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

This has been quite a whirlwind of a weekend — and it was only about half as busy as next weekend promises to be!

There were a lot of wonderful moments, but one of the best came in Woodland Park, at the Teller County Convention and Assembly on Saturday afternoon.  Chair Laurie Glauth kicked off the meeting by announcing that there were 96 possible slots to be filled, and there were 95 delegates seated in those slots.  Then, in a mastery of understatement, she announced, “I think we have a quorum!”

Teller County was another of the pictures we’ve been seeing across the state — rooms filled beyond capacity, with people standing along the edges of the rooms and peering through the doorways because the capacity had been met.  Everyone there was clear:  this was the largest county assembly Teller Dems had recalled ever seeing.  I kicked off the meeting by talking about how important it was to keep people involved beyond March, and into September and October.  Hal Bidlack, who is running for Congress in the 5th Congressional District, continued to impress everybody he meets by giving a great speech filled with humor, hope, ideas, and experience.

Then, something amazing happened:  people started running for office.  Laurie Glauth had not expected to be able to field a candidate for either of the County Commissioner seats.  Instead, two people volunteered to run — one for each seat — and both proved to be amazing speakers, with experience and ideas to match.  For the first time in a long time, Teller Dems will be fielding a full ballot of Dems — and not just place-fillers; these are folks who will give the Republicans a real run for their money here.

After the nominations, the Presidential preference poll was taken.  The vote was 61 for Obama, and 33 for Clinton, leading to 12 Obama delegates and 7 Clinton delegates.  But regardless of the outcome, it was an inspiring day to be in Teller County!

———————————

It was an inspiring weekend to be a Democrat, and if you weren’t at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver on Friday night, you missed a great show at our annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner.  Virginia Senator Jim Webb did a great job talking to the audience about his lifetime of work, as well as the challenges facing us in the U.S. Senate, and in the 2008 elections.  Beyond Webb, we honored a great number of leaders — both for lifetimes of work, as well as for the promise that they show for a lifetime of service. 

Heck, even the food was pretty decent!  It was wonderful, most of all, to see so many friends and people who are working hard across the state to win elections in November.  Kudos obviously go to the dinner committee, as well as to the State Party staff (led by Sherry Jackson) for their tireless dedication to making this a wonderful event.

———————————

Saturday morning, I drove back up to Denver, and after attending a brief meeting at Adams County Dems’ HQ on their county assembly rules, I stopped by in Broomfield to briefly speak to their county assembly and convention.  Broomfield Dems had an excited full house of delegates as well (158 in all), and Chair Kevin Kreeger was running a tight ship.  I spoke to the crowd as they were finalizing some credentials issues, and it was great to see so many energetic Democrats in Broomfield. 

I was there just in time to witness the allocation of the convention delegates.  Broomfield is one of those counties that elects the majority of their convention delegates on caucus nights, so they were only electing a few “at large” positions.  For the 2nd Congressional District convention, they elected 5 more Clinton delegates and 10 more Obama delegates; for the State Convention, they elected 3 more Clinton delegates and 6 more Obama delegates.

Again, it was a truly great weekend.  Wednesday, I head down to Walsenburg for the Huerfano County assembly, and Friday I head over to Hugo for the Lincoln County assembly before heading to a number of counties on Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon.  Maybe I’ll see you on the road!

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

Last night, I headed up to the mountain counties to attend the Eagle and Summit county conventions. The two counties had coordinated to allow folks from outside of the counties to attend both — Eagle was set to start at 6 pm, with Summit an hour later, at 7 pm.

Sunday night, after my last post where I mentioned my plan to head up there, I received several e-mails from folks who warned me that the weather would be bad. I spent Monday monitoring road conditions and weather forecasts, and it seemed like the drive would be passable. I was mostly worried about the two-lane road over Hoosier Pass on Highway 9. I drove up, running into some heavy snow just before getting to Hoosier Pass, in the small town of Alma in Park County. The roads were a little slippery, but I made it over the pass just fine.

