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.

On Friday, February 29, 2008, we hosted the 75th anniversary Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner at the Denver Convention Center. It was one of the largest dinners in the history of Colorado. We were also celebrating the fact that the Democratic National Convention is coming to Denver for the first time since 1908.

The highlight of the evening was the keynote address by Senator Jim Webb of Virginia. Senator Webb was the last of the 2006 Democratic races we won. He was the “tipping point” for control of the U.S. Senate. Also his was the race that swung Virginia into the “blue” category.

The Senator gave a speech that focused on national security, economic fairness and a return to the traditions of the Democratic Party. I particularly enjoyed talking with him as we made our way through the back halls of the Convention Center. He is smart, funny and personable.

The other highlights of the evening were awards. Rep. Rosemary Marshall was presented with the Democrat of the Year award. Rep. Ed Casso, Jr. received the award for the Rising Star. We gave out two Lifetime Achievement awards to Wally Stealey, who gave a feisty speech and to Ernie Duran, whose daughters Crisanta and Carol received it on his behalf. The Volunteer of the Year went to Jennifer Trujillo Sanchez.

I had the honor to give the Chair’s Award to Rep. John Salazar. He dedicated so much time to helping the party this past year, and we are deeply appreciative. Meanwhile the Colorado Young Democrats gave awards to Cindy Lowery, Leah Daughtry, Elbra Wedgeworth and Sen. Peter Groff.

This year I did not hold an after party reception because it was an early morning for the next day. I started the day by going to Elbert County. Now I have been in Elbert County at the Carlson Building many times. Usually there are maybe 20-25 people in attendance.
On that Saturday morning the room was packed and there was standing room only.

The Elbert County Chair, Rick Brown, gave me a wonderful intro, and I had the pleasure of addressing an enthusiastic and excited group of county assembly/convention attendees. My challenge, as always, is for everyone to stay involved in all of the party activities. We need their help through the year to make this a great election for the people of Colorado and the nation.

From Elbert County I drove to Broomfield. Over 160 people attended the county assembly/convention. It was Chair Kevin Kreeger’s first, and he was doing a great job. I arrived to hear Joe Whitcomb, who is running for Senate District 23, my district. He was followed by Don Quick, District Attorney for Adams County.

I want to mention that Don and I talked before we each spoke. We often do not pay enough attention to the District Attorney races. As a result we do not have enough Democratic D.A.s. Don is the example of one of our finest, and we need to not only get him elected, but to find many more like him who will run.
It was my chance to speak and of course, one of my first questions was “how many of you are here for the first time.” Like Elbert County and last weeks’ counties, most of the audience raised their hands. So I talked about our chance to win back the White House and all of the other races, including Rep. Diane Primavera’s re-election.

From Broomfield I headed to Clear Creek County. So many times I have had to cancel my trips to Idaho Springs because of snow and ice. Saturday was a beautiful and sunny day. And Clear Creek’s assembly/convention was filled. Becky Cook and Tim Mauck are the co-chairs, and they had a great team helping them get everyone registered.

Clear Creek had many new people participating, so my same message went out to them. It was thrilling to see their excitement.

Next weekend we are racing from Larimer to Weld, then Adams to Denver, and finally Arapahoe. These counties will be huge gatherings so I look forward to continuing the opportunity to talk to as many of the participants as possible.

On Monday, I met with the new communications director for the coordinated campaign, Lauren Rose. We will have more to announce in the next week or so about our communications team. However, it was a good planning session.

Lauren and I headed for Lakewood to attend the latest DNCC community conversation. Rep. Ed Perlmutter from CD7 and Leah Daughtry, CEO of the Democratic National Convention Committee were the main speakers. They mostly talked about the logistics of the upcoming convention. The DNCC is using 7 hotels in the Lakewood area.

Some of the questions related to delegate selection. I had an opportunity to talk about the next steps in the delegate process. One person asked about “superdelegates.” Both Rep. Perlmutter and Leah Daughtry explained the history of automatic delegates. For more on this, you might want to go to Colorado Matters and listen to the interview taped by Rep. Perlmutter, Maria Handley and me. It was aired on Feb. 28, 2008.

