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.

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

Saturday night, I was honored to co-emcee the annual F.D.R. Dinner for the Fremont County Democrats. My co-host was our great candidate for Fremont County Commissioner, Gloria Stultz (who just finished a very successful stint as the President of the Canon City Chamber of Commerce). Gloria is a great example of the wonderful successes we are seeing across Colorado in recruiting some of the best candidates for 2008 that the Democratic Party has ever seen.

The F.D.R. Dinner is certainly very meaningful to me. When I first moved back to Colorado after law school, the first event I attended for the local Dems was the F.D.R. Dinner. I met a lot of people who have done much since then. That’s where I met Tim Knaus and Chris Gates, who were running against each other (and the incumbent, Phil Perrington) for State Party Chair. In the end, both served terms as State Chair. I sat next to Margaret Atencio, who is now the Second Vice Chair of the State Party, and who was exceedingly nice to me. I also saw this energetic young Democrat who I’d met a couple of weeks earlier in Pueblo at a Young Democrats of Southern Colorado meeting — someone named “Buffie” McFadyen. Looking back, I’m amazed at the potential that existed in that room in February 1999.

During that dinner, the county chair, the late Beatrice Kauffman, announced that the local party needed people to volunteer to run for county party officer positions. Afterward, I went up to Beatrice and introduced myself (I’d just moved to Canon City about two months prior as a new attorney at a local law firm). I told her that I’d been heavily involved in politics at my college, and had worked on a number of campaigns, so I’d be happy to help out as, say, the county party secretary or treasurer. Beatrice responded, “You know, I really don’t want to be the county chair any more. I’ve been doing this for too long. I don’t suppose you’d be willing to be the county chair, would you?” And the rest, as they say, is history.

Fast-forward to 2008. The crowd was easily more than twice the size of the 1999 crowd. The faces were different in many respect, but the energy level and potential were not. There were still candidates for Party office (Ray Plumery, who is running for the Democratic National Committee, along with three or four who are running for National Convention delegate slots). Buffie was still there — but this time, she’s a senior-level State Representative.

And so was our next United States Senator. Mark Udall came down to Canon City with his campaign manager, Mike Melanson (who served, by the way, as the State Party’s Executive Director under the aforementioned Tim Knaus). Congressman Udall did a great job talking about his positive vision for America’s future. He focused on the need for a better national security and foreign policy agenda, and he also spent a great deal of time talking about the need for a common-sense energy agenda that focuses on new technologies and renewable resources. Congressman Udall was a huge hit, exciting the crowd so much he received two rousing standing ovations.

We also heard from other candidates. Hal Bidlack (candidate for Congress in the 5th CD) spoke at the beginning of the agenda, and he was funny, heart-warming, and insightful as usual. He seems to be a natural candidate, and he’s doing a good job of getting all around the district and meeting folks. Anna Lord, who is one of the most tireless campaigners out there, was present to talk about her follow-up bid for HD21. Cal Cali, who is a candidate for HD60, was also there to explain his thoughts and his campaign. Finally, we heard from Buffie McFadyen, who is running for her final term as a Representative for HD47. So far, the Republicans have not been able to field a candidate to run against her — they’ve run heavily targeted campaigns the last two elections only to come up losing by larger and larger margins each time. She brought down the house in her usual style — and even brought a tear or two by remembering Beatrice Kauffman and that first FDR Dinner we both attended in 1999.

In the end, Fremont Dems raised a great deal of money, and will have a good treasury to go into 2008 with. When combined with a great ballot of candidates, the Fremont Dems are looking to continue the transformation of this Republican county just the same way we’ve transformed what used to be a Republican state!

(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.

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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….

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… 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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

Yes, I know, you haven’t heard from DemNotes in a while. Don’t worry — it is still here, and now that we’ve gotten through the holidays, it is time to work off all of that turkey and other food that we’ve stored for the winter…

2008. Just typing that year brings to mind all sorts of promise, all sorts of potential. This is the year we could build a real majority in the U.S. Senate — in part by electing a Democrat from Colorado to replace Wayne Allard. This is the year that we could continue our reinvigoration of Colorado’s government by adding to our historic majorities in the State Senate and State House. This is the year that we could finally be rid of Marilyn Musgrave, and the year we ARE finally rid of Tom Tancredo.

