Archive for the ‘Presidential Campaign 2008’ Category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Holy Cow!

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008

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

Well, each night of the Democratic National Convention just keeps outdoing the previous one. Monday was great — Tuesday was unbelievable. But tonight was even better than the past two.

I sure hope that you all got an opportunity to see most of tonight’s exciting moments. The session began earlier than normal for most of us — we were all told we needed to be there quite early — 3:00 — to see Senator Salazar speak and to be present for the roll call of the states. I even got to be a tiny part of the great evening — the Obama campaign asked me to second a procedural motion at the beginning of the session.

Senator Salazar had a key role early this evening. He was one of the nominators for Senator Obama, and did wonderfully. Right after the nominations, we went straight into the roll call vote. Senator Salazar, Congressman Perlmutter, and Pat Waak announced Colorado’s results — 55 votes for Senator Obama, 15 votes for Senator Clinton. (More on how we voted later.)

Then, there was an interesting dance — when they got to New Mexico, the State Chair, Brian Colon, passed the floor to the Illinois delegation, who then passed the floor to the New York delegation. In New York, Senator Clinton was introduced, and she moved to nominate Senator Obama by acclamation.

The motion passed overwhelmingly.

What came next was an interesting catharsis. I didn’t expect the rush of emotion at that point — I truly enjoy the roll call votes as one of the best parts of these conventions, but I honestly didn’t really give any thought to what would happen when Senator Obama actually received the nomination — I just figured there’d be some celebration.

But this was more than a celebration — it was a release. Several delegates from Colorado were shedding tears of joy. Indeed, I felt a little emotional. I jumped up on a chair and just screamed and cheered. Then, I got back down and gave several folks who I’d seen work so hard hugs and high fives. It was a rather touching moment.

But the convention must go on, and it did. Later in the evening, we heard from President Bill Clinton. There had been some concerns among delegates about what he’d say, but — like his wife — did a wonderful job of working to unify this Party and make it clear: He’s going to work to elect Barack Obama the next President of the United States.

We also heard a speech from Senator John Kerry. Senator Kerry — well, what can I say but WOW. He laid out about as compelling a case as can be made as to why John McCain is a poor choice to lead our nation, and then did a wonderful pivot and contrasted that well with how Senator Obama represents the values and the judgment needed to be President. He also — in a very ironic way — pointed out how John McCain has changed his position on an unbelievable number of issues.

That brought us to the nomination of Joe Biden as Vice President. We went through the process and nominated him by acclamation. Then, we heard from his son, the attorney general of Delaware. He gave a very moving speech that gave us a glimpse into the personal life and values of Senator Biden. We heard about his commitment to return home to Delaware on the train every night — and how tragedy marked his initial swearing-in to the U.S. Senate, so much so that he almost did not decide to swear in to the Senate. “Delaware can get another Senator. My children cannot get another father.” In the end, he was sworn in at his son’s bedside in the hospital.

And Joe Biden showed up to prove why he’s our Vice Presidential nominee.

He gave a great talk — including introducing us to his wonderful mother in the crowd, and talked of the values that he learned from her. He talked about what kind of race this will be, and also talked of John McCain, who he listed as a true friend, but who is wrong on so many issues important to America today.

That should have been the end of the night. You’d normally have the VP nominee’s family come out, and there would be a celebration. But not tonight.

We usually hear rumors about what is going to happen each night. For instance, I’d heard generally how the vote would be conducted the evening before. We’d heard that Senator Obama was going to be on the video screen after Obama’s speech. But when Joe Biden’s wife came out to the stage and said she had a surprise, it was news to all of us. I expected us to have another video feed.

But there was a slight delay: Biden looked genuinely confused. Then, we in the Colorado delegation saw the curtain to the side of the stage open and out came… Barack Obama. The delegation went wild. Senator Obama told us why he’d wanted to move the Convention to Invesco Field tomorrow night: he wanted to open the Convention to as many as possible.

I don’t know what the best adjective is for the night: “magical” seems trite. Amazing?

————————

The morning began with another breakfast. We heard from Congressman John Salazar, and the vice president of the United Farm Workers of America. There were a number of other speakers, but I had to leave to get over to Rocky Mountain PBS, where I was a guest on “Colorado Matters,” which is on Colorado Public Radio, but is also showing on PBS this convention week.

I felt like the show went well. I was on with Congressman Ed Perlmutter, who is so energized this week. (As an aside, I sat next to him at the Convention, and I can tell you that he’s about as enthusiastic about Barack Obama as you can be.) The host asked several really good questions and I felt that Congressman Perlmutter and I did a pretty good job talking about the differences Colorado voters will face between John McCain and Barack Obama.

After the show, we went over to a lunch for Western states delegates, and then headed over to the Pepsi Center because of the need to be there earlier than normal.

Tomorrow is the big day. I know many of you will be there — I hope to see so many of you, and I’m so glad that many Colorado Democrats will have a chance to be a part of history. Invesco Field has never seen a Super Bowl, but this may very well be even better than any Super Bowl!

See You There!!!

Posted in DNC, National Convention 2008, Presidential Campaign 2008 | Comments Off

Joe Biden for Vice President

Saturday, August 23rd, 2008

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

We now know the name of the individual to be nominated this week in Denver for Vice President: Joe Biden of Delaware. Senator Obama announced the pick early this morning.

From nearly every perspective, this seems to be an excellent choice. Senator Biden will be a key and knowledgeable advisor to a President Obama. He knows the world, the world leaders, and the complexities of international relations. Added to that foreign relations expertise is Sen. Biden’s knowledge of finance and banking law. In times like these, Sen. Biden makes a perfect partner to the Obama Administration.

Of course, I’m a little disappointed that we don’t have a Westerner on the ticket. Some of you may recall that I set three goals in August of 2005 at our State Central Committee meeting for national priorities. Those were:
1) Include the West in the pre-window nominating process.
2) Bring the National Convention to the Intermountain West (i.e., Denver).
3) Press to put a Westerner on the national ticket.

