May 23, 2010 02:48 AM UTC
Colorado Democratic State Assembly - live blog
62 Comments- by: DavidThi808
( – promoted by Colorado Pols)
8:36 – Finally found the press area and am set up! Pretty low key so far with most people sitting and waiting and some milling around. Lines at the county register booths are very short. Only two groups handing out lit on the way in was a union group saying we should build more stuff and a Palestinian rights person. Also the Bennet campaign was giving away Krispy Kreme donuts – my decision yesterday cost me a donut!
Romanoff & Bennet teams are both out in force. More Romanoff signs (by far) both outside and inside. A lot of people wearing Romanoff t-shirts. No surprise with this, he does have the majority among the delegates. There’s also a couple of signs & big banners up for all of our Congress People – DeGette, Polis, Salazar, Markey, & Perlmutter. None for Udall though – I guess as he’s not running this year he doesn’t put anything up.
8:53 – There are two press spots in the skyboxes over section 108 and each has two teams in them. I’m sharing the one I am in with Fox News. They appear to be nice people even though they are part of Murdoch’s plan to control the universe.
8:57 – Hick has a pretty strong presence here too. Lots of signs and stickers being handed out by his campaign team. Still pretty quiet and boring. And very well organized considering that we’re Democrats.
8:59 – Opening video is starting. Starts off with the great things we have done starting and ending with the word LIBERAL.
9:00 – Pat Waak calling us to order (on time!), introducing party officers
9:04 – Pledge of Allegiance and now a woman with an incredible voice singing the Star Spangled Banner.
9:07 – Jared Polis introduced and gets a strong welcome. Doing a good job of laying out the progress we Dems have made in the state. Going from a small state footprint where we were trying to reduce the damage of Republican administration to pretty much running the state. (Yeah baby!)
9:14 – Joe Neguse up speaking. Getting everyone worked up to elect Democrats across the state. And now a short part about why he’s running for regent.
9:17 – Diane Primavera – Nice friendly welcome to Broomfield speech.
9:22 – Bill Ritter walking out – and he’s getting a standing ovation. (I’m going to miss him.) Calling out a giant thank you to the army of volunteers that make our party a success. He’s presenting an award to a woman who has been county chair for 22 years. Calling out a thank you to Pat Waak (she does do an outstanding job). Thanking everyone for their support for the past 4 years. (Ritter is definitely a class act.)
He’s now speaking about how as Democrats we must come together. That the differences we have within our team are nothing compared to the difference with the Republicans. He is speaking to the difference in Republican and Democratic control both in Colorado and for the country as a whole. Its interesting – his talk is concentrating more on the federal races. Nice plus to Hickenlooper at the end. This has got to be bittersweet for Ritter as this is his swan song.
9:34 – Ritter gone and no one on stage or any announcement of what/when next. They’re showing screenshots on the large screen and the shot of both Fox news and one of Glen Beck got large boo’s.
9:46 – Still sitting and waiting… Here’s the official schedule:
- Selection of the Temporary Officers of the Assembly
- Seating of Assembly Alternates
- Pledge of allegiance
- Invocation
- Welcome by Rep Jared Polis
- Welcome by the Broomfield Democratic Delegation (Rep. Diane Primavera)
- Welcome by Governor Bill Ritter –
- Introduction of Colorado Democratic Party Initiative Chairs and DNC Member
- Report of the Credentials Committee Chair, Carol Burkhart
- Report of the Permanent Organization Committee Chair, Carolyn Boller
- Lt. Governor Barbara O’Brien
- Nomination for Governor
- Nomination for U.S. Senate
- Collection of ballots for U.S Senate
- Diana DeGette
- John Salazar
- Betsy Markey
- CD 5 Candidate (TBD)
- John Flerlage
- Ed Perlmutter
- Nomination for Treasurer
- Nomination for Secretary of State
- Introduction of State House by Terrance Carroll
- Introduction of State Senate by Brandon Shaffer
- Nomination and balloting for CU Regent
- Collection of ballots for CU Regent
- Nomination for Attorney General
- Senator Mark Udall
- Platform by Hal Bidlack, Chair of the Platform Committee
- Announcement of results of balloting
- Adjournment
So we’re apparently waiting for “Introduction of Colorado Democratic Party Initiative Chairs and DNC Member” – but no idea why this is requiring a delay.