Finally, in what may be the most important part of 2008, this is the year that the candidate who gets nominated in Colorado will be elected as a President who will lead our nation out of the mess that we’ve seen over the past 8 years and finally into a 21st century that is about hope and optimism instead of division and cynicism.

For us in Colorado, this begins on the evening of February 5, a night that will look a lot like (but not identical to) what you will see on the television from Iowa tonight in terms of procedure.

If you’re a county chair or a county party leader, there are a number of things you NEED to do in the next few weeks to be sure your county — no matter how big or small — is ready for caucuses on February 5, as well as to be ready for the county assemblies and conventions in the weeks to follow.

First of all, your county central committee should have already met — prior to yesterday — and determined a formula for allocating delegates from the precinct caucuses to the county convention and assembly. The formula must be uniformly applied and must take into account Democratic performance of each precinct. Each precinct must have at least two delegates. If your county party has NOT done this yet, you should schedule a central committee meeting as soon as possible to get this done.

At that meeting, you also NEED to vote on the date, time, and place for the county assembly and convention. The meeting must be between February 20 and March 17.

Finally, you need to determine where your precinct caucus locations will be. The locations must be accessible, and you need to post a sign at each location at least 10 days prior to the caucuses.

If you are a county party leader, and have questions about any of this, please let me know. Otherwise, I’m looking forward to seeing so many of you at the various caucus trainings I’ll be conducting in nearly every corner of the state. I’ll write about those as I do them, beginning with the training for Northeast Colorado counties in Fort Morgan this Saturday at 11 am at Morgan Community College.

See you there!

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

Sunday, we headed over to Pueblo to participate in the annual “Fiesta Day” parade in Pueblo. Fiesta Day is part of the wrap-up celebration for the State Fair each year, and draws tens of thousands of people to the streets of South Pueblo to celebrate the Hispanic heritage of the Steel City.

I’ve been in Fiesta Day parades nearly every near for almost a decade now, and each year is more and more fun. This year, we joined Congressmen John Salazar and Mark Udall on the parade route. The focus of the day was to get Congressman Udall in front of as many people as possible and talking about his run for the U.S. Senate. All along the parade route, Salazar and Udall were greeted with cheers and smiles — Pueblo loves Mark Udall, and things certainly look good for him down here in Southern Colorado a year before the race gets to full speed.

Notable was the absence of any presence by the Republican Party in Pueblo at the parade. Beyond not hearing a single “boo” from the crowd, the Republicans didn’t even bother to have an entry in the parade. Neither Bob Schaffer nor any other prominent Republican politician were present. You may recall that last year, I reported from Pueblo that it appeared that the Pueblo Republicans were abandoning nearly every candidate, statewide and local, to focus on keeping the seat of the incumbent County Sheriff, Dan Corsentino. Well, Corsentino lost miserably to Kirk Anderson Taylor, and since then, it just seems like the Republican Party down in Pueblo has fallen to pieces.

That’s not to say the GOP won’t be back in Pueblo. But for now, it is clear that the leadership of the Democratic Party — led by able County Chair Terry Hart — has been very successful at winning races and demoralizing the opposition in this critically blue county.

I’ll be back up in Denver for an event on Saturday which I should be announcing in the next couple of days… stay tuned! Hopefully, I can get pictures of the parade up on DemNotes here really soon…

 UPDATE:  I screwed up on the name of the new Pueblo Sheriff — His name is Kirk Taylor

Hearty thanks are in order for the Pueblo County Democrats and friends for their hard work in staffing a booth at the Colorado State Fair for the past eleven days. They chose a prime location in the upper concourse of the central Fair building, right near an entrance and had TONS of flyers and brochures available, plus energetic workers with a good plan for interacting with the people passing by.

The gate traffic numbers aren’t in yet, of course, but it’s a sure thing that hundreds of thousands of people were exposed to the Democratic message here in Pueblo! Great job, guys!

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

Remember Weld County?

Remember how they were so red for years that the election of Jim Riesberg to represent Greeley in 2004 was seen as a fluke by many?