Well, two out of three ain’t bad. We were able to add a state with an important Hispanic presence in the West to the pre-window nominating process by adding an early caucus in Nevada. Of course, this week we will see the fruits of our labors since then in this Convention in Denver. And I will tell you that when I first met with Sen. Obama, I brought up the need for him to choose a Westerner as a running mate. (As an aside, I made the same pitch to Joe Biden when I met him the same weekend.)

In the end, though, the choice of Biden makes sense. As I mentioned, Joe Biden knows the world and will be an effective campaigner on the trail between now and November. I’m quite certain that we will have the opportunity to get to know Sen. Biden much better in the weeks and months to come, because I’ll bet he’ll be in Colorado quite a bit between now and November 4.

If it was possible to become even more excited about Senator Obama as a Presidential nominee, this pick certainly does that. Make sure and watch for Senator Biden’s speech here in Denver Wednesday night!

I’m in Denver now for the week, and I’m getting ready to head over to the Convention Center to watch the Rules Committee meeting. I’ll try to write about that this afternoon.

Posted in Presidential Campaign 2008 | 2 Comments »

D Minus Three Days — And a Slew Of Information!

Friday, August 22nd, 2008

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

Today’s post to DemNotes feels like the original DemNotes. For those who don’t remember, or who weren’t involved with the Party back then, DemNotes began during the 2004 election cycle as an e-mail newsletter from me as State Party Secretary to everybody on the then-small State Party e-mail list. After 2004 — where I first blogged during the Democratic National Convention in Boston — I turned it into the blog demnotes.com that is in use today. In any event, when it was a newsletter format, there were several posts all at once, and there’s so much to report today that it seems a lot like that again.

D Minus Three Days. Or two days. Or one day. Depends on your point of view. Tomorrow, Saturday, is the first day for official convention-related activities in Denver. The Rules Committee meets in the morning, and the Media Party is in the evening. Sunday is the first day for delegation events, with an Interfaith Service and all-delegation party during the day, and the Green Concert with Sheryl Crow and Dave Matthews at Red Rocks in the evening. But the gavel doesn’t officially come down to start the convention until around 3:00 Monday afternoon at the Pepsi Center, so that’s why I say “three days”.

Pepsi Center StageWe saw today the first public look at the Pepsi Center’s interior, and it looks fantastic! If you haven’t seen it, go online to the Denver Post or Rocky, or CNN, or any other news site and take a look. It is colorful, bright, and stunning. If you’re looking at this by e-mail, I’ve put a picture up on the website at www.DemNotes.com.

If you’re not going to be able to get into the Pepsi Center, don’t worry. There will be PLENTY to do in Denver without getting into the Pepsi Center. I’d encourage you to attend the Caucus meetings during the day at the Convention Center if you can. Here is the schedule of caucus meetings. On Monday and Wednesday, the following caucuses will meet from 10 am to Noon: African American Caucus, Asian / Pacific Islander Caucus, Hispanic Caucus, Native American Council, and the Ethnic Coordinating Council. From Noon to 2 on Monday and Wednesday, the GLBT Caucus and the Senior Council will be meeting. Finally, from 1 to 3 on Monday and Wednesday, the Rural Council will be meeting.

On Tuesday and Thursday, there are more caucus and council meetings. From 10 am to Noon, the Women’s Caucus — the largest DNC Caucus — will be meeting. From Noon to 2 on Tuesday and Thursday, the Disability Caucus, the Faith Council, and the Youth Council will be meeting. Finally, the Veterans and Military Families Council will be meeting from 1 to 3 on Tuesday and Thursday.

If you’re not a delegate, you can definitely attend any of these caucus meetings, but you need to pre-register online for the caucus meetings BEFORE 5 PM ON SATURDAY! You can pre-register for the caucuses at:
http://www.demconvention.com/caucus-meeting-preregistration

I will try to keep DemNotes updated during the week with the activities; however, I’m not sure yet how regular that will be. The calendar is already looking pretty packed each day from about 7 am to about 2 am, so I’m not sure when I will find a computer to write, but I promise to try. I will say that it seems like there are an awful lot more things to be done as a superdelegate than when I was a pledged delegate in 2000 and 2004.

———————————–

Folks are already arriving in Denver for the Convention, as you may have noticed if you’re in Denver. Governor Dean is here — and if you get this e-mail in time, you can attend a rally with Governor Dean at Noon today (Friday). He will be at a “Register for Change” event at the Auraria College Campus, St. Cajetan’s Chapel, Lawrence Way in Denver. There are sure to be other key Colorado leaders there, so stop by during your lunch hour if you get a chance.

———————————–

Looking for a yard sign? Tired of waiting for the campaigns to get your own in? There’s a great promotion out there that we as Democrats should take advantage of before the other side does: a sign-making company is offering free signs that you can design yourself. Go to www.buildasign.com and you can design your own sign that they will make for you for FREE. They’re giving away 100,000 of these signs as a promotion of their services.

Note that these signs are NOT union-made, so I would not endorse you buying their services, but if you can get a sign for free, I’m not sure how you can complain. I’ll also make a caveat that I only heard about this site on the radio yesterday, so I don’t really know much more about it than I’ve already indicated.

———————————-

Last Saturday, we headed up the road to a great event in Coaldale. For those who don’t know, Coaldale is in the heart of the mountainous portion of Fremont County, and the more sparsely-populated area of Fremont County. It’s also historically been a heavily Republican area. When I was county chair, we tried to do a couple of events out there, and the best turnout we had was maybe 20-30 people.

Saturday did not look good for an outdoor rally for Democrats. It was raining. It was a bit chilly. Parking along Highway 50 could get dicey. And did I mention that this was a heavily Republican area?