9:51 – Pat’s back! Introduced 3 people and we applauded.
9:53 – Credentials committee report (this falls in the necessary but boring part). Everyone just voted aye on something.
9:58 – Lt. Gov Barbara O’Brien now up. Introduces Dem board of education and regent officials – applause for all.
10:02 – Nominations are now open for Governor for the state of Colorado. The tension is unbearable as everyone wonders who it will be 🙂 Wellington Webb is nominating Hick for Governor. It was a pretty straightforward speech – not killer (and Webb can deliver killer).
10:04 – Video about Hick. It’s person after person talking about Hick. It strikes me as a way of introducing Hick as everyone’s friend and a regular guy. I think that works well for this audience because they’re going to work hard for him – it helps them sell him.
10:08 – Hick walks out to a giant standing ovation. He’s wearing a suite with very wide labels – and the labels are zebra skin. He starts off talking up the attributes of zebras and says he “has always been a zebra of a different stripe.” He’s definitely turning that add to an advantage. Now speaking in a very inclusive way saying that all of us, Democrats, Independents, and Republicans want our state to prosper. Saying that the way forward is not by trashing the other candidate, but to talk about his vision of what he wants to do for Colorado.
Now talking about how he is not a politician, that he’s never run for any office before Mayor. What he knows is running a business, creating jobs, and watching every dollar. Talking about the public/private partnerships he’s built to get problems addressed. Brings up how, when everyone said that opening a restaurant in Lo-Do during a recession was impossible, he pulled it off. That when everyone said we can never get the national convention here, he did.
Now says “jobs have to be our number one priority.” If he truly gets that and focuses the campaign on that, then I think he’s got a very strong campaign. Nothing specific listed about how to accomplish this, but a lot about why we need to address this problem. Takes that to we need a stellar job on education to have the workforce for the future (damn straight). And says we need to properly fund education – which got a surprisingly mild applause. Next points out that Higher Ed funding is directly related to the health of the state economy.
He then says that he will point out the differences between his campaign and his opponent. He listed out a couple of good phrases included building Colorado up instead of tearing people down.
10:25 – Hick is walking off to another standing ovation. He’s got an interesting style, it appears to be half common guy and half very competent businessman. He does it in a ver non-pretensious way and that sells well.
10:26 – Hickenlooper nominated as sole candidate by acclimation! It’s official and that means one thing – bad news for the Republicans!
10:28 – Nomination for Romanoff announced and the place erupted chanting “Andrew.” Person nominating him stressed that he has the highest ethics and was the former speaker of the house. Person seconding it stresses that regular people like her support Andrew. Now a video narrated by Andrew taking us through his family and his growing up. Next talking about the service he did helping the poor. It then went to his service in the legislature which got loud applause. Gave a beautiful story of a woman out of work and her wish to have someone representing her in Washington – strong way to end it.
10:37 – Andrew coming out on the stage to a rock star reception. Starts of thanking his mom – “everything I am or hope to be I owe to her.” (Very classy.) Next says that after the primary we must all support the winner – that he (Andrew will) and everyone must. But he then says that the Senate seat does not belong to “his opponent,” it belongs to Colorado. Now saying he will always remember that he represents the people of Colorado, not the interests in Washington.
Now in to a litany of the good things that we Democrats accomplished in Colorado once we gained a majority. (And everyone knows that occurred with him as Speaker.) That so many in Colorado are better off for those efforts. He then talked about needing as good leadership in the capitol as we have in the white house. And then he said that it is critical to have Senators that will represent the people and not sell us out – and that is why he is running. (I’d call that throwing down the gauntlet big time.) He then said fix the system or get out of the way – that got a giant applause.