As I was almost to Frisco, I tried to call Debbie Marquez in Eagle County to let her know I’d be a few minutes late due to the snow. I left her a message — just as I noticed a lot of traffic and flashing lights ahead. As I got to I-70, it became clear: they’d shut down the interstate going West. I tried the other Frisco exit, but there was no use — nobody was getting through. I had to call Debbie and let her know I would not make it.

On the positive side, I did make it to Summit County’s Convention and Assembly in Frisco plenty early!

In Summit, folks there were grappling with the snow. One delegate told me about his 5-mile, hour and a half ride from Silverthorne. Sen. Dan Gibbs called and said he was going to try to drive south around Dillon Lake to make it to Frisco via a very circuitous route. (He made it with time to spare.) In the end, folks planned well, and nearly every delegate made it to the meeting — I guess they have some experience with snow in Summit County.

Once the meeting started, there had to be some folks in the audience who wondered if they’d stumbled onto the “Dan Slater Show,” because it seemed like I was being called up to the stage to talk for the first half of the meeting. As in Gunnison, I was honored to welcome folks to the meeting on behalf of the Colorado Democratic Party — I think I sure helped in warming things up and getting folks a little more fired up. Then, only a few minutes later, the agenda called for the Presidential campaigns to have their representatives speak, so I gave a brief talk for Senator Obama. Then, shortly after that, they were taking some time seating some remaining alternates, so Chair Sandy Briggs had me just “keep the audience entertained” while they seated the alternates. For the first time in a long time — maybe ever — I ran out of stuff to say.

Once the alternates were seated, they held the Presidential preference vote — neither my speech nor the Clinton campaign’s speech swayed a single vote. The delegates voted the same as they came in: 58 Obama, 38 Clinton. This resulted in 25 delegates for Obama and 13 for Clinton from Summit County. As in prior assemblies, everybody wanted to be a delegate, so it took both camps a while to figure out who would be delegates and alternates. While they were doing this, the caravan from Eagle County arrived: Jared Polis, Joan Fitz-Gerald, DNC Field staffer Kim Phillips, and DNC Training Director Parag Mehta. I greeted everybody and then headed back to my car in the snow — for the two-hour drive home.

In case anybody’s wondering, they did the preference poll for the CD-2 race shortly after I left. Senator Fitz-Gerald won the preference poll, with 56 votes to 17 votes for Jared Polis. This led to a delegate split of 29-9 in favor of Fitz-Gerald.

Debbie Marquez has been kind enough to send me her narrative of what happened in Eagle County to put in place of my absence. Here it is:

Last night was the first assembly elections for our CD2 Congressional candidates. Both Eagle and Summit Counties voted for the CD2 race. We were fortunate to have candidates Jared Polis and Joan Fitz-Gerald address our assembly with passionate speeches. Jared Polis received 62 votes and Joan received 63 and there were about a dozen uncommitted that didn’t achieve viability. They will split the delegates even Steven with 23 each. Both candidates spent a lot of time in the county and phoning delegates, but with our two of our commissioners lending their support to Joan, I thought she would get more votes at assembly. But Jared seems to have attracted undecided voters to vote for him. (For disclosure sake, I [Debbie] am the treasurer for the Jared Polis for Congress campaign.)

Thanks to Debbie for that narrative.

————————

After about 5 hours of sleep, I got up and headed up to Denver for the Denver 2008 Host Committee meeting this morning. On the way, I ran into about everything imaginable: rain, snow, fog, ice — I even think I may have seen the Four Horsemen of the Apocolypse out there! (That’s the only explanation for one of the slow-downs near Castle Rock.)

The meeting this morning at the Colorado Convention Center was for all of the various committee members. While I arrived an hour late, I must say that it was extraordinarily impressive. When I helped kick off the concept of bidding for the Convention, I had dreams — but some of these things that are planned for Denver exceed my wildest dreams.

Throughout Denver during and around the Convention, we’ll see all sorts of artistic expressions of various media — object art, musical art, and performance art will be seen throughout the city. There will be a focus on so much citizen involvement from now through the Convention. For instance, the Denver Film Society is working on a project that will launch on March 1, called Filmocracy. People can submit their 5 minute (or less) videos that focus on democracy and what we’re doing in Denver.

Others are encouraged through another program, called America - Live and In Person, to submit their essays, artistic works, etc. for use surrounding the convention. More details about this will be released as they become available.