About 150 people showed up.

150.

Last year, we had a traditional summer picnic for Fremont County Democrats in Canon City, the population center of the county. It was a beautiful day — sunny but not too hot. No rain in sight. We didn’t see even close to 150 people there.

It was a truly great event — people huddled under umbrellas and tents to hear great candidates like Hal Bidlack (5th CD), Cal Cali (HD60), Gloria Stultz and Walt Myers (County Commissioner). Even Rep. Michael Merrifield came down from Colorado Springs to speak for Mark Udall. The wet crowd was enthusiastic — and did I mention it was a large crowd? Even State Chair Pat Waak briefly stopped by to say hello and deliver Invesco Field tickets to the county chair.

Change is in the air in Colorado — even in the most Republican of areas of our state!

————————————

Last night, I drove down to San Luis to attend and assist with the Costilla County Dems’ Central Committee meeting. They were filling some officer vacancies, including that of the county chair. Congrats to their new chair, Ubaldo Padilla, who was elected last night. In addition, Natalie Cisco was elected Treasurer, and Raphael Maestas was elected the Second Vice Chair.

After the elections, the central committee — along with several guests — had a great discussion about how they can help out in the local and state races. It was an enthusiastic and inspiring session of people understanding how important it is to get out and walk and help all of the candidates on the ballot. I told them it was a wonderful way to kick off convention week, as I head for Denver this afternoon.

—————————————-

Finally, this morning, I was on the radio in Sterling to talk about the Democratic Party, our candidates, and the National Convention. The half-hour interview went well, I think, and I worked to make sure that folks in Northeast Colorado understand that Republicans like Marilyn Musgrave are not standing for Colorado values and issues that are most important to Eastern Colorado. I hope to be on again in the near future.

Well, that’s enough for one post. Hopefully, I’ll see you around Denver in the next week

Posted in CDP, Counties, DNC, National Convention 2008, Presidential Campaign 2008 | Comments Off

Another Reason McCain is Bad for Colorado: He Wants Our Water

Friday, August 15th, 2008

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

The Pueblo Chieftain today has quite an interesting piece on John McCain that — in one article — gives reason enough why Coloradans can’t afford to support John McCain. In the Chieftain, McCain supports opening up the Colorado River Interstate Compact to renegotiation:

The water compact that Colorado and other upper basin states have with California and Arizona should be renegotiated, U.S. Sen. John McCain said Thursday.

In a telephone interview with The Pueblo Chieftain, the presumptive GOP candidate for president said the water sharing agreement reached in 1922 between seven Western states doesn’t take into account increases in population and the changing water needs.

Here’s the folly with that argument: renegotiating likely means less water for Colorado and more water for thirsty growing downstream states like Nevada and California. Right now, the Interstate Compact truly provides protection for upstream users in Colorado. A renegotiation would only diminish those rights.

If Ken Salazar knows anything, he knows water law. Ken Salazar probably understands water issues better than any elected official in the United States; indeed, it was his work with water law and negotiating water agreements that was key to electing him as our Attorney General in the 1990s. And Senator Salazar knows exactly what McCain’s water proposal would do. Here’s Salazar’s response:

“Senator McCain’s position on opening up the Colorado River Compact is absolutely wrong and would only happen over my dead body,” Salazar said. “It’s an anathema to the fundamental principles of Colorado’s water rights and our compacts.”

The senator said that when the state’s compacts with the lower basin states were negotiated, everyone knew at the time that those states would grow in population faster than Colorado. As a result, the upper basin states’ water rights needed to be protected.

“We did not want California to gobble up all of the water supply on the Colorado River, and they would have done that under the doctrine of equitable apportionment,” Salazar said. “In my view the compact is sacrosanct. I will fight tooth and nail to make sure that it is not opened up.”

I know a little about water issues myself. And from my travels across this state, I can also tell you that Democrats and Republicans alike are highly distrustful with politicians like John McCain that play fast and loose with our water. The phrase, “Whiskey’s for drinkin’, water’s for fightin’!” has much truth for it in Colorado — especially in parts of rural Colorado McCain needs to win heavily in order to compete in Colorado.

John McCain either doesn’t understand or doesn’t care how important water is to Colorado voters. Either way, that is reason enough for many to vote for Barack Obama in November.

Posted in Presidential Campaign 2008 | 4 Comments »

Lots of Explanations … And Apologies

Wednesday, May 21st, 2008

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

I’ve spent the past few days both recuperating from this past weekend and focusing again on getting some money-generating work done for my clients. But I did stop long enough to attend a Fremont County Dems Central Committee meeting Monday night, and fielded a ton of questions and concerns about the State and Congressional District meetings on Friday and Saturday. Before I get to my thoughts on those, however, I want to be sure you all have the latest news on the results of the balloting this weekend.

State Party staff and volunteers have been very busy counting ballots for the past three days. We finally have results from all seven Congressional Districts. Here are the results we have so far, courtesy of the CDP website:

Barack Obama:
8 At-Large National Convention Delegates, 2 National Convention Alternates
5 Pledged Party Leader / Elected Official (PLEO) National Convention Delegates

Hillary Clinton:
4 At-Large National Convention Delegates
2 Pledged Party Leader / Elected Official (PLEO) National Convention Delegates

DNC Members:
Debbie Marquez, Anthony Graves, Mannie Rodriguez

At-Large Electors:
Polly Baca, Margaret Atencio

Obama PLEO National Convention Delegates:
Veronica Barela, Terrance Carroll, Vivian Stovall, Paul Lopez, Rosemary Marshall

Clinton PLEO National Convention Delegates:
Mona Merchant, Jessica Clark

——————————————————————————–

CD 1 CONVENTION

Barack Obama:
4 National Convention Delegates, 1 National Convention Alternate

Hillary Clinton:
2 National Convention Delegates

CD 1 Presidential Elector:
Wellington Webb

CD 1 Obama National Convention Delegates:
Anthony Graves, Crisanta Duran, Seth Masket, Allegra Haynes