Really good listing of what we should be doing in Washington from not giving bank CEOs a get out of jail free card to letting oil companies that trash the environment have a pass. He’s diving in to how BP is not being held accountable for the devastation it has inflicted on our country. And how BP’s immense amount of lobbying dollars is giving them a pass. He’s now selling his candidacy as saying no to the existing system where the special interests drive the legislation. He reiterated his refusal to accept contributions to special interest groups – and that got a major applause.
He’s tapping in to the deep dissatisfaction people have with Washington where it does the bidding of the lobbyists rather than the will of the people. That the one way to change this is for the people to elect a Senator that will represent those that voted for them. That it will happen here, and elsewhere, and each of those Senators elected, in total, will change the system. He ended “stand with me and I will stand with you always.”
10:55 – He’s walking off now. Andrew Romanoff gives a damn good speech (same at the Boulder assembly). And he makes points that are spot-on and resonate well.
10:57 Bennet starting with his video. His daughter is narrating the bio part, then his wife narrating. It does a good job of showing him as a regular guy who’s life is centered on his family. And it does a good and unobtrusive job of showing that he grew up middle class. Then we got Obama’s speech here for him followed by newspaper headlines touting Bennet accomplishments in the Senate.
11:04 – Nomination of Bennet. This is weird, they have the lights low for this part with a spot on the nominator. I think that reduces the level of response to the speech. Says Michael’s accomplishments in office are to stand up to special interests and reform Wall St (I call bullshit on that one). And to pass healthcare reform. Many now chanting “we want Mike.”
11:07 – Second for Michael Bennet. Pretty generic Michael’s doing a great job speech.
11:09 – Bennet supporters on their feet (a lot fewer than Romanoff), and Bennet now up on the stage. His first line was “thank you and I accept your nomination to the United States Senate.” Thank you too all the people have supported him. Talking about how we all have the same aspirations for our children and our state. Talking about his parents coming here as refugees from Europe during WWII. That his parents history is the story of America is the land of opportunity.
Talking about how he is not a politician and is concerned about our political system. Talking about his efforts working for Hick and then at DPS. That leads in to leaving more for our kids, not less for our kids. Talking about the legislation they passed in the Senate – credit card reform, health care reform, taking on the big banks, and the tax cuts delivered to 90% of the people in Colorado.
Next brought up his bill to freeze congressional pay until they fix the economy (he says that was passed). Then discussed his proposal to not allow ex-Senators to be lobbyists. Then talking about the giant financial issues facing most people in our country. Now trash talking the Republicans – crowd happily booing along to that. “They want to take us backwards while we want to take Colorado and our country forward.”
Very uplifting speech about how we can make things better, how we can improve the economy, bring our troops home, and we can statrt making responsible decisions and not leave our children a mountain of debt. Then brought in the we will also elect Hickenlooper as Governor and support Obama as president.
11:23 – Standing ovation from the Bennet supporters as he walks off. I don’t know how good my estimate is but I think Romanoff has about twice as many people standing and waving signs. If I am accurate (no idea if I am), then the vote will be 66/33.
A couple of notes on this. Bennet’s presentation has improved. He’s not at Romanoff’s level, but he’s now decent. And he’s lost that Thurston Howell III voice and presentation. Strong improvement. He also said nothing about pulling together after the primary – nada. And no real effort to compare himself to Romanoff. Maybe he figures the primary is a slam dunk but it was weird. Bottom line though is that the primary has made Bennet a better campaigner.
11:26 – It’s voting time.
11:40 – reminding people to get their ballot in. We continue to wait.
11:48 – Dianna DeGette is now speaking. The place is half empty now. I don’t know if they’re walking around outside or if people just took off after voting. DeGette is talking about how we Dems are not going to back down from the new legislation we have accomplished. Listing what has been done over the last 18 months. DeGette is a good rep, but a political speech does not seem to be her strong suit (or she’s having an off day). Nothing of note said.