There were questions about getting the arts involved. President of the Denver Host Committee, Elbra Wedgeworth, stepped up to talk about some of the plans for spotlighting Denver arts and culture. Business opportunities were high on the list. Leah Daughtry said that one possibility would be to set up activities for children and child care.

Over 200 people came out on a Monday morning. This is another indication of the excitement for Colorado around the upcoming convention.

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

I just wanted to drop two quick notes today on DemNotes. First, I forgot to mention one other thing I heard on Saturday. We all are seeing the intense interest on the Democratic side of this election. We are also hearing about the lack of interest on the Republican side. Nothing could show that further than what happened here in Fremont County over the past couple of weeks.

You may recall from my reporting that Fremont County had over 200 delegates to its Democratic Convention and Assembly. Historically and demographically, Fremont County is a Republican county. There are nearly twice as many Republicans as Democrats in Fremont County. Yet, they only had just over 170 delegates elected to their Republican County assembly. More importantly, when they actually held the assembly last weekend, we have heard that only 86 — that’s right, less than half of what the Democrats had — only 86 Republicans showed up! (In case you’re worried about quorum, don’t — the GOP has vastly different views on quorum than the Democrats.)

Something is happening in Colorado and in America!

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Also, I’ve been lax in getting photos up to the photos page of DemNotes lately, but I’ve finally gotten pictures from several county assemblies up there today (not all of them, though — I didn’t bring a camera to a few). You can see all of the photos at:
http://www.DemNotes.com/photos

Note, of course, that I’m not a professional photographer (that should be evident!). Many of the photos are grainy or blurry due to the poor lighting at most of these things (and my older digital camera). I don’t just pick out the best photos to upload — you pretty much see them all, so don’t expect the best-quality pix. (By the way, if you’re in a picture and you don’t want it up on the website, or you don’t think it is flattering, just let me know and I’ll take it down.)

See you all soon!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Last night, I went to Colorado Springs to attend a couple of events for the planning of the upcoming State Convention and Assembly there on May 16-17. What is happening is pretty incredible.

I first attended an informational meeting held by a group of local businesspeople who are looking to really showcase Colorado Springs and the Pikes Peak region as Democrats arrive in May. They have all sorts of events planned. In particular, they are working on three tours (so far) — a tour of “progressive Colorado Springs,” including open space areas and areas of interest to progressives (sending the message that not all of El Paso County is a monolithic “Focus on the Family” group); a tour of the many El Paso County military installations, led by former 5th CD candidate Jay Fawcett; and a tour of the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. They are also working on arranging for a “Progressive Night for Progressives,” featuring a street party with a “progressive dinner” — food from several different restaurants downtown. There is an incredibly intense interest in showing Colorado Democrats a good time when they visit Colorado Springs.

In addition to those efforts, the local Democrats and the State Party are working hard to make sure that delegates and alternates are treated well, and plans are being made to do just that. After leaving the first meeting, I attended a meeting of local committee chairs. As I told the committee last night, there is simply no way we can over-estimate the crowds we will see in May. Plans are being made to double the estimates of the crowds we usually have (and the crowds we usually have are pretty big), but we really could see a lot more than that even. We are working to make sure that the State Party learns from the crowds seen on caucus night and at the county assemblies, and that we make sure that the plans are in place to deal with those crowds effectively and efficiently.

There are a number of efforts already underway. We have a committee working to ensure that transportation issues within Colorado Springs are handled well. Another committee is focusing on accessibility issues, and working to keep focused on planning for delegates and alternates with disabilities. Yet another committee is working to be sure that registration runs smoothly; another committee is focused on being certain delegates and alternates are warmly welcomed to Colorado Springs and questions are answered quickly (and correctly). We even have a committee focused entirely on “greening” the convention — making sure our efforts are as environmentally-friendly as possible. And that’s just a handful of the committees. The planning is going very well!

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A couple of days ago, I mentioned the Denver Film Society’s “Cinemocracy” efforts in conjunction with the National Convention. Well, the Host Committee has issued a press release this morning with more details. Here is some of that release:

Building upon the Denver 2008 Convention Host Committee’s Call to Democracy effort, the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs (DOCA) and Denver Film Society (DFS), producers of the Starz Denver Film Festival, are pleased to announce the creation and launch of the Cinemocracy Film Festival, an open source film festival to coincide with the 2008 Democratic National Convention. As an official event of the Host Committee, Cinemocracy calls for open participation in the political process.