We also heard about the amazing work “greening” the Convention. Mayor Hickenlooper has pledged to make this the greenest Convention ever, and the Host Committee and DNCC are working to keep that commitment.

The Pepsi Center had a representative there, too. He spoke about the collaboration between the Pepsi Center staff and the DNCC / Host Committee. He also pointed to the “mojo” they expected from the convention. What mojo? Well, in 1996, the Chicago Convention led to the Chicago Bulls winning the NBA Championship. In 2000, the LA Lakers won the NBA Championship the same year as the LA Convention. And in 2004, the New England Patriots had a Super Bowl-winning year the same year as the Boston Convention. So, maybe Forsberg is just what the Avs need for the “mojo” to happen here!

Finally, we heard from the Downtown Denver Partnership. They spoke about their work to make sure Coloradans know that Downtown will be “open for business” before, during, and after the Convention. There are a lot of different activities planned for downtown, and they are working hard to keep area residents involved in getting out during the Convention and having fun.

Well, that’s all for now. I had planned on heading down to another county assembly tonight, but exhaustion from the driving and lack of sleep is kicking in, so I doubt I’ll make it. I’m off to Colorado Springs tomorrow night for meetings on the planning for the State Convention — I’ll write more about that when I can.

Saturday morning we left Erie, Colorado for Colorado Springs at 8am. Arriving at the El Paso County convention/assembly, we discovered a line outside, a lobby crammed with people, and an auditorium filled into the balcony. I had the opportunity to open up the events by asking how many people were at the convention/assembly for the first time. Most of the people raised their hand.

El Paso County had over 7,000 people at their precinct caucuses. John Morris, the county chair, is seeing a new interest in party politics. Between 1600 and 1700 participants were at the meeting on Saturday. It was great to see Hal Bidlack, candidate for the 5th Congressional District. Also Sen. John Morse and Rep. Mike Merrifield were enjoying this huge turn out.

From there we drove to Pueblo. Pueblo County precincts had almost 2500 participants on Feb. 5. Out of 600 delegates elected to the county convention/assembly, 520 participants were there on Saturday. We listened to the nominations for Pueblo County Commissioner. Commissioner John Cordova and State Rep. Dorothy Butcher both gave campaign speeches.

Terry Hart, Chair of Pueblo County Dems, introduced me and once again I asked for a show of hands on “first-timers.” Most of the participants were new. I talked about the excitement around the Presidential campaign but how important it is to be active on all the campaigns. Rep. Mark Udall arrived after me and really got the crowd cheering.

It was great to see my old friends Deann Martinez and Matt Pujol. They used to live in Fort Collins and moved to Pueblo some time ago. Deann was my campaign coordinator in 2005, and it is great to see that she is so involved in Pueblo County politics.

From Pueblo we traveled to Fremont County. I had not been to Fremont in a while, so it was great to get over and see the Chair, Kevin Bradley and the other officers. Fremont County had 660 attendees at the precinct caucuses and over 200 attended the county meeting. Once again most of the participants were there for the first time.

Rep. Udall’s niece spoke on his behalf. Hal Bidlack gave a great speech for his CD5 campaign bid. I was delighted to see so many friends in Canon City before we headed out.

The last stop was Parker, Colorado. Douglas County Democrats held their Clinton-Carter Annual Dinner. The attendance was 235 strong Democrats who came to listen to Sen. Lois Tochtrop, Rep. Alice Borodkin, Speaker Andrew Romanoff and me. I talked about the pride they were all feeling in Douglas County because they had a turn out of over 5,000 people on Feb. 5. it was over 1,000 more than the Republicans. Earlier in the day Douglas County Democrats had to change meeting sites because their central committee had grown so much.

Paul Thompson, Chair of the Douglas County Democrats, has done a fantastic job of getting the county organized, along with
Ron Clark, Ralph Jollensten and so many others. We had the chance to hear from Mike Collins and Hank Eng, who are both running for CD6. Imagine that. Two Democratic candidates for CD6.