11:56 – John Salazar – Salazar is fired up, he’s talking up that Congress has done “exactly what you asked us to do.” Next talking about the importance of sticking together through and after the primary. Talking up the other congressional candidates and then thanking everyone for the privlege and honor of representing his district. Strong speech and short too so it was well received.
11:59 – Betsy Markey – Good populist speech. Bringing up that she has spent more time out of politics than in politics, has raised a family, and has created two companies. She’s got a really good story for the present political environment. Talking about the work she did to bring about credit card reform. Going through a list of accomplishments and presenting it well, ending with “health care reform we can all be proud of.” Now she’s taking on Sarah Palin agressively – I love Betsy when she gets like this. She asks the great question “when did hope and change become a bad thing?” She brings up the spot-on point that hope and change is the fundamental American approach to life.
Oh wow. She was so good on her close I just watched instead of writing it down. But she told Cory Gardner – “bring it on.”
12:09 – Ed Perlmutter – Starting talking off about the great quality of the Democrats we have elected in Colorado (very true). Next went in to the “rude awakening” the Republicans got in the recent special election in Pennsylvania. Going through the big picture of making things better through hope and change. It’s a strong speech and it’s really a speech for the Democratic party. Not a word about his race.
12:15 – John Flerlage – start of the sacrificial lambs category. He’s making a good anti-war speech. Now trash talking Lamborn & Coffman. It was a strong speech, but the numbers in CD6 are overwhelmingly Republican.
12:22 – We now have someone up who is our CD5 candidate (did not catch his name). He apparently decided to run 2 hours ago (that is not a joke). I do appreciate people who step up to do this because we should always challenge ever seat. And from these races we do gauge change (if any) in the districts.
12:26 – Now have all the congressional candidates up together for a final round of applause. John Salazar grabbed the mike to call out a big thank you to Pat Waak (well done).
12:27 – Nomination & second for Cary Kennedy. The second was by Cary’s mom – that was very sweet. Video is all about the BEST program that makes it possible to rebuild broken down school buildings.
11:31 – Cary now speaking, first accepting the nomination. Introducing the family. Going in to detail about how she did a superb job protecting the state’s money – they have made money every single year since she’s been in office (which is more than most fund managers can say). She has really good presentation in her speech. She’s now taking credit for Colorado’s economy being in better shape than the country as a whole – it’s bullshit but I think it will sell. Now talking about adequately funding schools, and making sure the funds are made best use of. Trash talking her opponents – one is a film maker with no financial experience, one is a Bush family member with no financial experience, and the 3rd is a Wall St. banker. She contrasts that with herself who the people of Colorado can trust to take good care of their money. She’s got a powerful argument for the race.
12:40 – With no other nominations Cary is nominated by acclimation.
12:42 – Nomination, second, etc. for Bernie Beuscher as Sec. of State. Have a 3rd person up asking for campaign workers (that’s not a good sign). This was not a good presentation.
12:51 – Bernie now up. Talking up the improvements he has brought to the office and doing a good job putting it across. Now talking about keeping elecions fair and clean.
12:56 – Bernie nominated by acclimation.
I just talked with a Bennet campaign staffer. And I’m still alive! He disagreed with me that reinstituting Glass-Stegall is key to avoiding a repeat of the great recession. But he did agree that if we have a repeat in the next 10 years, he’ll call me up and tell me I was right. I’m sure that will make everyone going through another recession feel much better 🙂 I also asked the Bennet campaign if I can interview Senator Bennet on the topic of financial regulation. No reply so far.
They’re introducing all the House and Senate members.
I’m going to lunch – back about 2:30
Update: I’m not going back. My daughters (met them for lunch) asked me to spend the afternoon. Family first. The Spot blog on the Post should have the Bennet/Romanoff results as soon as they’re known. Have a nice afternoon all.
