joined with Jennifer Jacobson, the new Vice Chair for Denver, they and the rest of the officers should prove to continue to be the dynamic team that keeps the Party in Denver an exciting operation.
The State Party officers spoke in the middle of the officer elections in Denver. Fewer folks were paying attention to our re-election spiels, but that was fine with me; I was just happy to have a chance to talk to the Denver Dems. As for the officer elections, it appears that the offices of Secretary and Treasurer were contested races, and I have not been able to find out any results of those races. (If anybody knows how those turned out, let me know in the comments section.)
I left before the speeches for the open Treasurer’s position; however, in the Secretary’s position, Dan Willis was being challenged by Owen Perkins. It seemed like an interesting race. From the speeches, it sounds like Owen worked hard to campaign to each central committee member individually, while Dan said that he had to focus on planning the reorganization meeting, so he could not campaign as much. It will be interesting to see how all of that turned out.
Tonight, we have our own reorganization meeting here in Canon City for the Fremont County Dems. My wife is running for re-election as the Party’s treasurer, so I will be there all night to support her and the other candidates for the future of the Party down here. Unless plans change, I think we’ll be in Boulder on Wednesday, Pueblo on Thursday, and Durango on Saturday. So I’ll see some of you out on the road!