We returned home at 10:30pm, weary but exhilirated. The excitement we continue to see just is a reminder of the energy acrosse the country. We will win the White House, and I believe add another Democratic Senator from Colorado, pick up some more Congressional seats, and add to our state house and senate majorities. We will change the face of America and be able to provide what is best for Coloradans and the rest of the country.

Pat Waak

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

This morning, we drove through some pretty heavy snow over Monarch Pass to attend the Gunnison County Convention and Assembly. Several delegates to the meeting also braved some pretty heavy weather, but a truly full house greeted the delegates when they arrived.

Before the convention began, though, Gunnison Dems did what they always do — they celebrated the cattle-growing traditions of Gunnison County by hosting a barbeque for delegates. We had a great choice between beef and turkey, and folks enjoyed the company of each other as they connected with both veteran activists and newcomers to the process. This was the third time I’ve been to a Gunnison County Assembly, and I’ve truly enjoyed each visit.

As in so many places I’ve visited so far, I found that the Clinton supporters and the Obama supporters were respectful of each other, and had a genuine debate about the merits of each others’ candidates.

What was also nice about Gunnison was the immense interest in the community in the process — there were at least as many people there who were not delegates as there were delegates.

I did something unusual — I spoke twice. I had the pleasure of welcoming the delegates, on behalf of the State Party, as the opening speaker of the convention. I then was the designated speaker for the Obama campaign — there seemed to be a lot of concern that I couldn’t stick to the three-minute time limit (in case you’re wondering, I did).

In the end, the folks in Gunnison supported Senator Obama in the preference poll - the vote was something like 45 to 16; giving Obama 17 delegates to Clinton’s 6 delegates. There were several key dignitaries there — Ron Carleton from Congressman Salazar’s office was there, as was Senator Gail Schwartz and Gunnison’s own Representative Kathleen Curry. Former key electeds in Gunnison have also stayed active, including former Lt. Governor Mike Callihan and former State Senator Linda Powers, and they were both there.

Tomorrow night, I head up to Eagle and Summit counties for their meetings in Eagle and Frisco. If you’re in one of those counties, maybe I’ll see you there!

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

Today was another amazing day of record-breaking numbers for Colorado Democrats. We began the day today in Colorado Springs, where the El Paso County Democrats held their county assembly and convention. I knew that there was something pretty historic going on when we drove up to Palmer High School to find lines out the door to the street.

When I finally got into the school — after having to park several blocks away — I learned that folks began arriving for the 9 am convention and assembly by 7 am, and by 8 am, there were lines literally around the school. It was a mass of humanity — people packed into every corner and every room of the school. The auditorium, which holds around 1700 people was packed beyond capacity by the time they started the meeting — standing room only.

Folks were excited all over the place — there was a real electricity in the air. Senator Ken Salazar arrived first, and he fired up the crowd before they even began the meeting. State Chair Pat Waak was there, too, and very excited about the crowds at the meeting.

Then, both Presidential candidates had an opportunity to have people speak for them. The Obama campaign went first; I had been asked to address the crowd on behalf of Senator Obama. Mike Maday, the amazing organizer who had led the Obama campaign in El Paso County, introduced me.

Look, I’ve spoken to a lot of large crowds, and I’ve seen a lot of excited people. But I can rarely recall talking to a group as fired up as this group in El Paso County. At one point, I had to just stop and let the crowd chant — “O-Bama! O-Bama!” It was a very surreal moment, and thinking about the excitement in that room gives me chills still now, here at home writing about today.

After I spoke, DNC Member Ramona Martinez also spoke. She did an impressive job of firing up the crowd for Senator Clinton. After Ramona, Congressman Mark Udall had arrived, and he kept the energy and excitement going strong, moving the crowd in support of his Senate bid.

I had to leave after that to get back to my home county of Fremont County for our county assembly and convention, but I’ve heard that the vote went 69% Obama, 31% Clinton, with Senator Obama winning 269 of El Paso’s 390 delegates.

In Canon City, Fremont County Democrats faced a much more even battle. Fremont County decided to hold their meeting in the afternoon, and nearly every delegate showed up for the convention and assembly. Coming into the Fremont meeting, only about one or two delegates separated the Clinton folks and the Obama folks.