The Senate results (per CDP website):
Romanoff 2156
Bennet 1413
Total: 3569
Percentages:
Romanoff 60.41
Bennet 39.59
but I think I’ll let more than 743 people be the deciding factor on who the clear choice is. But your support of Romanoff, your unwavering faith and devotion to him, is genuinely touching and I’m sure he’s grateful for it.
You’re up on YouTube and not television.
We have 3600 registered voters in Estes Park. That’s more voters than the combined total that voted for today’s Senate candidates.
Which is why I thank God for primaries instead of counting on the ultimate insider’s game to choose for me.
I congratulate Romanoff on today’s win and we’ll see you all on August 10th.
so that’s why you are writing here and not for Newsweek.
I am quite glad to have the ability to post video and diaries without some editor at some corporate owned station dictating content, but i guess that’s lost on people who think like you.
Ralphie meant “you’re” as in the Romanoff camp. “You’re” not going to be on TV, because “you’re” not raising enough money. Because your candidate is not Senator Obama.
I was out chasing trains.
with staying positive. I am an optimist myself. However, is avoiding the issues sent forth by the republicans and McInnis campaign going to win him more support? Especially those of the undecided?
put forth by the Republicans and the McInnis campaign?
You can’t be serious, unless you’re a republican shill.
Hick needs to define himself before the opponents define him. His Zebra speech was a good start, but not a strategy. He needs to get busy.
So I’ll tell the rest of the story: not much else happened.
One really strong comment that came from Romanoff that David did not report: He was chastising “some members” (this was NOT directed so much at Bennet) of our own party who have not been on board with Pres. Obama’s agenda. Andrew’s challenge to them was “Stiffen your spine, or step aside.” That quote will live with me for a while.
Okay, picking up from when David went to lunch:
(I didn’t note the times)
Terrance Caroll introduced the State House members and the candidates (yay, yay, we’re the good guys)
Brandon Shaffer did the same for the Senate.
Candidates for CU Regent at-Large: Pat Waak announced one of the two candidates (Howard Wachtel) withdrew this morning.
Nomination and 2nd for Melissa Hart for CU Regent. By this time of the day I was kind of drifting in and out of naps, but CD1’s Regent, Michael Carrigan was one of her nominators and he stressed her role is heading up the campaign to defeat Amendment 46 (anti-affirmative action)
Hart is nominated by acclamation.
Next up: AG. Nomination and 2nd for Stan Garnett. Speech stressed his work in both criminal and civil law. Trashing Suthers: talked mostly about Suthers traveling around the country to get involved with right-wing cases in other states. He spoke better at CD1, but was not bad. A little polish on the stump speech and he’s gonna give Suthers his walking papers.
Final speech was from Udall. Mostly about accomplishments Dems have made since Obama took office. It quickly became “blah, blah” so I don’t recall him saying anything particularly insightful but there was a good joke: Don’t remember the details but it included a medically-related quote from Groucho Marx about the government being off base and the punch line was “I didn’t realize Mitch McConnell was a Marxist”
Next, the platform (oh God! Here we go). I usually skip out and look for about anything else to do at this point, but I am too tired to climb down the steps and up again (I was sitting at the top of a section.) I was pleasantly surprised the presentation went quick and was delivered by Platform Committee Chair Hal Bidlack (2008 CD5 candidate and current El Paso County Chair). The presentation assumed we had actually read the 44 page report we were emailed a couple of weeks ago. (yeah, right). Under current party rules by the time the platform gets to the state assembly it is a finished package and is passed by a voice vote. If anyone wishes to make a change or add a plank they can make a minorty report and have to get a petition signed by 10% of the platform committee to present it at assembly.
There was one minority report. It was a direct response to the foolishness going on in Arizona and essentially says we support the Feds giving AZ a slap to the back of the head and then passing comprehensive immigration reform. It needed a 2/3 vote. This was accomplished by a voice vote. There were a few No’s but easily not more than 10% of the body.
The whole platform section of the assembly took about 15-20 minutes: sweet!
Finally they announced the US Senate results. They purposely held off announcing the results until this point to be sure we kept enough of a quorum to pass the platform. It worked.
