On Sunday, the streets were closed off, so we walked a few blocks and took a taxi to the Washington Hilton for the Emily’s List luncheon. Other Coloradans Rollie and Josie Heath were there, and we also ran into Katie Hoffner with her mother. And of course, Rep. Betsy Markey and her staff attended.

It was so exciting to hear from the newly elected Senators Kay Hagan (NC) and Jeanne Shaheen (NH). Governor Bev Perdue gave us insight on her race in North Carolina. And we also got to hear from the three women appointed to the Obama Administration: Janet Napolitano for Homeland Security; Hilda Solis for Labor; and Hillary Clinton for State. The program ran an hour over time, but it was so exciting.

We then went by the Westin to do a walk through for the Monday Colorado Ball. From there we walked back to our hotel with strains of music coming from the Mall.

After standing in a crush of people trying to get onto the Metro, we headed for dinner with family in Springfield, Virginia. Everyone was in a good mood.

On Monday we spent most of the day on Capitol Hill collecting swearing in tickets for Colorado attendees. While having a late breakfast on the Senate side, we ran into Senator Shaheen again.

From there it was off to the DNC for the last group of tickets. It was an opportunity to hear more stories about how different states were faring in the process. There we ran to lunch where Anthony Graves and Erika Hixson showed up to collect their tickets. They told us how long the lines were to get into the Rayburn Building where Rep. DeGette was holding a reception.

Luckily, Lisa Cohen, Diana’s chief of staff, sent out rescue teams to get us in.

Our next trip was back to the hotel to change into our fancy clothes for the Colorado Inaugural Ball. It was very well attended and included Mayor Hickenlooper, Sen. Udall, Sen.-select Bennet, Reps. DeGette, Polis, Markey, and Perlmutter, State Sen. Groff, State Sen. Schwartz, State Rep. Gagliardi, State Rep. Primavera, State Rep. Kerr, State Rep. McGihon, State Rep. McCann, and many others. We partied till the end.

On Tuesday morning we started out really early. The Metro would not let us in so we walked two and half miles to the backside of the Rayburn Building where the Orange Gate line began. One and one half hours in line made us thankful for the long underwear, hats, gloves and other warm clothing.
But in the end we had a wonderful view of the inaugural ceremony. I was moved to tears more than once. You can see all the pomp and circumstance online, but I would not have missed the real thing. I felt really lucky to be there.

After the swearing in, we walked back to our hotel (2.5 miles). Scheduled us for an early dinner. Then we dressed again and were off to the Western Ball. One highlight of the evening was Marc Antony, and Jennifer Lopez joined him on stage. Joe and Jill Biden arrived around 10:30pm. We missed seeing the President and First Lady because my brother and his wife had to get the next Metro to Virginia before it closed down. It was a really cold night.

On Wednesday, Ken and I moved to the Woodley Park hotel where the Association of State Democratic Chairs met. Our main mission was to elect new officers. I was re-elected as the Western Representative to the DNC. In the afternoon the DNC met and paid tribute to Governor Dean. In a very moving moment, the Native American community presented him with an Indian blanket.

Gov. Tim Kane was elected as the new Chair of the Democratic National Committee.
He is very supportive of the 50-state strategy. We will be waiting to see what form that comes in.

Thursday was to be museum day for us, but we were invited to sit in the Senate Gallery in the afternoon. After a quick visit to the Native American Museum, we went over to the Senate to observe the discussion about the “Lily Ledbetter” law. That went on for about 40 minutes. Then Vice President Biden came to swear in Michael Bennet as Colorado’s new senator.

In the reception following, former Sen. Tim Wirth and now senior Senator Mark Udall spoke along with Rep. John Salazar and Rep. Betsy Markey. Many great friends and new acquaintances welcomed Sen. Bennet.

We flew back to Colorado on Friday. It was great to get home.

Pat Waak

Just when you thought it was all over….

We still have a HUGE race that Colorado’s Democrats can be a part of winning. No, it is not in Colorado, but it IS critical to making sure we have the votes we need in Washington to help President Obama get the legislation he needs to keep his promises to us in Colorado.

As many of you may have heard, there remain two un-settled U.S. Senate races. One is in Minnesota, where elections officials are working through the recount process to determine whether Republican Norm Coleman will keep his seat, or whether Democrat Al Franken will become the 59th member of the Democratic caucus in the U.S. Senate.

The other race will be decided tomorrow, in Georgia. There, Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss could not get the 50% of the vote required by Georgia state law, and is engaged in a tight runoff with Democrat Jim Martin. The key to that race will be turnout — whichever side does a better job getting its voters out tomorrow will win.

And that’s where you come in here in Colorado.

You see, the Obama campaign has given its voter contact capabilities to the Martin campaign. So you can sign in to the Obama website and make calls from here in Colorado — many of you likely have some free long distance minutes on your cell phones — and talk directly to voters in Georgia to get out the vote. Here is a note I just received from Georgia Democratic Party Executive Director Matt Weyandt:

Tomorrow is election day and we are very, very close. This is all a turnout game and we still need your help. The more Democrats we contact in the next 24 hours the better our chances of adding another Democratic Senator to support President-elect Obama. Please send one last email blast to your state party lists encouraging volunteers to use the Barack Obama Neighbor-to-Neighbor Tool to call Georgia Democrats and remind them to vote on Tuesday – http://my.barackobama.com/call4martin.