Then, do you remember how we held our 2006 State Assembly in Greeley? Maybe you didn’t notice, but people came from out of the woodwork to help put on a great event in Greeley for us. Those volunteers didn’t just go back home and sit in their easy chairs after the Island Grove Events Center was cleaned up. Instead, they spread out across the communities of Weld County and worked for victory in 2006.

Then, something amazing happened. Bill Ritter — a Democrat — won Weld County.

Now, I’m not saying it was all due to that little soiree we held at Island Grove in May that did it. But I think most folks would agree that it helped.

Last night, the members of the State Party’s Site Selection Committee made another historic decision: they are recommending that the road to the Democratic National Convention in Denver go through Colorado Springs. They are recommending that the road to the second Democratic United States Senator from Colorado go through Colorado Springs.

To be fair, the decision was not easy. Broomfield Democrats put together an amazing bid; I was foaming at the mouth to be able to produce a state convention and assembly at the new Broomfield Events Center. But there were just too many advantages to going to El Paso County to ignore, and that’s why the decision by the Committee was unanimous. Here’s some of the Party’s press release this morning:

DENVER, Colorado – The Colorado Democratic Party’s Site Selection Committee last evening unanimously voted to recommend that the 2008 State Democratic Convention and Assembly be held at the World Arena in Colorado Springs. The decision followed intensive work, including site visits, by leaders of both Colorado Springs and Broomfield to woo the Democrats to their respective communities. Pursuant to Party rules, the Party’s Executive Committee will vote in July on whether to accept the recommendation.

CDP First Vice Chair and Site Selection Committee Chair Dan Slater talked about the process. “The members of the Site Selection Committee have worked extremely hard over the past two months to ensure that every possible angle of these bids have been examined. While we were very impressed with the bid from Broomfield, in the end, the bid from El Paso County Democrats excelled in every area: technical, political, and in terms of community support. El Paso County’s Democratic Party has proven to be one of the most energetic in the state, and we are confident that they will be the ideal hosts for us in May of 2008.”

State Party Chair Pat Waak praised the work of the Committee. “I am very pleased that we had such a hard-working group of people willing to work on this task. I’m confident the Executive Committee will support their recommendation, and I’m excited to nominate our next United States Senator in Colorado Springs.”

Waak said that the choice of historically-Republican El Paso County meshed well with the Party’s “64-County Strategy”. “We’re competing in all parts of this state. Democrats have better ideas, are better organized, and have better candidates. To consistently win statewide, we have to be willing to take on Republicans everywhere, and we’re doing that. Colorado Springs is changing, as we’ve seen with the elections of Representative Michael Merrifield and Senator John Morse. We’re proud to honor those changing dynamics by bringing the state to Colorado Springs next May.”

This was the second time the Colorado Democratic Party had used a competitive site selection process to choose the site for the state assembly/convention. In 2005, the Party chose Greeley as its site for the 2006 State Assembly, and the resulting energy from that event is partially credited by many for Governor Bill Ritter’s historic victory in Weld County in 2006. The Site Selection Committee is comprised of 10 members, plus a non-voting chair, appointed by the State Party Chair. Of the ten members, at least one must come from each of Colorado’s seven Congressional Districts, guaranteeing geographical diversity. A Request for Proposals was sent out to each county Democratic chair in April, 2007, with Broomfield and Colorado Springs submitting bids in May, 2007.

As noted, the decision has yet to be ratified by the State Executive Committee, which will likely be meeting on July 21 in Pueblo. But I’m hopeful that the Executive Committee will see the same advantages we saw and endorse this decision.

I had to drive through Colorado Springs to get back home last night. Since there was already a fundraiser for Representative Michael Merrifield and Senator John Morse going on, I thought I’d stop by and somewhat-informally congratulate the El Paso Dems on their success. There just happened to be a reporter from the Colorado Springs Gazette there, and here’s some of what is up on the Gazette today:

A site-selection committee for the state party unanimously agreed Wednesday that Democrats hold the party’s 2008 state convention in Colorado Springs. The party’s executive committee still must ratify the recommendation next month, but several sources said that’s merely a formality.

The May convention will be a two-day affair at several hotels and the World Arena, culminating in the expected nomination of Congressman Mark Udall as the party’s U.S. Senate nominee. It is a separate event from the weeklong Democratic National Convention that will be held next summer in Denver.