Romanoff: 60.1%, Bennet: 39.9%
Thunderous applause and general Romanoff euforia for getting top line. But no one expressing surprise as he HAD come into the assembly with a significant lead in the delegate count.
Then we adjourned.
The quote was great, so I looked it up for your enjoyment:
I wasn’t sure I heard it perfectly and didn’t write it down. But that was good. Romanoff is really good at these speeches.
… for the liveblogging, and to Dan W for rounding out the last few parts. This is exactly the sort of reporting that I wish the print media did, and it’s sad that due to the impact of new media they don’t have the staffing to cover this stuff, and because they don’t cover this stuff I don’t read the Post much, etc. – what a vicious cycle. But social commentary about the decline of traditional media aside, nice job you two — much appreciated.
When he said he wants party unity.
We shall see.
I’m still waiting for Bennet to pledge to support Romanoff if he is the primary winner. Romanoff has said so on several occasions. Maybe you should be asking your guy the same thing.
Sen.Bennet doesn’t practice double speak, either.
We shall see.
I was there as a delegate for Bennet, and this is a good summary of how it went.
I did get a donut!
I like Romanoff and Bennet both, I must say I am impressed with the enthusiasm of the Romanoff people.
There was a lot of floor grumbling about Udall & Markey. I think both of them probably need to do more to get the base on their side.
He would have to actually talk to them. That would be yucky (for him).
Best speaker of the day in my opinion. And frankly, if folks want to grumble, they should spend a few days walking in that woman’s shoes in that district. Easy to grumble at the Dem convention with 800 liberal activists around. Not so easy when you are standing in front of 200 screaming Tea Party people in Weld County talking about health care as I saw Markey do last August. She’s a tough woman and Democrats in this state need to spend less time “grumbling” and more time getting out the vote for good public officials like Betsy.
Nice live blog, David.
I think Betsy rocked there.
This was the first time I attended state in a non-presidential year. It was really a lot more exciting than I thought it would be.
And I gotta say, I’ve never cared about yard signs. In fact, I usually think they are more trouble than they are worth. But Romanoff must have 3000 yard signs -lining the roads around the venue. They were so stunning and, you know, exciting, it almost persuaded me to vote for him today. Almost.
3569 seated delegates cast votes. That was exciting. I mean we started this thing wayyy back when- then we caucused and assembled by county and finally it’s over. Now we move on to the general election, right?
I’ve been critical of the Colorado caucus/assemblies and then primary process. But I just didn’t realize how exciting the whole thing is. I mean being in the venue today with thousands of fellow Colorado D’s, paying way too much for parking and food (and dealing with horrible bathrooms) – what better way could there be to spend a sunny 80Вє Saturday in Colorado? But we 3700 elite party “insiders” did our deal and we have a nominee. Whew.
Let’s do it again in 4 years.
that David omitted
1) Hick’s video opening was startlingly great with some clips of the RGA ad and then them fading away in static as though that is what they are. He definitely had the best video
2) Andrew gave a great speech. He ran to the stage from the back with hundreds of folks following him
3) Bennet has definitely improved as a speaker. Less impressive than Andrew’s but still very good. A smaller crowd went to the stage
I always have fun at these gigs and this was no exception
it soon grew to a very big crowd filling the stage and Bennet’s delegates were very enthusiastic. Chanting, stomping, in no way less enthusiastic than Romanoff’s. Before the assembly I heard much bragging about how many Bennet delegates were going to switch to Romanoff and how many Bennet delegates weren’t going to show. Didn’t happen. Dave ditching Bennet seemed to be the exception.
Bennet has great campaign team and they got the job done keeping his delegates and getting them to the Assembly.
Romanoff was very gracious, making a point of stating he would support the winner and would expect us all to pull together no matter who won.
It was well organized, signing in, getting credentials and seating alternates was the most painless and most efficient I’ve yet seen. Having everybody get up at once to put their ballots in boxes for Romanoff or Bennet was a gridlock mess but everything else went great and that was a short lived aggravation.