Info at a Glance:

– 2008 Cinemocracy Film Festival addresses the topic of “How do you define Democracy?”
– Top-ranked films will be publicly screened in Denver during the week of the 2008 Democratic National Convention (August 25-28).
– For submission guidelines and official rules, visit www.denverfilm.org/cinemocracy.

During a year of monumental change, the Host Committee, DOCA and DFS invite citizens of the world to speak out and share ideas on what democracy is (or isn’t) through the creation of short films. All films submitted via free upload will be judged by the online public and the top 10 will be screened at a free public event in Denver during the week of Aug. 25-28.

Additionally, the winning film will be screened as part of the official program of the 31st Starz Denver Film Festival (November 13-23). The film festival is one of many events planned that underscore the Host Committee’s Call to Democracy efforts, encouraging public engagement and civic awareness in the democratic process.

Submitted films can be up to five minutes long and can be uploaded from March 1 through July 15 to www.denverfilm.org/cinemocracy. Voting will remain open until Aug. 1.

If you’re an amateur (or maybe even better-than-amateur) film-maker, take a look at this and do your submission ASAP. And, heck, you might even see your submission in May at the State Convention if you get things done and submitted early enough! I have had a preliminary discussion with the Denver Film Society, and we may be able to show a few of their submissions at the State Convention on May 17 (if you attended the State Convention in 2004, you may recall we used some Moveon.org submissions in a similar contest during that convention).

Because of the intense interest in unpledged delegates, I asked Phil McNamara of the DNC to give us a little history. His comments follow:

“Super delegates — or as they are technically known ‘unpledged delegates’ — were first introduced by the Party in 1982 for the 1984 nominating cycle.

These individuals serve as delegates because of some prominent office they hold or have held. While unpledged delegates probably do have a presidential preference, this is not a factor in why they are delegates. Rather, they serve as delegates because the Democratic Party wants the important perspective they bring to the decision-making process at the National Convention.

In recommending the creation of unpledged delegates the Commission on Presidential Nomination (the Hunt Commission) sought a way to more effectively bring elected official and Party leader participation back into the Convention. The Hunt Commission found that elected officials made up just 14% of the total delegates at the 1980 Convention.

Political scientist William Crotty wrote about the super delegates in 1983 and said the following:

‘As presented to the Hunt Commission, then, the gains from increased participation in nomination decision-making by party professionals would be substantial:

These leaders and officials, as experienced politicians, would bring seasoned and sensitive judgment to the selection of a nominee and to the conduct of other party business.

Convention participation would create stronger ties between the party and its officeholders, promoting a unified campaign strategy and teamwork in government.

The inclusion of more elected officials would strengthen the party’s ties to their constituencies and its broad mainstream approval.’

Also DNC member Elaine Kamarck has a pretty good historical background of super delegates on the Harvard Kennedy School website. Link is:

http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/ksgnews/Features/opeds/021408_kamarck.htm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks to Debbie for that narrative.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rep. Gagliardi Helps with Understanding Options and Strategies for Foreclosure Prevention

When:
Saturday, March 1st
10:30-noon

Where:
Susan M Duncan YMCA
6350 Eldrige St, Arvada

Sponsor:
Representative Sara Gagliardi, HD 27

What:
Community members are invited to join Rep. Gagliardi for a panel discussion on foreclosure counseling and prevention, the foreclosure process, and how local officials and real estate professionals can help. Foreclosure counselors will be present for those seeking assistance.

Panel discussion:
What can be done about the high foreclosure rate?

Brothers Redevelopment, Inc.
Colorado Division of Housing
Colorado Housing and Finance Authority
State Housing Board
Department of Regulatory Agencies

Who’s Invited:
Homeowners, borrowers facing foreclosure, real estate professionals, and anyone seeking information on the foreclosure process and foreclosure prevention.

For more foreclosure information: www.coloradoforeclosurehotline.org

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pat Waak

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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