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January 25, 2015 12:56 PM UTC

David Sabados challenging Rick Palacio for Chair of State Democratic party

  • 17 Comments
  • by: wade norris

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Dave Sabados, Rick Palacio.
Dave Sabados, Rick Palacio.

This should be news here on Colorado Pols…

From the Colorado Statesman:

Campaign consultant David Sabados announced late this week that he is challenging Colorado Democratic Party chairman Rick Palacio, who is seeking a third term as head of the state party at the Democrats’ reorganization meeting next month.

I had not heard about any issues with Chairman Palacio, but apparently part of this challenge was spurred by Palacio's decision to give himself a $25,000 raise.  More from The Statesman:

Palacio won reelection to a second term as state chairman without opposition after Democrats scored big wins in 2012, including carrying the state for President Barack Obama for the second time and taking back control of the state House by a wide margin.

But it was a revelation at a December meeting of the Democratic state executive committee meeting that sealed it for Sabados, he said.

“One of the final straws for me deciding we need a change was when the committee discovered that the chair had given himself approximately $25,000 in pay raises without the approval of the executive committee,” Sabados said.

Palacio had been paid $75,000 annually starting in 2011, when he was first elected chair, a member of the executive committee told The Statesman, but the pay was increased to $100,000 last year, as part of a budget item that also included salaries for the party’s executive director and other staff.

“The reaction,” said Sabados, “was complete shock and feelings that the — not so much the amount, but that the process completely neglected the state executive committee.” Sabados, who sits on the state executive committee, made the motion to break out the chair’s salary from the rest of the budget “to have more control over it going forward.”

Your thoughts on the potential shake up of the Colorado Democratic leadership….

The full article by Ernest Luning of the Statesman can be read here:

http://www.coloradostatesman.com/content/995324-dem-state-chair-faces-challenger

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17 thoughts on “David Sabados challenging Rick Palacio for Chair of State Democratic party”

  1. Sorry Wade, but unless you can prove this was an actual violation of something, I'm not going to complain one bit about Rick Palacio's salary. He earns every penny.

    1. Agreed. I can't imagine the work that goes into being Chair of a state party. Both Palacio and Call deserve every bit of their salary. More pertinent, Sabados is not the person to lead Colorado Dems. I know he has bragged about secretly recording meetings with electeds and campaign chiefs and then threatened to use their words against them if they didn't hire him to do campaign work. Immature and sleazy.

      That's not how Democrats are going to win elections. We don't need a kid with divisive politics leading our party.

      1. Speaking of unsubstantiated claims, that is a pretty heinous thing to accuse someone of.  I have never heard of anything like this.  Would you like to share how you "know" this?

  5. Although the Call-Cristie strategy worked out:  BWB stayed close enough to Hick to allow enough ticket splitters to elect Gardner.  I'm guessing Cory supports Call's re-election.

  6. I don't know if you have tried to recruit a single 'Century Club' member, but you need to recruit an extra 1,000 every year to meet the last few year's six digit pay bump for that job.

    We lost the US Senate, the State Senate, lost seats in the State House, lost the recalls. I am not sure what increased value justifies that salary continuing to climb, but that might be because I have heard no attempt to justify it at all. It just floated through buried in aggregated numbers.

    I think our party can do better, with more transparency and engagement, and I think Sabados is prefect for the job

    1. I've definitely heard Sabados say "motherfucker" in public, but not since he put his name forward for chair. Palacio communicates his emmer effer outbursts more through body language.

  8. I'm not usually around here anymore but a friend mentioned this development to me and I couldn't be more thrilled. To be clear, I like Chairman Palacio and think he's done some great things in office, as well as simply opening the door for youth (like Sabados!) to increase their involvement at the party leadership level, by demonstrating with his own success that it can be done.

    With that said, in all my political interactions with David Sabados I've found him to be intelligent, ethical, and unapologetically committed to the best values associated with the Democratic Party. He's also won some very tight campaigns, and taken some major risks to work with candidates he really genuinely supports. I've never seen him make the kinds of values compromises some insiders do.

    This seems to me like a possible state-level Chris Kennedy. When Kennedy chaired in Jeffco, all the candidates won and things ran smoothly. He stepped on some toes and did an occasionally lousy job of playing capitulatory inside baseball, but where it counted–when a win was on the line–he made smart decisions and the candidates won.

    Sabados could do that on the state level… if I was still there I'd be campaigning in favor of his candidacy. 

    1. Hi PCG. Nice to see ya. And you're right, Chris Kennedy is da man. 

      I don't even know if I can vote for Dem party chair, since I'm in a new county now, but if I did, it would probably be for Vic Meyers. 

        1. 's all good. I get my political involvement on the more grassroots side these days. I've stayed out of the electoral world for the most part (besides voting ofc) in favor of working directly on police violence issues.

  9. Giving himself a raise without the approval of the executive committee.  An employee takes more than authorized by the employer?  

    Seems like he should be up for a promotion.  Watch out DWS.

    Why not support the clown nominated to run for CD-4 who did not get 30% of the vote?  Such a difficult decision.  A crook or a clown.

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