Still, the state convention is expected to attract 6,500 peo- ple, most of whom will come from outside the area, staying at city hotels and eating in local restaurants.

No figures were available late Wednesday on the exact economic impact, but Mayor Lionel Rivera, who wrote a letter to support the bid, said Republican state conventions that have been here have typically filled all the hotel rooms in the southwest part of town.

“We’re going to play everywhere, including the reddest parts of the state,” Dan Slater, chairman of the selection committee, told Democratic leaders at The Warehouse restaurant. “This county is in play.”

His optimism — as well as the idea of a state Democratic convention in El Paso County — would have seemed laughable in mid-2002, when no Democrats held local office and Libertarians put more candidates onto the ballot here. State Rep. Mike Merrifield, a Colorado Springs Democrat elected in the fall of that year, said he would have been “shocked” by such an announcement at that time.

But local Democrats put together an enticing package this year, showing that hotels and the convention could be within walking distance of each other. They also emphasized the importance of El Paso County Democratic votes to winning statewide races.

“Pretty clearly, the state party recognizes the tectonic shift that’s occurring in El Paso County,” said state Sen. John Morse, D-Colorado Springs.

A tectonic shift indeed. And we’re just beginning…

The following was released this morning.

UDALL FOR COLORADO

FOR RELEASE: April 16, 2007
Contact: Jennifer Rokala
303/412-0531

UDALL FILES FOR 2008 SENATE RUN AND REPORTS $1.5 MILLION CASH ON HAND

(Westminster-CO) – Today, Congressman Mark Udall (D-Eldorado Springs) filed papers to form a new Senate election committee with the Secretary of the United States Senate.

Udall also reported $1,537,686 million to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) in his Congressional campaign account, including $334,882 raised in the last quarter.

The entire $1.5 million is transferable to his Senate committee, “Udall for Colorado.”

“I have been deeply honored to represent the people of Colorado’s Second Congressional District,” said Udall. “I will continue to work hard to represent my district, and I view the upcoming Senate race as an opportunity to expand my strong commitment to public service on behalf of all the people of Colorado.”

“I intend to run a campaign that breaks the old mold of bitter and partisan politics, in favor of one that is about bringing Coloradans together, “said Udall. “Our country is facing deep crises at home and abroad – we must find a way to successfully end the war in Iraq and mount an effective strategy against terrorism, and we must build a safer, stronger and more prosperous America. We can only meet these challenges by working in new ways that reach across old partisan divides, and elevate our public debates. That is what I have always strived for in my political life, and it is my intention to build a campaign organization that matches the best expectations of Coloradans.”

Udall indicated that a formal campaign announcement would be set for later this year.

###

In the interview with Aaron Harber taped this past week, the question of who would be the Republican candidate for Senate came up. My Repub counterpart threw out former Rep. Bob Schaffer’s name as the potential candidate in 2008 for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Wayne Allard.

My question was if the past Republican governor Bill Owens didn’t support Bob Schaffer in 2004, why would we expect him to in 2008. Mr. Wadhams snapped that Bill Owens will support the nominee of the Republican party.

I suspect that is true. Bob Schaffer can make a case that the party pushed him aside last time and they owe him now. We saw Rep. Schaffer in D.C. this past February. He said he would like to run but hadn’t made up his mind.

In a side comment, the name of Attorney General John Suthers was mentioned. Clearly, the Republicans do not have a clear vision on their nominee. They will want to avoid the in-fighting that marred their races last year. Scott McInnis was their most moderate candidate, and his withdrawal makes it look like they are looking for someone more conservative.

Meanwhile, we will continue to plan for a strong statewide Senate race with the intent of winning another seat for the Democrats in Colorado, in the west, and in the nation.

At Colorado Confidential, Mark Mehringer has posted a detailed analysis of statewide voter registration numbers over the past two years. When it comes to data a picture really is worth 1,000 words, and Mark has produced some nice graphs that illustrate noticable trends. Among others, the Republican registration advantage has declined 16% in the last two years, and the key “swing” counties Jefferson and Arapahoe have in particular seen Republican registration advantages narrow.

Read the whole story here:

http://www.coloradoconfidential.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1786