We heard from several folks, including Waak and 5th Congressional District candidate Hal Bidlack. Then, we heard from both Presidential campaigns, as well (with me again giving the presentation for Senator Obama). In the end, Senator Obama picked up a few votes, and won in Fremont County 107-95, winning 20 of Fremont’s 38 delegates.

What was so inspiring was what happened next. Normally, Fremont County simply has to take volunteers for the state convention delegates — we generally fill all of our slots, and everybody shows up, but there really isn’t much of a question. This year, though, over 70 Obama supporters wanted to serve in the 20 delegate and/or 20 alternate slots for Obama. We had another true example of democracy — every person spoke for about 10-15 seconds each and the Obama supporters all voted on delegates to represent them at the State and 5th Congressional District conventions.

It was another really wonderful day filled with standing-room only crowds and tons of new people excited about being Democrats. Things just keep getting better and better every day!

Tomorrow, we’re headed over Monarch Pass to Gunnison for the Gunnison County convention and assembly. I will, of course, write about that as soon as I can. I also took several pictures today, and I will post those as soon as I can — maybe Monday, though.

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

Lines snaked. Cars were towed. Traffic was jammed. People voted. Delegates were elected.

And Colorado Democrats proved their mettle.

I’m so proud this morning to be a Colorado Democrat. And, no, it isn’t because my candidate won.

No, I’m so proud because of how revitalized this Party is today. In 2004, we had between 10,000 and 15,000 people show up to caucus. Last night, we had about ten times that number — a 1,000% increase in attendance!

I’m proud because the Democratic Party — with fewer registered Democrats than registered Republicans — had over twice the turnout of the Colorado Republican Party. Not in percentages, but in raw numbers of people.

I’m proud because that turnout came even though Democratic caucuses are more complicated beasts than the Republican caucuses (from what I can tell, you just show up and cast your secret ballot at Republican affairs). Dick Wadhams must be trembling with what he saw in Colorado last night.

I’m proud because, for the most part, our county parties handled the massive influx of new people pretty well. As I predicted yesterday, there were periods of chaos, but we still made it through without any complete breakdowns of the system.

I’m proud because — even with the longer meetings and the heavier turnout — the Colorado Democratic Party reported its results much faster than the Republicans. At every stage last night, we were at least 20% ahead in terms of precincts reporting — by about 10 or 10:30, we had around 95-98% of the precincts reporting to the 70-75% of the Republican precincts reporting. We gave county chairs as close to a mandate as we could: have your results to us by 9:30. I’ve spoken to some who say the Republican mandate was to have their results reported no later than 7:30. This is just more proof that you can’t trust elections to Republicans — they have proven time and time again they can’t even run their own elections efficiently!

I’m proud of the county chairs and other county party officers and leaders out there who worked their rear-ends off to pull off this historic evening. I’m also proud of the State Party staff and my fellow officers, who have spent the last few weeks tirelessly answering phone calls and e-mails and taking questions from voters about this process. Because of the intense interest in the caucus, the CDP put in nine new phone lines — and they were constantly lit!

———————

Last night, from the very beginning, something was different. I showed up at Washington School a little after 5:00 to help set up, along with the other key Fremont County Dems who had been planning the caucuses. Already, three people were sitting down in the lobby of the school waiting to check in two hours early. School officials advised that they had at least a dozen Democrats stop by during the day looking for the caucuses — they eventually had to put a sign out in the front door to keep people away.

By 6:00 — an hour before the beginning, the line stretched to the door. Parking was at a premium. Already, more people were at the school than had attended all of the caucuses in Fremont County in 2006 or 2004. Thankfully, Fremont Dems had planned for this well. They had a dozen people to check folks in, and the line moved smoothly. Volunteers for Clinton and Obama greeted people at the door. Beyond the registration table was a classroom set up as a “hospitality suite” for the Obama and Clinton campaigns, with both offering water, cookies, and other treats for caucus-goers.

Here, most of the classrooms were open, with each room serving as the caucus location for either one or two precincts, depending on the size of the precinct. Long-time Democrats showed up and their jaws just dropped. The crowds of Democrats were unbelievable. Later on in the evening, I caught up with former State Representative Bob Shoemaker. He just smiled and shook his head. “Back in my day, this would have been the whole county’s turnout for the Democrats,” motioning to the packed room serving as a caucus site for two precincts. “I’ve never seen anything like this before!”