So, that’s it. Log in, and make a few calls to help out in this critical race. If we win tomorrow, and if we are successful in Minnesota, we will see a U.S. Senate where the Republicans won’t be able to block important Democratic legislation. This is the key to our making real change happen here in America.

It is up to you. Once again.

Two weeks.

Two weeks from tomorrow, we will find out whether our hard work has paid off.

Two weeks from tomorrow, we will know exactly how much field organization in Colorado has helped.

Two weeks from tomorrow, we will have a better idea where we are on this transformation of Colorado from a red state to a blue state.

A lot can happen in two weeks. I’m sure you’ve all heard about the polls showing a lead this way or that, but remember that it only took less than a week for Barack Obama to build a lead in the polls in Colorado. It could take less than a week for that to reverse itself and for John McCain to build a lead in Colorado.

This is NO TIME for complacency. This is NO TIME to assume we have this one “won”.

We only need to look back to 2002. I recall a lot of happy faces the last couple of weeks of 2002 — folks convinced that Tom Strickland would be our new United States Senator. Polls were showing him 5, 6, 7, 8 points in the lead over Wayne Allard. Senator Allard’s obituary was being written. Everywhere I went, Party leaders where smiling and happy over the state of the race.

Then something happened. Colorado voted. And Tom Strickland lost.

“Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.” We cannot forget the history here in Colorado. This is not an easy state for Democrats to win. This is not an easy state for Barack Obama to win. This is not an easy state for Mark Udall to win. This is not an easy state for Betsy Markey, or any of our other Congressional candidates, to win.

So here’s my message: if you’ve signed up to volunteer for the campaigns, make sure you show up and work your ass off. Then, sign up for another shift. If you haven’t signed up to work, for crying out loud, SIGN UP NOW!!!! We have field offices and county party offices all across the state. Find yours and SIGN UP NOW!!!!

And if you haven’t voted yet, get out there and vote today — early voting begins today.

—————————-

If you don’t think that the work you do out in the field means anything, take notice of this quiet piece of history that was released over the weekend: The number of active registered Democrats in Colorado is now greater than the number of active registered Republicans. And we now have over a million registered Democrats in Colorado — just 14,000 fewer registered Democrats than Republicans. (The difference between the number of registered voters and the number of “Active” registered voters is that “Active” only include those that have voted in a recent election.)

This news is taking a lot of people, including me, by surprise. I had known we were doing well with the voter registration program we were implementing across Colorado. I just did not realize that we were doing this well. To give you an idea how well Democrats are doing, here are the stats. Since November 2006 — two years ago — Democrats have gained about 142,000 voters. Unaffiliated registration has also jumped by 54,000. But Republicans? Republicans have actually LOST 10,000 registrants since 2006.

Again, though, we cannot afford to leave this job unfinished. We must do whatever we can to get every one of these new voters to the polls between now and November 4; otherwise, all of this will have been in vain.

Don’t let up now. This is the time to spend every last piece of energy fighting for every single vote. We owe that to America.

(h/t to ColoradoPols)

Last night, I was in Pueblo, attending the Pueblo Dems’ annual picnic, and this was my message to the 100 or so Democrats gathered at the Pueblo Greenway and Nature Center:

All Hands On Deck!

Throughout the media this morning, you’ve probably heard that we have 60 days until the election. Not in Colorado. In Colorado, folks start voting in less than 30 days! Ballots will be printed and could be sent out by county clerks as early as October 3. By my calculation, that’s 28 days.

28 days to change the world.

By 45 days from now, at least a third of Coloradans who will vote will have already voted. Based on what we’ve seen in 2006 and in the primaries this year, it is safe to assume that less than half of the voters will actually vote in the traditional manner by showing up on November 4th at their precinct polling place.

If you were waiting for the “sprint to the finish line” to get involved, well… we’re there.

Colorado is razor-thin close, and many national experts estimate that Colorado will decide the Presidency. But we don’t only have a Presidency on the line; Mark Udall is facing blistering attacks from those who fear his Colorado values coming to the U.S. Senate, and his vote may be the critical one that gets us to a 60-vote filibuster-proof Senate that can help a President Obama. We have a great opportunity to finally be rid of Marilyn Musgrave in the 4th Congressional District, with Betsy Markey leading most recent polling. And a wave of hard work from volunteers could make Colorado the focus of national attention when we finish with a clean sweep by bringing in Hal Bidlack and Hank Eng to Congress. Finally, the Colorado Republican Party is focused like a laser beam on the 2011 redistricting, and they know they have to take out key Democrats in the State House and State Senate to do so; we’ve got to work hard there.

So, like I said, it’s all hands on deck time. Now, I wouldn’t ask any of you to do something I don’t do myself. Longtime readers of DemNotes know that I spent 2006 criss-crossing the state walking precincts with local candidates. We’re going to do that again this year, walking with candidates all over Colorado, helping with our sweat and shoe leather. And I’ll be staffing phone banks — we’re going to be doing some phone banking tonight at our local party headquarters right here in Canon City.

It’s time.

Knock on doors. Stuff some envelopes. Make some calls.

Without the work of every single Democratic activist, we won’t be able to do this. But if we all work together, we will change the world, and we’ll look back on 2008 as the year Colorado did something pretty darned amazing.

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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.

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!

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.

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!

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