CD 1 Obama National Convention Alternate:
Mark Thrun

CD 1 Clinton National Convention Delegates:
Awilda Marquez, Daniel Kagan

CD 1 ASSEMBLY

U.S. Congress:
Diana DeGette

——————————————————————————–

CD 2 CONVENTION

Barack Obama:
4 National Convention Delegates, 1 National Convention Alternate

Hillary Clinton:
2 National Convention Delegates

CD 2 Presidential Elector:
Terry Phillips

CD 2 Obama National Convention Delegates:
Jessica Wittmer, Shawn Coleman, Richard Gardner, Sarah Kihm

CD 2 Obama National Convention Alternate:
Wendy Wilson

CD 2 Clinton National Convention Delegates:
Odell Barry, Sacha Millstone

CD 2 ASSEMBLY

U.S. Congress:
Joan Fitz-Gerald 61%
Jared Polis 39%

CU Regent:
Joe Neguse

——————————————————————————–

CD 3 CONVENTION

Barack Obama:
3 National Convention Delegates, 1 National Convention Alternate

Hillary Clinton:
2 National Convention Delegates

CD 3 Presidential Elector:
Camilla Auger

CD 3 Obama National Convention Delegates:
Blanca O’Leary, Brian O’Donnell, Jayne Bilberry

CD 3 Obama National Convention Alternate:
Neil Isenberg

CD 3 Clinton National Convention Delegates:
Joe Torres, Mary Beth Pyle

CD 3 ASSEMBLY

U.S. Congress:
John Salazar

State Board of Education:
Jill Brake

——————————————————————————–

CD 4 CONVENTION

Barack Obama:
3 National Convention Delegates, 1 National Convention Alternate

Hillary Clinton:
2 National Convention Delegates

CD 4 Presidential Elector:
Pam Shaddock

CD 4 Obama National Convention Delegates:
Sharon Malloy, Nathan VanDerSchaaf, Paul Anderson

CD 4 Obama National Convention Alternate:
Pam Shaddock

CD 4 Clinton National Convention Delegates:
Stan Matsunaka, Kathleen Ensz

CD 4 ASSEMBLY

U.S. Congress:
Betsy Markey

——————————————————————————–

CD 5 CONVENTION

Barack Obama:
3 National Convention Delegates, 1 National Convention Alternate

Hillary Clinton:
1 National Convention Delegate

CD 5 Presidential Elector:
Jennifer Trujillo-Sanchez

CD 5 Obama National Convention Delegates:
Mike Maday, Benjamin Taber, Lynn Young

CD 5 Obama National Convention Alternate:
Jason DeGroot

CD 5 Clinton National Convention Delegate:
Brenda Krause

CD 5 ASSEMBLY

U.S. Congress:
Hal Bidlack

——————————————————————————–

CD 6 CONVENTION

Barack Obama:
3 National Convention Delegates, 1 National Convention Alternate

Hillary Clinton:
2 National Convention Delegates

CD 6 Presidential Elector:
Don Strickland

CD 6 Obama National Convention Delegates:
Robert Kihm, Marzette Bedford-Billinghurst, Paula Noonan

CD 6 Obama National Convention Alternate:
Carmine Iadarola

CD 6 Clinton National Convention Delegates:
Rebecca McClellan, John Petty

CD 6 ASSEMBLY

U.S. Congress:
Hank Eng

CU Regent:
AJ Clemmons

——————————————————————————–

CD 7 CONVENTION

Barack Obama:
3 National Convention Delegates, 1 National Convention Alternate

Hillary Clinton:
2 National Convention Delegates

CD 7 Presidential Elector:
Ann Knollman

CD 7 Obama National Convention Delegates:
Joe Beaver, Allison Cotton, Dorian DeLong

CD 7 Obama National Convention Alternate:
Saorise Charis-Graves

CD 7 Clinton National Convention Delegates:
Monisha Merchant, Jere Kennedy

CD 7 ASSEMBLY

U.S. Congress:
Ed Perlmutter

CU Regent:
Patrick Mulligan

State Board of Education:
Jane Goff

So, congrats to the many winners over the past few weeks that will comprise our delegation to the National Convention in Denver in August. There was a lot of furious campaigning, and a lot more people ran who were deserving of a position than the number of positions that were available, but I’m confident we are going to have a great delegation to the Convention in August.

The State numbers are still being tabulated as I type this; however, I have learned that the vote at the State Convention was approximately 70% Obama to 30% Clinton, creating an 8-4 split in the At Large delegation for Obama (with 1 alternate to each campaign At Large), and a 5-2 split in the Pledged Party Leader and Elected Official category for Sen. Obama.

The Party is still tabulating / has not released results for the individual At Large delegate races. I just received word that they are looking for more Obama volunteers to count the Obama At Large ballots.

———————–

Now, on to the meetings this weekend.

I spent the bulk of the day Friday at the World Arena, as my job in preparing for this weekend was to deal with most everything that went on inside the arena bowl (i.e., the actual program of the State Convention and Assembly). I worked with the campaigns in dealing with space issues, and supervised the installation of the sound, lighting, and video systems. At about 2:30, I headed back over to the Doubletree to register for and attend my own Congressional District meeting (the 5th CD). As soon as I arrived, I wished I was back at the much less chaotic World Arena.

For those of you who were there, you know that it was a complete mess — lines around and out of the convention area and into the hotel room hallways. I do want to make sure that some explanation is made — this was not what the Party had in mind, nor was it what was proposed to the Site Selection Committee when we selected Colorado Springs. Instead, the original plan was to use both the Sheraton (now the Crowne Plaza) and the Doubletree for the Friday meetings. Under that plan, two of the Congressional Districts would have met at the Sheraton at very ample and spread-out meeting room spaces, while the final of the three Congressional Districts would have still met at the Doubletree. Those of you who attended the State Party Summit in 2005 in Colorado Springs likely remember the Sheraton, as that is where we held that event — and it worked quite well.