At 6:30, organizers asked people to gather in the school’s auditorium. While quite ample, it still was not big enough for the crowd of Democrats (at the end of the evening, we learned that about 450 Democrats caucused at this location alone). I kicked things off by pointing out that we were told Fremont County did not have any Democrats. “If we can get this kind of turnout at caucus for the Democratic Party in Fremont County, we can sure get this kind of turnout in September and October, when we need your help to elect a Democratic President in Fremont County!” The crowd cheered, and there was real excitement in the air about Democrats.

Then, at about 10 minutes to 7, we dispersed into our precinct rooms. I was in Precinct 9, and as one of the larger precincts historically, we had been assigned the school’s library. Nearly 50 people gathered around the library tables, and we read the rules and elected our officers. We then heard about 20 minutes of discussion about the candidates. I spoke for Sen. Obama. A wonderful lady I had never met gave a moving speech for Sen. Clinton. Then a few more folks said a few words about Sen. Obama or Sen. Clinton. After a straw poll determining that both candidates would meet viability, we voted. The results (I think - this is from memory): Obama 27, Clinton 18.

We then went on to elect delegates and do the other things required at caucus — the vote for Sen. Udall was unanimous. A few people left after the Presidential vote, but to my surprise, most people stayed through the end.

In the end, Obama narrowly won in Fremont County with record turnout, 336 to 319. There was a great cheer among those who remained at the school when the results were announced.

As we left around 9:30, a gentleman drove up looking for the Republicans. We smiled. “We think they’re at the Abbey, or maybe the High School. Anyway, they’ve probably been finished for quite a while now.”

It was an AMAZING night to be a Democrat!

—————————————

A few statistics from the results reported last night in Colorado.

The tally now stands at Obama - 79,344 (66.2%) to Clinton 38,587 (32.2%), with 3165 of 3208 precincts reporting.

Denver had the highest vote for Obama, at 17,942, followed by Boulder with 13,100.

Denver also had the highest vote for Clinton, at 7806, followed by Jefferson with 5,208.

Cheyenne and Sedgwick both had the lowest votes for Obama, with 7 votes, followed by Jackson and Kiowa, with 8 votes apiece. Hinsdale had the lowest vote for Clinton, with 7 votes, followed by San Juan with 8 votes.

Percentage-wise, Obama had his best night in San Miguel, Ouray, La Plata, Pitkin, Hinsdale, Archuleta and Boulder, with a range in those counties from 86% (San Miguel) to 74% (Boulder). Clinton did best in Sedgwick, Kit Carson, Jackson, Costilla, Prowers and Las Animas counties, with her percentage in those ranging from 67% (Sedgwick) to 57% (Las Animas).

Clinton won 14 counties; Obama won 49 counties; one county (Bent) was an exact tie. I have created a map of the counties won by each and it is in the web version of this post at www.demnotes.com.

The highest turnout counties were: 1. Denver (26,096); 2. Boulder (17,910); 3. Jefferson (14,595); 4. Arapahoe (12,224); and 5. Larimer (8,637).

The lowest turnout counties were: 1. Jackson (20); 2. Kiowa (23); 3. Cheyenne (24); 4. Washington (29); and 5. (tie) Sedgwick, San Juan, and Hinsdale (30).

Statewide, Democratic turnout was at 13.61%. The highest turnout percentage counties were: 1. Hinsdale (25.42%); 2. Boulder (23.81%); 3. Ouray (22.82%); 4. San Juan (19.48%) and 5. Larimer (17.20%). The lowest turnout percentage counties were: 1. Rio Grande (4.53%); 2. Otero (5.69%); 3. Pueblo (5.76%); 4. Baca (5.77%) and 5. Logan (5.94%). Other large counties: Adams - 8.08%; Arapahoe - 12.83%; Denver - 15.91%; Douglas - 16.54%; El Paso - 11.39%; Jefferson - 14.28%; La Plata - 14.74%; Mesa - 11.97%; Weld - 8.90%.

(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!

(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.

————————

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).

—————————

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.

———————————

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.