I’d call that a good convention.
Now it’s TV time
For whatever reason, the security (or Bennet’s team) kept the gate closed. So unlike the Romanoff approach, where the the lights came up with all of them already in place, we had to wait to slowly trickle up on stage after Bennet was up there.
But we got to chant “We Like Mike” to add drama to his entrance 😉
From the Arapahoe County section the steadily growing crowd was kind of cool. First we Bennetistas were disappointed in the smaller crowd. Then it was like the cavalry appearing over the hill so it worked out fine and the stomping and chanting were really loud from our location. We joined the chanting con brio.
Agree with Ray. Everybody could leave feeling good and we needed that after some alarming bitterness at caucus and county assemblies. I was among several Bennet delegates seated next to a Romanoff delegate alone among us and we spent the lengthy day chatting very pleasantly. We’ll all come together after the primary with only a few diehards refusing to join the party.
The Candidate for Congress in CD5 is Kevin Bradley.
but what are your thoughts? I mean that’s the roughest district in Colorado for a Democrat and (at least according to Cook PVI) is the 2nd most unbalanced in the state.
Bradley is getting in really late. Any chance…at all?
He’s just there to save Dems the embarrassment of not even contending and he deserves our respect and gratitude for agreeing to the thankless job. It didn’t save Flerlage any embarrassment, though, as he had just finished saying what a shame it was we were just letting the 5th go uncontested. Guess he didn’t get the last minute memo. Pretty sure, Stry, nobody needs anyone’s special insight to answer your question. Umm…no.
you’re always so friendly. Yes I know it’s damn near suicidal to run in the 5th. I was wondering if there was anything in particular as to why he decided to be the one to try, anything in particular that stands out about him instead of just being a sacrificial lamb, etc.
and he said OK?
But as he pointed out in his speech, It causes the other team to expend at least some resources there which may draw those resources away from a more closely contested race.
not that I figured it was realistic, but at least we’ve had some great candidates that have been successful in ways besides that race — like Bidlack. I think running a good (if suicidal) campaign allowed him to step up quite a bit. He’s now running the El Paso dems and can have a big impact on building the party down there. I think the fact that a former federal candidate is chair will help them so that they can start winning the smaller races they need to win the big ones down the road.
did he win, and was it worth the money to dems in general (not just Bidlack)?
It’s tough to motivate Democrats and get out the vote if you’ve written off a congressional race. It turns out Udall and Obama’s Colorado operation probably didn’t need a motivated El Paso County vote, but no one knew the economy was going to hit a buzz saw in September, so yes, it was good planning to have a credible, if hopeless, candidate running against Lamborn. That’s even more the case this year, with senator, governor, and three other statewide offices on the ballot.
all the hopeless candidates make carrying the banner. It would be a disgrace to have no candidate and one day a candidate will lose doing well enough and making it close enough to attract a massive effort and major funding for the next election. But the short answer at this point in time is no, nobody in their wildest dreams thinks the Dems are taking the 5th this time out with this candidate.
if we didn’t run anyone in the 5th or 6th and then, a week before the mail-ins go out, Coffman and Lambert are caught in bed with a dead girl and a live boy? We have to be prepared.
Even in that scenario Lamborn still wins. It’s Colorado Springs!
Had there not been that effort going on in El Paso and the other counties of CD5, there probably woulds not have been as many Dem voters turn out to help with the rest of the ballot.
The Dems did pick up another seat (Apuan) in the state house in 08, and the CU Regent-at-large in 06 (and just barely), not to mention the Gov. and Treasurer in 06.
Those voters also help us defeat the worse of the ballot issues that come at us eavery year.
So the CD5 Dem candidate can be the driving force behinmd Dem GOTV in that of the state. And THAT is definitely worth it.
I hadn’t thought of that.
If only those El Paso Dems could get some candidates like John Morse, Dennis Apuan and MikeMerrifield, maybe they could start winning those smaller races.
and I think someone like Hal now running the party will help the dems keep those 3 seats.