Unfortunately, in a turn of events that has never been fully explained, the Sheraton / Crowne Plaza backed out of a commitment to host the Friday meetings about two months ago or so. At that point, it was too late to move the State Convention and Assembly from Colorado Springs — and pretty much any venue we would have chosen would have still had space issues. The Party explored using other last-minute venues to replace the Crowne Plaza, but the solution would have cost tens of thousands of dollars more — money that the Party simply could not afford (the State Convention and Assembly was already costing much more than planned). So we were stuck not only with holding everything at the Doubletree, but also with holding three Congressional Districts back-to-back-to-back.

In a normal year, that would be a daunting proposition. In 2008, that was a recipe for chaos. At the CD assemblies in previous weekends, we had already seen where some bottlenecks lay, and the Party staff worked quite valiantly to try to address those issues before the 16th. But some institutional bottlenecks remained, and those simply drove the process into a process that doubled the amount of time alloted to hold the 5th CD meeting, making everything else run even later.

Compounded on all of this was the fact that, in the 5th CD and in the 4th CD, the numbers coming out of the caucuses and county assemblies were such that the Clinton and Obama campaigns were within a couple dozen votes of gaining or losing a national delegate position. That focused an awful lot of intense heat on Party staff and volunteers, as campaign staff scrutinized every decision and every delegate credential awarded. How alternates were seated was, quite literally, going to decide how many national delegates each campaign was awarded. In 2008, in our national atmosphere, that slowed everything down even further.

With all of that in mind, though, I don’t want to make you all think that I believe what happened on Friday night was excusable. It was not. But I also want folks to realize that there isn’t a single villain or a single problem that caused all of the registration and alternate seating issues. The issues were caused by an amalgam of issues and mistakes — and I do know that the State Party officers and staff are well aware of those issues and mistakes. Dana Barker of Garfield County has rightly suggested that Chair Pat Waak form an ad hoc committee to review the state convention procedures and to make recommendations for changes in future years. I know Pat is going to work on doing that, and that is to be commended. The best thing that can come from this past weekend is a review and self-analysis to figure out how to ensure that — even though we may never see the same kinds of crowds again — we never subject Democrats to what happened on Friday night again.

As for Saturday, I must admit that all I’ve heard about are second-hand reports. I spent the entirety of the day stage right, handling the production (yes, the music and videos were all my doing (except for the Udall presentation), so address any complaints about those to me). I never got out onto the concourse to see what was going on. We heard occasional reports, and I assure you we were very frustrated with the slow pace of seating alternates, but it sounds like that process ran a little more smoothly on Saturday than it did on Friday. Many delegations organized to have their alternates sit in the arena until they were called back for seating, but I understand that some others were stuck out there most of the day. Again, for that, I don’t think there is any good excuse.

Enough about the problems.

If you missed the State Convention, I think you missed a really great event, even with the alternate issues. I loved how the crowd reacted to the music, and to the speakers. Both the Clinton supporters and the Obama supporters had plenty to cheer about — and everybody there had plenty to cheer about when Mark Udall came in the room from the back. The Udall campaign did an outstanding job re-introducing Mark Udall to Colorado Democrats, and Maggie Fox brought a tear to more than a few eyes in the room when she talked of her love for her husband.

You may not be aware of it, but we actually draft a “script” for these things. No, the votes aren’t scripted, but most of the day is pretty well timed out and scripted. In the past, we kind of have hoped to stay no more than an hour behind the script. Saturday, we finished the program and got to the balloting nearly an hour AHEAD of the script! For most of the day, indeed, we were running ahead of schedule. I know many of you appreciated that we started on time (actually, Pat ribbed me that we technically started with Rep. Merrifield and Rep. Morse going on stage four minutes late, at 10:04), and that was a big goal of mine.

In fact, some of you may recall that the last state assembly to be held at the World Arena went much, much worse. In 2006, the rancor and division within the Republican Party caused the Republican State Assembly to run well into the evening. Voting began by around 4 pm for the Democrats this year, and the last vote was cast by around 6 pm — and that was with us running out of Obama ballots!

Oh, yeah, we couldn’t end the State Convention without one last crisis. We ran out of Obama ballots. It appears from the preliminary analysis that our printer mixed up the orders for Obama and Clinton ballots, as the Party ordered several hundred more ballots of each than we would conceivably need. Thankfully, Billy Compton has worked in elections before (he was the head of the Secretary of State’s elections division before coming to the Party), and had some one-page write-in ballots ready just in case of a worst-case scenario. The last few hundred Obama supporters were given these write-in ballots and shared a few lists of candidates to ensure they knew who was running for each office.

Was it messy? Yep. Did it seem disorganized? You bet. Did we get through it and elect everybody we needed to elect? Absolutely.

Thanks to all of you who participated in the messy business we call democracy this weekend.

Posted in CDP, DNC, National Convention 2008, Presidential Campaign 2008, US Senate Race 2008 | 2 Comments »

Logan and Morgan Counties

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008

We have gone from the County Assembly/Convention circuit to what I call the Luncheon/Dinner circuit. But before I mention that, the Larimer County Democratic Breakfast Forum was held on April 2, 2008 in Fort Collins. In addition to a room full of Democrats, Jeff Brady from National Public Radio was there to record my remarks on being a “superdelegate.” I just had a chance to listen to his remarks today. He didn’t use all my comments, but his story is one of many on the “superdelegate” process that is part of NPR’s coverage. Check out the website.

On Saturday, April 12, I went to Sterling for Logan County’s Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner. Sixty people attended a lovely dinner served by the local 4-H club. Delinda Korrey, a reporter with the South Platte Sentinel, covered the dinner and took photos. Delinda is also a delegate to the state convention this year.