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

Monday night, I drove over Hoosier Pass (and back) to conduct caucus training for Summit Dems (and a couple of folks from Lake County, as well, including Lake County Chair Joe Fattor). Maybe I should have known that I was in trouble when I walked in and former Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald made fun of the bag I was carrying — a leopard-print computer bag that resembles a purse awfully closely. (My laptop, while an awesome machine, apparently has a graphics card problem that causes it not to work when attached to a projector; therefore, I have to use my girlfriend’s computer to do presentations.)

In any event, soon after arriving, Sandy Briggs, the Summit County chair, asked if I was ready to go. I then asked if he had a projector for me. His response was a blank look.

As you may have noticed, I’ve been doing a lot of these caucus trainings lately. Indeed, I have been so busy, I’ve had to turn down recent requests to come up to Clear Creek County and Kit Carson County later this week because of other events. These trainings usually happen one of two ways: either the county contacts me directly to arrange for the training, or it is arranged by one of the DNC Field Organizers, such as the great trainings in Larimer and Weld Counties on Friday and Saturday that were arranged by DNC Field Organizer Robin Van Ausdall. However, in Summit County’s instance, the discussion was started by the Northwest Field Organizer Kim Phillips, but I made the final arrangements (or so I thought) with the county party.

And I dropped the ball — I forgot to mention that I’d need a projector.

Thankfully, Flo Raitano was on the ball. She immediately left to go home and grab her own projector from her home in Frisco. I began the presentation, and by the time I needed the projector for the more complicated math portions, Flo had returned and seamlessly set up the projector and the computer so I went right into the caucus math portion of the presentation without a pause. There were easily 50-60 folks there (or at least that’s what I’d estimate — as you will see later, my estimates have sometimes been waaaay under), and we had a great discussion of the various intricacies of caucus night.

Summit County already has local representatives for the Clinton, Obama, and Edwards campaigns. After my presentation, folks then gathered with each of the representatives to sign up and help each of the campaigns prepare for the caucuses.

———————–

By the way, in a recent post, I think I mentioned that there were around 150 people in attendance at the Larimer Dems training in Loveland. I was wrong. The county party did an actual head count, and the number of people there was much closer to 300, not 150. So much for my math skills!

———————-

Last night, I headed east — to Rocky Ford. There, I conducted a caucus training at the Otero Dems’ central committee meeting (with a couple of Crowley Dems in attendance, as well). It was another good training session, with about 30 people present to hear about caucuses. As always, there were some great questions, and First Vice Chair Larry Daves did a wonderful job running the meeting.

After my presentation, our new DNC Regional Field Organizer for Southeast Colorado, Sal Pace, spoke about the DNC’s field efforts. He did a great job describing the new neighborhood organizer program, and he even got over half of the people in the room to sign up to serve as neighborhood leaders! Our DNC Field Organizers have very specific goals for getting people involved in this program — and we need your help to make it successful. The DNC is committed to having the most effective field organization in the history of the Democratic Party in 2008, and its success depends on the involvement of all active Democrats.

———————

Tonight, I get to stay in Canon City — but I don’t get to rest. Instead, I will be speaking at a very special Drinking Liberally event in Canon City. We’ll have representatives from several campaigns there to speak and answer questions; here are the details:

What: Drinking Liberally: An Evening with the Campaigns
When: Wed, January 16th, 5:30-7:30, presentations begin at 6
Where: McClellan’s Grill & Brewing Company, 413 Main St

If you get a chance, come on down to Canon City and enjoy an evening with us!

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

WARNING: If you are one of the four or five folks who have e-mailed me complaining about my support for a particular Presidential candidate, you may want to only read the first part of this post….

In an hour or so, I’ll leave Canon City and head north to do some more caucus training. I encourage you to come by if you are in the area — there should also be an opportunity at most of these events to learn more about the various Presidential campaigns, as well.

Tonight, I will be in Estes Park; here is the information on that event:

Fri, Jan 11; ESTES PARK DEMOCRATS WELCOME CANDIDATES & OFFER CAUCUS TRAINING

Estes Park Democrats will meet to hear from several Presidential campaigns, the Udall for Colorado campaign (for U.S. Senate), and Betsy Markey, candidate for Congress. The event also includes caucus training by Dan Slater, 1st Vice Chair of the Colorado Democratic Party.

