March 20, 2010 06:03 AM UTC

When is a Caucus win, not a WIN?

• 8 Comments
• by: peacemonger

When it should have been a massacre.

This CO Senate primary, for me, is one of strong, conflicting emotions. On one hand are many of my old friends — people from three different neighborhoods over the years — people with whom I have worked, walked, had meetings, made posters, planned rallies, cheered and cried. They are the friends that inspire me, motivate me, chew me out when I need it, and give me pats on the back when I work especially hard. They are the friends I made through numerous campaign cycles and through three neighborhood moves — elections where we poured out our hearts, exposing our values, our dreams, our hopes, and our fears… together.

We posed for photos of our babies with Pat Schroeder, and we cringed during Governor Romer’s “kissing-gate” (it wasn’t necessary to be quite that honest, Roy!). We were disgusted to hear Tom Tancredo spew bigoted comments on national television, and we hoped Doug Bruce’s kicking tantrum would mean the end of his credibility. We were thrilled when proud Native American Ben Nighthorse Campbell became our Senator, and furious when he deserted us to join the “other party”. We worked together to elect Ken Salazar and Mark Udall, Bill Ritter and Barack Obama, and many other elected officials at every level. We cried when our candidates lost, and we promised our undying friendship to each other as Democrats, no matter what.

Today, most of my friends — people I love and respect — are supporters of Andrew Romanoff, Colorado’s former Speaker of the House, and I understand why. Andrew was there for us for eight years, fighting the good fight, taking on the greed of corporate America, and trumpeting our progressive values. He earned our respect, our friendship, and our trust. And for many of my friends, he earned their support. No matter how many times current Romanoff campaign workers attack me personally for supporting Senator Michael Bennet, Speaker Andrew Romanoff (not candidate Andrew Romanoff) will always have my respect and admiration for the years he served us in the State House. Nothing can change that.

And yet, I find myself working against my friend’s efforts in the latest campaign cycle, because I support the person I believe to be the best candidate for the United States Senate to represent Colorado — Michael F. Bennet.

When I arrived at caucus on Tuesday night, my arms were full of balloons, posters, placards and stickers to decorate the Bennet table, and my heart was full of excitement. Still, I was overcome with emotion when I saw my friend’s disappointed faces. My friends do not understand how I could forsake Andrew Romanoff. My neighborhood precinct voted in three delegates and three alternates for Michael Bennet. I left delighted my house district came out 42% for Michael Bennet, despite the fact that almost all of the party leaders backed Andrew.

After caucus, I joined Susan Daggett, Michael Bennet’s wife, along with some of her friends and relatives, to watch the returns come in. The children played with balloons and we ate cookies they decorated with blue frosted “B”s. The discussion focused on how to get the message out about who Michael Bennet really is — the man, the father, the brother, the son, the cousin, the friend, the colleague, the Democrat. According to his inner circle, Michael has a hard time talking about himself and “tooting his own horn”. Instead, he would rather talk about the work that needs to be done to clean up government, and trying to get all of us to help him do it.

To hear my Romanoff friends tell it, Michael Bennet is an elitist/banker/corporate slug. In the last year, I was fortunate to have frequent contact with Senator Bennet’s office to plead for health care reform. Every time, I found the most responsive legislator I have ever met. Over the months, I got to know his staff, his campaign team, and his family. His wife Susan, mom of three adorable little girls and a sharp environmental attorney, has become a dear friend.

How I wished my other Democratic friends could be with me on Tuesday night! I wished they could be in Michael’s kitchen with his family, laughing with his wife about the quirks of their 15 year-old cat, hearing his children talk about cleaning their rooms, and listening to his cousin talk about how Michael finally bought a car that wasn’t used. I heard all about the long history of public service of the Bennet family, and how Michael’s mother escaped the Nazis as an infant.

Michael Bennet is a true statesman — he has integrity and decency. He cares about the poor, about school children, about struggling families, about immigrants who want a better life for their children, about gay and lesbian men and women who want the same rights he enjoys, and about the planet he will leave to Caroline, Halina and little Anne — and to their children. Michael cares about veterans and the services they receive, and about elderly neighbors who worry if they can afford their prescription drugs. Michael Bennet works 18 hours a day many days, committed to being an effective Senator, a great husband and father, and to retaining the Colorado Senate seat for a Democrat. He wants to be respected for his record, not just his talk.

Michael Bennet has impressed thousands of people around the country — other legislators in Congress, partners in business, viewers on C-Span, and those who closely follow his record. In his short time in Washington, he has impressed Mark Udall, Ed Perlmutter, Jared Polis, Betsy Markey, John Hickenlooper, Bill Ritter, Ted Kennedy, Ken Salazar, and especially, the President of the United States, Barack Obama. Ironically, Michael Bennet’s greatest challenge is winning over his own neighbors — people like my friends. They are people who have not taken the time to really get to know him, and people who feel they emotionally cannot forsake their friend, Andrew Romanoff.

Michael’s supporters in Colorado and all over the nation have been generous, and he is now positioned to take on any Republican candidate the GOP puts up against him. The commercials have already started, and people will soon be very impressed with the man they see and hear in their living rooms — the man who moved to Colorado when his wife took a job as an attorney for the Sierra Club, and who fell in love permanently with Colorado, just as many of us did.

My melancholy for a few days following caucus was not for Team Bennet. For us, 42% was a huge victory. The people who show up to caucus, merely 2-3% of all registered Democrats in the state, are long-time party leaders — house district chairs, senate district chairs, precinct captains, committee people, local officials, etc. These are Andrew Romanoff’s base, and most of them have been his friends for ten years. My sadness was for my Romanoff friends who are enjoying their last victory of this primary. Getting less than fifty percent support from one’s base is a disaster. If a vote were held of only people who wanted health care reform, or only people who volunteered to elect Obama, Michael Bennet would win in a landslide. Bennet supporters are not party insiders, and most of them do not caucus. After watching six months of commercials on television, I am confident they will come out to support him in huge numbers in August.

I am honored to have had the opportunity to get to know an extraordinary leader like Michael Bennet from the beginning of his impressive career in the United States Senate. I am pleased my friends, and all of Colorado’s residents — including Andrew Romanoff — will benefit from his work on their behalf, whether they know it or not. I look forward to the day, once again, when we are a united Democratic party, and a united Colorado.

View Senator Michael Bennet’s record here.