Dorothy Davis was presented with the Service Award for all her efforts on behalf of the party. Jennifer Felzien, the great chair of Logan County Democrats, did a terrific job of presiding over the dinner. And Jack McLavey honored the Democrat of the Year while all of the past Democrats of the Year were honored as well.

I had a chance to talk about turn out in the state and the upcoming state convention. There were several new people in the room, as well as Democrats who are coming back into the party.

Betsy Markey gave a great speech about her run for the 4th Congressional District. She also announced that she would be back in Sterling to hold a town meeting with local voters in the coming week.

I enjoyed talking to Debi and Nita Wyatt who are doing the job of Co-Secretary. Nita has long been involved in Logan County politics. Now her daughter, Debi, is partnering with her in business and politics.

This past Saturday I attended Morgan County’s annual Big Ten Dinner. It was especially important because our friend Linda Iungerich attended and received the Democrat of the Year award. Linda has been ill over the past several months, and I had called to see if I could drop by on my way to the dinner. I was delighted to hear that Linda was coming to the dinner.

Tom Procter, chair of the Morgan County Democrats, emceed the evening. We heard from Bruce Bass, who received an award. Monisha Merchant spoke on behalf of Senator Hillary Clinton. Bill Winter spoke on behalf of Senator Barack Obama. And Adam Bowen, chair of the Larimer County Democrats, spoke on behalf of Rep. Mark Udall and his run for the U.S. Senate.

Betsy Markey had a chance to speak, as did I. However, the keynote speaker was state Senator Brandon Shaffer. He gave a great speech on the progress being made on behalf of Coloradans by the state Senate. “All politics is local” was reflected in his comments.
patsigweb.jpg

Posted in CDP, Congressional Races, Counties, Presidential Campaign 2008, US Senate Race 2008 | Comments Off

Meetings and Boulder and Jefferson County

Sunday, March 16th, 2008

In the middle of this past week, Dan Slater and I had the opportunity to address the Democratic Women of Boulder on Wednesday. There were 200 people in attendance, who patiently listened to us talk about the process of being an unpledged delegate. There were lots of questions about the different campaigns, and a great opportunity to educate folks about what we expect to happen in the 2008 nomination process and in the upcoming fall elections.

After this great event, I went to the University of Colorado to meet with the Journalism Board. It was a fun hour talking to students. I was on a panel with Adam Schrager from 9News and Elizabeth Shue, who teaches journalism and politics. The students in attendance had great questions about how to cover politics. And both Adam and Elizabeth, who have written the news, shared their personal experiences.

The next morning I had an opportunity to speak to the Board of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce. I talked about the election results in Colorado and the huge participation of voters in the caucuses. With the assistance of the Host Committee, I was able to give some statistics on the economic boon that having the Democratic National Convention brings to Denver and at least the seven surrounding counties. Also having 15,000 journalists covering the Convention spotlights our state for the nation and the world. Finally, I talked about what it is like being a “Superdelegate” and all the attention it brings.

On Saturday I visited Boulder County’s Assembly. Over 1,000 people attended the meeting in Longmont. Deb Gardner, the County Chair, was doing a great job overseeing the assembly. I heard that similar results occurred from in the convention that afternoon. As in every county I have been to, most of the people were there for the first time.

Then it was off to the Colorado School of Mines in Golden. Over 3,000 people were in the gymnasium, and their enthusiasm was infectious. Most again were there for the first time. Dick Barkey, chair of the Jefferson County Democratic Party, was relishing in the turnout. He began this journey with me in 2005 when we began the work to open up the Colorado Democratic Party.

Today, the Platform Committee had it first meeting in Denver. This meeting laid out the process for beginning our consideration of what we as Democrats believe we stand for.

patsigweb.jpg

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

On The Road Again

Friday, March 14th, 2008

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

Wednesday was quite a day for driving.

I began the day with a drive up to Boulder for the monthly luncheon of the Boulder Democratic Women’s Club. State Chair Pat Waak and I were speakers. It was a robust crowd — over 200 present, including Joan Fitz-Gerald and Jared Polis, who are running for Congress in the 2nd Congressional District. A number of local candidates and elected officials were also present.

Pat and I both spoke about a number of issues, and then we took several questions from the audience after our talks. Most of the questions surrounded the Presidential race, and our roles as Superdelegates. Pat reiterated her long-standing view that her role as the chair of the host state party for the National Convention is to stay neutral for as long as possible. We faced questions about the tenor of the campaign, about Michigan and Florida, and about our two remaining candidates. It was a very refreshing and stimulating discussion, and a nice change of pace from all of the different county assemblies and conventions we’ve been attending lately.

—————–

After Boulder, I headed back to Canon City — literally just long enough to stop at my law office and check the mail — before getting back on the road to head south to Walsenburg. There, I attended the Huerfano County Democratic Assembly and Convention.

Walsenburg hosted another good crowd of Democrats. I kicked off the meeting with a short speech, and then they moved into the convention portion of the program. Several people spoke about their choices for President before taking the preference poll — most were very respectful of the other candidates, although there was one who tried to quote from a supermarket tabloid in opposition to one of the candidates. In the end, the vote was 30 to 20 in favor of Sen. Obama, giving him 7 of the county’s votes to 4 for Sen. Clinton.

County Chair Cindy Campbell, who was leaving the post due to health reasons, did an outstanding job getting through the county convention, and there seemed to be a truly positive atmosphere there when I left.

—————-

But I wasn’t done yet. After leaving Walsenburg, I raced up to Pueblo, where I was the guest on the CSU-Pueblo student radio station’s political talk show. “Rev 89,” as the station is called, is not your average college radio station. I don’t know the current ratings, but when I first moved back to Southern Colorado a few years ago, it was the top-rated station in the Pueblo market, beating out all of the commercial radio stations.