The event is open to the public.

Date & Time: Fri, Jan. 11, 2008; 7:00 p.m.Location: Estes Park Municipal Building, 2nd Floor, rooms 202-3.

Contact: John & Karen Ericson, 586-5042

Tomorrow (Saturday), I then head to Loveland and Greeley for more training. Here is the information on the Loveland training, for 1:30ish:

Its Central Committee time again, and what a meeting this should be!

Dont miss it! 1:p.m. Official Business: Our official business is to approve a formula for determining how many delegates each precinct is allotted to go forward to the County Assembly and Convention. These delegates will be selected at precinct caucuses on Tuesday, Feb. 5. We also will fill officer vacancies of the Larimer County Democratic Party. Current members of the Larimer County Central Committee have received the OFFICIAL CALL and may vote. They include Party officers, directors, precinct committee people, and Democratic elected officials. All other Democrats are welcome to attend.

1:30 or 2 p.m. Caucus Training and Candidates for U.S. House and Senate; Dan Slater, First Vice Chair of the Colorado Democratic Party, will be on hand to conduct caucus training. Betsy Markey will attend and speak. Mark Udall will either attend or send a representative to speak on his behalf. Representatives of Presidential Campaigns: Representatives of five of the eight Democratic presidential campaigns will address our meeting. Those speakers will represent Hillary Clinton, Barak Obama, John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich, and Bill Richardson. Come join your friends, meet the candidates and/or their representatives, and prepare for caucuses.

Central Committee Meeting Date & Time: Sat, Jan. 12, 1-1:30 p.m.

Caucus Training & Candidate Speeches: 1:30 +

Location: Bill Reed Middle School , 370 W. 4th St . , Loveland

And here is the Greeley information:

Caucus training is scheduled for January 12th, from 5:30-8 pm, at the University Center, Columbine Room, 11th Ave between 19th and 20th Street, Greeley. Colorado Democratic Party officials, including 1st Vice Chair Dan Slater, are expected to assist. Representatives of the presidential campaigns will have tables with information. Parking is available at the University Center; for directions, go to http://www.unco.edu/uncmap/.

Training resources will include a Colorado Democratic Party Caucus Rules Summary, Step-by-Step Caucus Agenda, Caucus Process Instructions, Presidential Preference Math Worksheet, Weld County Assembly Math Worksheet, Weld County Assembly/Convention Call and Delegate Form, and Nominating Process Flowchart.

Finally, I’ll be doing caucus training for Park County on Sunday. Here are the details for that event, if you can attend:

NEXT MEETING OF PARK COUNTY DEMOCRATS

January 13, 1:00 PM

Jefferson Community Center

The Public is Invited

The next meeting of the Park County Democrats will take place on Sunday, January 13, at the Jefferson Community Center. The meeting begins at 1:00 pm. The public is invited. There will be Caucus Training prior to the start of the Central Committee meeting. If you’re interested in the Caucus process and what exactly is involved, please come to this meeting.

The Jefferson Community Center is located in Jefferson along US Highway 285 about 15 miles northeast of Fairplay and 23 miles southwest of Bailey.

I’m not done on Sunday, though. On Monday, I’ll be in Frisco, and on Tuesday, I’ll be in Rocky Ford for caucus trainings for those two areas. Hopefully, I’ll have a chance to write about the details of those before Monday.

——————————————

Last night, we went up to Colorado Springs to attend the grand opening of the Obama for President office there. I’ve been to open houses and grand openings before, and I expected maybe 20-30 folks there. Boy, was I surprised! A reporter I was standing next to estimated at least 250 people in attendance. I don’t think there was room for any more people there in that office — it was one of the more impressive sights I’ve seen lately.

Several folks spoke and were recognized, including former El Paso County chairs Ed Raye and Mark Johnson. The place was so packed, they had to do the speeches and information twice — once for one room, and again a second time for the another room of people. It was really impressive to see this level of support in Colorado Springs, of all places, for a Democratic candidate.

Well, I need to head off to Estes Park. Maybe I’ll see you there!