Look, I figure you probably just want to be a sarcastic dick because you don’t like that I spend time on here supporting Romanoff, but it’s kind of interesting that when I do talk about other topics you continue along the same vein.
El Paso is still rough territory for dems — 3 electeds not withstanding. My point was that having a strong party will keep them and possibly allow more dems to get elected. Hal lost, but it helped motivate an entire region of democrats.
I wish pols did another indent or two like Squarestate — it makes it easier to follow comments.
Sorry Ralphie — the “you” in my comment above was to RedGreen
No, my point was that Democrats have been winning the smaller races in El Paso County since the mid 1980s, and having a former congressional candidate chairing the county party isn’t going to change the results up-ticket. However, losing the big statewide races by smaller margins makes a big difference, and keeping the party in active opposition has definite benefits all around.
.
Tom Mowle, Pete Lee, Keely Marrs, Jan Hejtmanek.
El Paso Dems have run some pretty good candidates.
.
That would be awful. Somebody has to take one for the team and the team should be grateful.
One, well, we can’t give our opponents a free pass. We must make them spend money.
Two, this poor bastard doesn’t have a chance, it it better to spend our money elsewhere.
Your choice. I’ve seen it both ways for years and still don’t have an opinion.
for the no-hoper races. I know that here in the 6th it’s really hard to get people who worked so hard for Winter and gave it another go for for Eng to agree to go through it all over again for Flerlage and it’s hard to blame them. It’s a vicious circle and it will only be broken if all the planets align so that some Dem candidate at least makes it close. But stuff happens and when it does I hope we can be in position to take advantage.
I doubt that anybody can think of anything Coffman has accomplished but he pretty much just needs to show up and keep breathing. Just like Tancredo before him. Sigh…
“… it will only be broken if all the planets align so that some Dem candidate at least makes it close…”
Respectfully- I disagree.
It will change only when one of two things happen.
Either the demographics continue to shift and the D’s and progressive U’s become the bloc needed to win.
Or
We have a D candidate that understands how to campaign when the demographics are unfavorable. CD6 has never had that. No offense to anyone who has stepped up – and no slam on their respective teams.
But to win in CD6 a D would have to budget at least $2 million. Of course there is a chicken and egg dilemma- money tends to follow the perception of winnable. But that problem is overcomable.
A D candidate in CD6 would have to have name recognition, and it might help to have held elected office at least once before. Even the R winners here don’t generally just jump in to a Congressional seat to start their political career – Jack Swigert being the exception and he was an astronaut.
Being a good person with good ideas is nice. It’s not enough for a D candidate to win the kind of elections we have in CD6.
MADCO-
I’m glad we can occasionally find common ground. The dems in the area need to build a bench — strong legislators that can make the jump and either partially self finance or have amazing connections.
self finance or have amazing connnections – presuming you mean fundraising connections
If that’s true in a congressional race, how could it be less true in a state-wide senate race?
and here I thought we could have a nice conversation without dragging it into another Romanoff/Bennet argument.
Your comparison is ill-fated. It’s hard to get contributions for the 5th or 6th because they are heavily republican. The state as a whole is not.
My comparison suggests that fundraising and budgeting are critically important. You have repeatedly indicated otherwise.
If it’s so much easier to get donations for a D candidate statewide than in the 5th or 6th – why hasn’t your guy put up real, Senate race-ish, numbers?
How much Udall have to spend? Salazar? NightHorse Campbell when he was still a D? More than your guy can apparently budget.
But we have gone for Dems in various races within CD6. And there’s always the chance of a really devastating last minute scandal coupled with just the right sort of Dem. We can dream.
Plans are better.
Plans, based on a dream, coupled with the necessary hard work are best.
But really I can’t complain because it won’t be me.
some of my volunteer time and a small check on Flerlage regardless. But getting my usual suspect friends involved has been like pulling teeth and it’s hard to blame them. After Winter and Eng they just aren’t up for it this time.