The show was very interesting — the three co-hosts are pretty equally divided: one is an Obama supporter, one is a Clinton supporter, and one is a McCain supporter. Over the hour that I was on the show, we talked about a number of issues, and I used every opportunity to point out the differences between Sen. McCain and our two candidates. We talked about the state of the Presidential race, and my role as a Superdelegate and DNC Member. The co-hosts were unbelievably well-prepared, with notes on a number of very divergent issues on which they wanted to talk. I was impressed, and the hour went quickly, and was very entertaining.

By then, it was late, and I had to head home to Canon City — bone tired. Tonight, as I’ve mentioned before, I’m off to Southeast Colorado for a pair of assemblies / conventions. Maybe I’ll see you there!

Posted in CDP, Counties, DNC, National Convention 2008, Presidential Campaign 2008 | 1 Comment »

A Busy Weekend = A Long Post

Tuesday, March 11th, 2008

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

I’ve been swamped here at the office with my mortgage-paying job the past couple of days, so I have not yet had a chance to write about my incredibly busy weekend traversing the state. So here it is.

We began on Friday night, driving up to Hugo in Lincoln County for the Lincoln County Dems’ Convention and Assembly. Chair Jim Bowen is well-known on the Eastern Plains, and he does a great job running the county party. Over 40 people showed up for the meeting at the Hugo Community Center — a pretty impressive increase from 2004, when I had last stopped in Lincoln County for their Convention and Assembly.

As I’ve seen in most places, there was a respectful discourse about the Presidential race. In the end, the preference vote was a dead even tie, sending 2 delegates each for Sens. Clinton and Obama to the State and 4th CD Conventions. In the U.S. Senate preference poll, while there were a couple of votes for Mark Benner (he had served a couple of years ago as Lincoln County’s vice-chair), only Mark Udall reached the 15% viability point in the preference poll.

It was a wonderful atmosphere, with some homemade cookies and coffee off to the side, and wonderful informal discussion of the candidates and issues. What was particularly touching was that Jim had ordered some little stuffed donkey goody bags for all of the delegates — his wife arrived just in time to deliver them to all of the folks there.

————————

Brandy and I then drove up to Fort Collins, where we spent the night in preparation for a pretty hectic day. We started at the Larimer County Assembly and Convention at Fossil Ridge High School in Fort Collins. There was no doubt driving up what was going on — if the candidate signs were not a dead giveaway, the 20-foot high inflatable donkey out front adorned with Obama stickers and signs probably let folks know there were Democrats afoot.

Larimer County was emblematic of a problem larger counties were having — too many people and not enough space. Fossil Ridge High School is a wonderful new facility with the latest green technologies. However, its auditorium seats only 600-700 people. Larimer County had 800 delegates (that’s not including alternates!).

Their solution was about the only thing you could do: about 100 delegates had to literally sit in seats on the stage behind the speakers. Mind you, they probably had the best view, but it was pretty amazing to see the crowd. Furthermore, entry into the auditorium was limited solely to delegates — alternates had to sit in the commons area outside and watch a video feed. I was even a little surprised that I could make it in without credentials without too much trouble.

Pat Waak was there, and she opened the assembly with some words of inspiration — as with nearly everywhere else we go, the vast majority of hands shot up when she asked for first-timers to identify themeselves. Chair Adam Bowen led a wonderful team in Larimer that planned well for crowds at registration, and the meeting actually started almost on time (maybe 5-10 minutes late, but that has to be credited as “on time” compared to a lot of the other counties). We heard brief words from Sen. Bob Bacon, and Reps. Kefalas and Fischer, as well as Betsy Markey, who is running for Congress. Markey certainly had the crowd on their feet when she was through — she has become a pretty amazing speaker in this short run for Congress to date.

After some preliminaries, I spoke for three minutes (and, shockingly, kept to the time limits) for Senator Obama, followed by three speakers for Senator Clinton. The vote was not until later, and I had to scoot to the next stop….

—————————–

… Which was Greeley. Because I spent so much time in 2006 working with the folks in Weld County preparing for the State Assembly, I know many of the key people in the Weld County Dems. But I had never seen a crowd like this — a gymnasium packed to the edges with Democrats. Weld County has undergone a transformation in the past few years, but this truly has to take the cake — from the sounds of the crowd, you’d be hard pressed to believe that Republicans even have a chance in historically-red Weld County.

As I was preparing to speak for Senator Obama, Weld Vice Chair (and Greeley City Council member) Pam Shaddock caught my arm, “Doesn’t this crowd look like the crowd we had at the State Convention in 2006?!” It was clear that Weld County Dems were busting their buttons with pride over the swelling ranks of Democrats in Weld County.

Pam wrote to me later and told me that they had well over 1,000 at the county assembly and convention. Maybe not as many as the State Assembly in 2006, but certainly respectable — maybe even more so when you consider that the Weld County Republicans met the same day and apparently had less than 350 in attendance there!

——————————–

Already well behind schedule, I zoomed down to Aurora for the Arapahoe County Assembly and Convention. Another convention, another room crowded with people taking up every available cubic inch of space. There were people sitting in stairwells and along the edge of the stage. I spoke briefly with County Chair Mike Hamrick, who was working hard with Vice Chair Karen Hart to get final tabulations on the Presidential Preference Poll (the results there were 65% Obama, 35% Clinton). Mike told me that the auditorium there at the high school was the largest meeting space in Arapahoe County — further pointing out the difficulties of planning a convention in these people-flushed times.

Congressman Ed Perlmutter was there when I was there, and spoke a little before I spoke. He did a wonderful job talking about the importance of political involvement, finishing with a reading from George Washington’s Second Inaugural address. Congressman Perlmutter certainly has the support of the people, and he is proving to be an amazing choice representing the Seventh CD in Congress.

Pat Waak arrived after a stop in Adams County, and she spoke just before I did — and the same experiment proved successful, another crowd of first-timers. I then spoke very briefly of the need to keep these first-timers involved in order to be successful in November.

—————————–

After leaving Arapahoe, I tried to race down to Castle Rock for the Douglas County Convention and Assembly. Sadly, though, (and after a stop at a middle school I mistook for the high school) I was too late. As I arrived, the leaders of the Douglas County Dems were packing up to go — they had a dictate from the school to be out by 2:00, and it was ten until 2 when I got there. Chair Paul Thompson did report that the meeting went well and smoothly, with a large crowd.

——————————

Sunday, I had planned to drive down to Saguache to assist with their County Convention and Assembly, but was called by the Obama campaign to attend a meeting in Adams County to confirm the selection of the delegates to the congressional districts and state conventions. The meeting went well, and smoothly, and Adams County has a full delegation to all of the later conventions.

—————————-

Tomorrow morning, I head up to Boulder County. Pat Waak and I will be addressing the Democratic Women of Boulder County on the state of the races in Colorado, as well as our roles as superdelegates and the process generally. I think the RSVP deadline is passed, but here is the link for more information. Maybe I’ll see you there!
http://www.bouldercountydems.org/events.aspx?date=3/12/08#evtid_1636

Saturday, it appears that I will NOT be where the rest of the political world will be, in Boulder and Jefferson Counties. Instead, I am currently planning on being in Lamar for Prowers County’s convention on Friday night, and possibly in Springfield for the Baca County convention and assembly later on Saturday morning. (I’m off to Amarillo overnight Friday to pick up my kids for Spring Break!) I’ll report from those, as well as from the lunch tomorrow, when I get a chance.

Posted in CDP, Congressional Races, Counties, Presidential Campaign 2008, US Senate Race 2008 | 1 Comment »

Larimer, Weld, Adams, Arapahoe and Denver

Monday, March 10th, 2008

Saturday, March 8th was a big day for Democrats in Colorado. Although I could not get to every county assembly/convention, we did make it to five of them. And the participation was in record numbers.

We started our day in Fort Collins at Fossil Ridge High School. This is the new “green” school, and it was easy to spot with the huge donkey set up outside. Larimer County attracted over 8,000 voters to their caucuses on Feb. 5, 2008. That meant that over 1,000 people were at the county meeting.

Adam Bowen, county chair, opened up the meeting with elected officials and candidates lined up behind him. Senator Bob Bacon was joined by his colleagues on the House side, Rep. John Kefalas and Rep. Randy Fischer. They all were scheduled to speak later in the morning.

Betsy Markey, who is running for U.S. House of Representatives in CD4, gave a great speech. The crowd may be coming out for Presidential candidates, but they are just as eager to send Marilyn Musgrave into retirement.

I then had my chance to speak to the spectacular and enthusiastic Larimer County Democrats. We are taking our country back, and Larimer County is playing its part.

We then traveled to Weld County. We arrived at Michener Library on the UNC campus to find that the Weld Democrats had moved to Heath Middle School. We walked in to find a gymnasium filled with about 1,000 voters.

Weld County is my home county, and we really carried the whole county for Governor Ritter by 100 votes. Rep. Jim Riesberg had a great re-election campaign, and over 2500 people turned out to caucus on February 5th.

I was so excited to be in Weld County and look out on the sea of faces participating in the county assembly/convention. County Chair David Delegado introduced me, and the audience responded. After my remarks it was great to stop and talk with many friends including Cheryl Hauger, Roy Waddell, Pam Shaddock and Chuck Olmstead.

Then we raced to Adams County. Over 1,000 people filled the Exhibit Hall at Adams County Fairgrounds. I arrived in time to hear Don Quick’s nomination for District Attorney. It gave me the opportunity to talk about the great job Don is doing in his Judicial District. Also I acknowledged the work of County Chair, Pat Moore.

Adams County had a caucus turnout of over 5,000 people. I had the opportunity to talk to the county delegates and encourage their continued participation in all of the campaigns. It was exciting once again to see so many new faces in the audience.

By this time we were running about an hour behind. However, we arrived at Arapahoe County’s meeting in time to hear the end of U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter’s speech.

I was pleased to be introduced by Harold Thyfault, a long-time Democratic activist. As I have done in every county, I asked how many were there for the first time. Almost every hand was raised. Arapahoe saw over 12,000 people on Feb. 5th and about 1800 attended the county meetings. Mike Hamrick, Arapahoe County Chair, did a great job and was ably assisted by Carolyn Boller.

My last stop was Denver County. Denver Chair, Jennifer Coken, sure had her hands full. I arrived in time to see the aftermath of voting in Senate District 35. Former City Councilwoman Joyce Foster and Rep. Alice Borodkin vied for support. Foster came out ahead, but the final votes will be counted in a multi-county meeting this coming weekend.

I was able to say just a few words as HD6 began its meeting. I also wandered into HD2, HD3, HD4 and HD5. It was great to see so many good Democrats from Denver County. Denver Dems turned out over 26,000 voters on Feb. 5th. The crowd on Saturday was about 5,000. Sherry Jackson and Billy Compton spent the day helping the county with its meetings.

On a last note, Don Wiegel, the staff person for the House Majority Project, is leaving this week. He will be really missed in this office. He has been a great partner and worked hard to recruit candidates for House seats. Don is off to manage a Congressional campaign in Alabama. We wish him well.

It promises to be another busy week. Wednesday I will be speaking at the Democratic Women of Boulder County’s luncheon. The next day I am speaking at a breakfast of the Board of Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce. Saturday I plan to make the Boulder and Jefferson County assembly/conventions. And then there are all the thing in between.

patsigweb.jpg

Posted in CDP, Congressional Races, Counties, Presidential Campaign 2008, State Legislative Races | Comments Off

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »