Many of you know how excited I’ve been about the candidacy of Lt. Col. Hal Bidlack for the 5th C.D. Yes, I know, the 5th C.D. is a tough race, but polling is showing that Hal can win IF he can get the message out in the next four weeks about who he is and what he stands for.
That’s why the news today that Hal is now up on television in the 5th C.D. is so important. His first ad is a great biographical introduction to Hal, and has a perfect tone for the military-heavy Fifth Congressional District. Take a look:
Right now, the ad is running for the next 9 days. To keep this on the air for the remainder of the election season, he needs more resources. He’s already raised a record amount for a 5th C.D. Democrat, and Doug Lamborn has been nowhere to be seen. Take a second and donate today: http://www.bidlack2008.com/contribute.php
One of the great things about being a targeted state is that many of our smaller communities get to interact with national figures more than they probably would otherwise. In 2004, one of the most memorable parts of the campaign was the whistle-stop tour John Kerry and John Edwards made through southeast Colorado, with a huge rally in La Junta.
This week, Colorado’s rural communities will hear from Democrats in every corner of the state via the “Rural Policy Tour”. The tour will feature key Colorado leaders, such as Governor Ritter and Senator Salazar, but will also feature a key out-of-state rural leader, Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. Senator Klobuchar is a rising star in the Democratic Party nationally, and we are lucky to have her join us across the small towns of Colorado. Joining Sens. Klobuchar and Salazar and Gov. Ritter will be former Governor Roy Romer, Congressman John Salazar, and Colorado Agriculture Commissioner John Stulp. Here are the details:
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Community Gathering in Sterling with Gov. Romer
Logan County Courthouse
Main St. and S. 3rd St.
Sterling, CO
9:00 AM
For more information, please call (970) 472-4263
Small Business Walk in Sterling with Gov. Romer
Main Street
Sterling, CO
9:30 AM
For more information, please call (970) 472-4263
Community Gathering and Lunch in Fort Morgan with Gov. Ritter, Gov. Romer, and Sen. Salazar
Country Steak Out
19592 E 8th Ave
Fort Morgan, CO
11:45 AM
For more information, please call (970) 472-4263
Community Gathering in Windsor Gov. Ritter, Gov. Romer, and Sen. Salazar
Fireside Restaurant
1149 Main St.
Windsor, CO
2:45 PM
For more information, please call (970) 472-4263
Campaign for Change Office Opening with Sen. Salazar and Gov. Romer
1642 8TH Ave
Greeley, CO
5:15 PM
For more information, please call (970) 472-4263
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Breakfast with Gov. Romer, Sen. Salazar, Sen. Klobuchar, and Rep. Salazar
City Diner, 2nd Floor
1002 N. Santa Fe Ave.
Pueblo, CO
8:00 AM
For more information, please call (719) 778-9976
Community Gathering in Canon City with Gov. Ritter, Gov. Romer, Sen. Salazar, and Sen. Klobuchar
Location to be determined
Canon City, CO
10:05 AM
For more information, please call (719) 778-9976
Community Gathering in Salida with Gov. Romer, Sen. Salazar, and Sen. Klobuchar
Boathouse Cantina
228 North F St.
Salida, CO
12:20 PM
For more information, please call (970) 245-4477
Community Gathering in Gunnison with Gov. Romer, Sen. Salazar, and Sen. Klobuchar
Western State College
The Aspinall-Wilson Center
Gunnison, CO
3:05 PM
For more information, please call (970) 245-4477
Community Gathering in Montrose with Gov. Romer, Sen. Salazar, and Sen. Klobuchar
Location to be determined
Montrose, CO
5:45 PM
For more information, please call (970) 245-4477
Friday, October 10, 2008
Coffee in Olathe with Gov. Romer and Sen. Salazar
4th and Main (White Café)
318 Main
Olathe, CO
7:30 AM
For more information, please call (970) 245-4477
Community Gathering in Hotchkiss with Gov. Romer, Sen. Salazar, and Commissioner Stulp
Heritage Hall (Inside the fairgrounds)
403 E Bridge St
Hotchkiss, CO
9:30 AM
For more information, please call (970) 245-4477
Community Gathering in Grand Junction with Gov. Romer, Sen. Salazar, and Commissioner Stulp
Lincoln Park Pavilion
North Ave and 12th Street
Grand Junction, CO
12:00 PM
For more information, please call (970) 245-4477
Campaign for Change Office Visit in Glenwood Springs with Gov. Romer, Sen. Salazar, and Commissioner Stulp
216 6th Street
Glenwood Springs, CO
2:50 PM
For more information, please call (970) 245-4477
Dinner in Edwards with Gov. Romer, Sen. Salazar, and Commissioner Stulp
Woody’s
27 Main St
Edwards, CO
5:30 PM
For more information, please call (970) 245-4477
Campaign for Change Office Visit in Dillon with Gov. Romer, Sen. Salazar, and Commissioner Stulp
115 Village
Dillon, CO
7:30 PM
For more information, please call (970) 245-4477
First, if you haven’t heard (and lord knows you should have received no less than twenty e-mails about it), today is Colorado’s deadline for voter registration. We’ve done a good job getting folks out to register to vote, but there are still plenty of folks out there who are not yet registered. If you have friends or neighbors who may not be registered to vote, by all means, please please please get them registered before the end of the day!!!
While so many of us are out hard at work to elect Democrats from the top of the ticket to the bottom, the average Coloradan is just waking up to their choices in 2008. Some may, like me, just receive their November copy of Esquire magazine today and flip through it to find a comprehensive list of endorsements. If they do, they’ll find a nice surprise for Colorado Democrats: an endorsement sweep for Democrats in Colorado.
That’s right; from Udall to Eng to Perlmutter to Bidlack, Colorado’s Democratic candidates are head and shoulders above the GOP opposition. Now, Esquire is not necessarily a knee-jerk liberal publication. On the same page, they endorse about as many Florida Republican candidates as Democrats. And while they did endorse Barack Obama, their list of the ten best elected leaders in Washington include 5 Republicans, just as their ten worst include 5 Democrats.
Anyway, here are key excerpts from their endorsements:
US Senate:
The race for this open seat pits a party-line hack against one of the American West’s true champions. Mark Udall is the son and philosophical heir of the late, great Mo Udall, and like his dad he balances pragmatic policies toward the region’s resources with dedication to the protection of individual freedoms.
CD1:
The past decade has witnessed the wholesale politization of science by the evangelical Right — and it’s led to creationism in school, climate-change denial in the White House, and undue religious influence at the top of the NIH, NASA, and the EPA. DeGette spent the decade fighting GOP efforts to give this brand of insanity the weight of law as well.
CD2:
Polis’s mix of business sense (he’s a millionaire entrepreneur) and progressive values (he’s out and proud) is really closer to the mainstream of the modern Democratic party.
CD3:
A Democrat with a centrist record, an “A” rating from the NRA, and a stubborn independent streak. John Salazar — older brother of Colorado Senator Ken — personifies the Western, libertarian branch of his party.
CD4:
Musgrave, on the other hand, personifies the intrusive, moralistic agenda that has brought her party to its knees.
CD5:
When two constituents earnestly raised questions about his fundraising tactics in 2007, Lamborn called them — twice — and left threatening messages. But that’s okay, because in the messages he compared himself to Jesus Christ.
CD6:
It’s not that Tom Tancredo is retiring in scandal — he broke no laws — but he’s certainly retiring in shame. Voters rejected his xenophobic anti-immigrant platform in the GOP presidential primaries. His presumptive heir, Colorado secretary of state Mike Coffman, proudly resurrects it.
CD7:
Perlmutter’s solid track record as an aisle-crosser in state government is reflected in his bipartisan House work, notably on conservation and veterans’ issues.
Saturday, we drove down Highway 50 a couple of hours to Las Animas, where we attended the Bent County Dems’ picnic at city park there. It was a nice bit of memories for me; I grew up just a block away from the park, and spent a lot of my childhood there.
For a small county like Bent County, the turnout was fantastic. About 50 people gathered for a potluck lunch with grilled burgers and hot dogs on the menu. After everybody had a good chance to eat, we heard from candidates and their representatives — the Party is really active with good volunteers this year. We also heard from Representative Wes McKinley, whose style always engages people. The day was capped by Wes auctioning off several pies, with the proceeds to go to the Party.
What was even more impressive was what happened after the picnic: several folks got together with the regional field person and spread out across town to canvass precincts. In southeast Colorado, walking door-to-door doesn’t often happen, so it was extremely exciting to see the level of interest in helping out among the people there.
————-
I took some pictures in Las Animas, and I’ve finally gotten those up on the DemNotes website, along with all of my photos from the National Convention, several hundred in all. You can take a look at them all at: http://www.DemNotes.com/photos
Note that many of them are pretty poor quality, usually due to the low light, but also due to the fact that I’m often hurriedly trying to get the camera out and snap a photo while I’m in the middle of something else….
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.
“This was the best Convention in the history of the Democratic Party!” — Former DNC Chair Don Fowler.
At the DNC meeting on Friday morning, Don Fowler made the above comment, which really confirmed what I was hearing from so many other folks from around the country. Don Fowler knows the DNC — he’s led the state party in South Carolina (which is the job his wife, Carol Khare Fowler, now holds), and he was the Chair of the DNC for much of the Clinton years. He’s been to countless national conventions, so when he says something like that, you can bet he knows what he’s talking about.
My head was held high from the moment I arrived in Denver over a week ago. Everything looked beautiful, and everything felt comfortable. I spoke with a lot of delegates and state party officials, all of whom confirmed that Colorado was doing an amazing job hosting one of the biggest events in the history of this state.
I could not have been prouder to be a Colorado Democrat than I was last week. This thing started three years ago, in 2005, when we began forming the efforts to bring the Convention to Denver. Throughout, you may recall that we were told by an awful lot of “influential” people, both in Colorado and in Washington, that Denver had no chance. The DNC simply wouldn’t choose Denver. There was always some reason why we were supposed to quit; some reason why we needed to just put down the pens and stop working.
We never stopped.
Then, once the Convention was awarded to Denver, everybody started working. Those who said it couldn’t be done stopped being cynics and started being optimists. Shopkeepers, hotel managers, carpenters, laborers, caterers, bus drivers — everybody worked tirelessly to put our best foot forward. It didn’t matter if you were a Democrat or a Republican; Denver 2008 was too big for partisanship in Colorado.
People came out of the woodwork from across the West to volunteer. That’s not normal — in Minneapolis-St. Paul, they were still begging for volunteers last week. We had to start volunteer waiting lists several months ago because of the intense interest. And the volunteers, even if they ended up with a four-hour shift at a hotel in the Tech Center, were bursting with pride and generousity.
That’s the key: most delegates were simply unaware about how kind and welcoming Coloradans could be. And most — even if they’d been to Colorado before — were oblivious to exactly how beautiful and refined downtown Denver could be. Every hotel, every party, every meeting area — all of it — exceeded expectations. The Pepsi Center was transformed into one of the most stunning visual stages in the history of political conventions.
Denver turned out to be an ideal convention city. Unlike past conventions in places like Los Angeles, Boston, and Atlanta, Denver’s various hubs of hotels made for ideal delegation hubs, as well. The fact that over half of the delegates were able to stay downtown, within walking distance of the Pepsi Center and the Convention Center, was completely unheard of for many convention veterans. In Los Angeles, a two-hour bus ride from your hotel to the Staples Center was not uncommon. In Denver, the only thing making bus rides longer was traffic — not the distance.
Don’t get me wrong — while this was about as perfect as a convention could have been, there were still a few glitches. Like many, we found ourselves stuck in the mass of humanity leaving Invesco with inadequate directional instruction. But the reality was there weren’t a whole lot of dry eyes at Invesco by the end of that fantastic event.
This convention was all about the majesty of Colorado, and the humanity of the people of the Centennial State. Every citizen of this state should be proud of how we performed.
So, thank you, Colorado.
Now, it’s time to finish the job over the next two months.
The Republican Party used to be pretty smart politically. They used to make good decisions — at least where campaigns are concerned.
But today’s selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to be John McCain’s runningmate may go down as the worst political judgment in the modern history of Presidential politics.
First, there’s the fact that he’s picked the head of the most corrupt state Republican Party in America, and that’s saying something! She came in as a reformer, but she’s now under investigation herself. She’s supportive of folks like Ted Stevens and Don Young, and even when she promised to open up the decision-making process on a pipeline in Alaska, she ended up just holding closed-door meetings with the energy industry and making those decisions without the public’s presence. Sound familiar?
Then there’s the experience issue. John McCain has seemingly spent every second on the stump slamming Senator Obama about his experience. Senator Obama has countered that this is about judgment, and all the experience in the world can’t help John McCain’s poor judgment. Well, what we learned today was that judgment is really the key issue, not experience. John McCain picked a second-year (YEAR, not term) governor of the second-smallest state in the country whose only other key experience politically was being mayor of a town of 8000.
Wow. That’s bold. But it also shows a complete lack of judgment by Senator John McCain.
Then there’s the actual policy positions of Sarah Palin. She’s rabidly anti-choice. She thinks global warming is a myth. She believes in creationism and wants it taught in schools as a science. For pete’s sake, in 2000, she didn’t even support John McCain! Who did she support? Not George W. Bush. She supported Pat Buchanan!!!!
Now, it is rather obvious that John McCain is making a rather naked attempt to go after Hillary Clinton supporters who are not quite all the way there toward supporting Barack Obama. But in doing so, he tragically misses the point. Folks weren’t supporting Hillary Clinton because she was a woman; instead, they were supporting her because she had a history of service to America that included fighting for causes important today, such as health care and education. To think Clinton supporters are some sort of knee-jerk supporters of anybody with double-x chromosomes is an insult to those individuals — and from the initial response to the selection, many are showing their disgust with such a poor decision by John McCain.
Even if going after Clinton supporters was a good strategy, the judgment shown by John McCain in picking Palin over other Republican women is simarly poor. Sure, he’s probably wrapped up Alaska’s 3 electoral votes, but if he couldn’t win those, it was going to be a landslide anyway. But what about Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas? What about Condoleeza Rice? What about former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman? Heck, even picking Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina would have been a better pick. To pick Gov. Palin over these simply shows more poor judgment by John McCain.
This morning, I participated in a press conference to celebrate John McCain’s birthday. We were at The Rialto on 16th Street, and drew a nice small crowd. Pat Waak, state chair, opened up the press conference behind a brightly-lit birthday cake, and noted that John McCain’s pick of Sarah Palin is simply “more of the same”. I went next and said much of what I’ve written above. Rep. Mark Ferrandino went next and talked about how the way Gov. Palin has governed Alaska seems an awful lot like the last 8 years of this President. Finally, AFL-CIO president Mike Cerbo talked about the failures of Gov. Palin for working families.
I’m going to try to relax for a little while and enjoy Denver. I’ll write more about my Convention experience later.
If you weren’t at Mile High last night, I sure hope you had an opportunity to see it on television.
I’ll write more later about this amazing convention experience in Denver. I’ll also write more later about my thoughts on the selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running-mate (hint: probably the worst judgment in the history of American Presidential politics).
But the experience last night at Mile High was breath-taking. What a night!
As I mentioned in the post yesterday, yesterday was both star-studded and Colorado-centered. And it was Barack Obama showing us why America needs to elect he and Joe Biden.
I was mesmorized by Senator Obama’s speech last night. He did a wonderful job of deftly combining the message of “Change” as an ideal with the realities of what change would mean — specifically — under an Obama-Biden administration. He laid out the differences between himself and John McCain, and he did it amazingly well. Somebody on television last night called it a “symphony” — a perfect description. It combined soaring rhetoric with policy specifics and contrasts with the Republicans.
There is no doubt we cannot afford four more years like the last eight — “eight is enough” was the right motto that sold well with the crowd in Mile High. There is no doubt we cannot afford four more years of poor economic planning, a flawed foreign policy, and a failure to move American toward energy independence. There is no doubt we cannot afford John McCain. But Barack Obama went beyond that last night to talk not only about how we cannot afford McCain, but also how he will make America a different — and much better place.
By challenging us to become energy independent in 10 years, he showed the “big idea” thinking that has made America great. By assuring us that our foreign policy will be one to regain the world’s respect, he showed us the America that the world remembers and wants to see again. By talking about the need to improve our schools and invest in our economy for the middle class, he showed us his life experience makes him better able to put himself in somebody else’s shoes.
It was unbelievable, and I am so glad I was able to be a part of that night. After the speech, Colorado’s delegation finally said good-bye to the National Convention and headed back to the campaign trail. “Two months to finish the job,” was the mantra.
That has to be all of our mantra. This will be a tough election in Colorado, and we will need every hand on deck if we’re going to send our nine electoral votes to Obama-Biden. It’s time to get to work!
——————
Beyond the amazing speech, it was a still night to remember. Celebrity sightings abounded. Both Jessica Alba and Morgan Fairchild walked right in front of me. Brandy sat about 6 rows in front of Al Gore, and saw Oprah Winfrey, as well. All sorts of news personalities were around - I had a picture of myself snapped with Andrea Mitchell of NBC on the way out. Spike Lee was across the way filming. We heard some great musicians - from will.i.am to Sheryl Crow to Stevie Wonder to Jennifer Hudson, the music was outstanding and inspiring.
But the night was not about Hollywood; it was about America’s future. Congressman Mark Udall shined in his prime-time moment in the sun, challenging Democrats to be the change they want to see in the world. We heard from most of our Congressional delegation, and they all did a great job telling us about issues important to the Party. And Governor Ritter helped kick things off at the beginning, talking about the new Democratic leadership in the West.
There was dancing, there were tears, there was celebration. From the 500 level down to the front row of the Colorado delegation, it was a night that nobody there will forget for long.
As I said, I’ll write more later today, but I am headed to a 1 pm press conference here downtown.
As I mentioned last night, tonight is kind of like having the Super Bowl at Mile High. Actually, it’s bigger than the Super Bowl. But with free tickets.
This morning has kind of like piling a National Convention on top of a National Convention. There is a whole new influx of people into Denver above and beyond the tens of thousands already in town and energized. Indeed, just in the lobby of this hotel, I’ve run into all sorts of people from around Colorado who have come into town for the evening. I almost literally ran into Senator Abel Tapia of Pueblo getting off of the elevator, and we have hosted several folks from around the state in our room today as they prepare to head over to Invesco.
There is definitely a buzz — and a whole lot more “celebrity” sightings this morning than the other mornings. We ran into Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel, of New York, just outside the hotel, and had a quick pep talk from him. Then, while riding the elevator with a fellow wearing a name tag with the last name “Pelosi,” the crowded elevator stopped on a floor where the smiling (and particularly radiant in person) face of Katie Couric greeted us. Seeing the crowd already on the elevator, she politely demurred to the next elevator.
That was my biggest celebrity sighting, but our friends Alain Chamot (Vice Chair of the Fremont Dems) and August Mergelman ran into a pretty big celebrity of their own just outside the Colorado Party office on the second floor of the hotel: Joe Biden. Alain reached out and shaked his hand, and he said he was impressed by how personable Biden was to him. It certainly sounded like a whirlwind brief experience, and very surreal.
If you can’t make it to Invesco today, be sure to watch as much as you can; today might as well be called “Colorado Day” for all of the Coloradans who will be speaking to us. Here’s the schedule right now of Colorado speakers:
3:00 - 5:00:
– Just before the Call to Order by Speaker Pelosi, Colorado state director Ray Rivera will be speaking about the voter registration program.
– Following the National Anthem, Host Committee President Elbra Wedgeworth speaks to the Convention
– After Wedgeworth, come some resolutions, followed by Governor Bill Ritter
– Then, Congressman Ed Perlmutter
– Then, Congressman John Salazar
– Finally, Congresswoman Diana DeGette
5:00 - 6:00:
– A fun hour including Gov. Bill Richardson, will.i.am (from the Black Eyed Peas), and Sheryl Crow
– The hour ends with Ray Rivera apparently speaking a second time for the day
6:00 - 7:00:
– Congressman Mark Udall is the second scheduled speaker of the hour
– The hour ends with Stevie Wonder, followed by Al Gore
From 7:00 to 8:00, I don’t see a whole lot of Colorado-based speakers, and then — of course — Senator Obama speaks in the 8:00 hour.
Well, each night of the Democratic National Convention just keeps outdoing the previous one. Monday was great — Tuesday was unbelievable. But tonight was even better than the past two.
I sure hope that you all got an opportunity to see most of tonight’s exciting moments. The session began earlier than normal for most of us — we were all told we needed to be there quite early — 3:00 — to see Senator Salazar speak and to be present for the roll call of the states. I even got to be a tiny part of the great evening — the Obama campaign asked me to second a procedural motion at the beginning of the session.
Senator Salazar had a key role early this evening. He was one of the nominators for Senator Obama, and did wonderfully. Right after the nominations, we went straight into the roll call vote. Senator Salazar, Congressman Perlmutter, and Pat Waak announced Colorado’s results — 55 votes for Senator Obama, 15 votes for Senator Clinton. (More on how we voted later.)
Then, there was an interesting dance — when they got to New Mexico, the State Chair, Brian Colon, passed the floor to the Illinois delegation, who then passed the floor to the New York delegation. In New York, Senator Clinton was introduced, and she moved to nominate Senator Obama by acclamation.
The motion passed overwhelmingly.
What came next was an interesting catharsis. I didn’t expect the rush of emotion at that point — I truly enjoy the roll call votes as one of the best parts of these conventions, but I honestly didn’t really give any thought to what would happen when Senator Obama actually received the nomination — I just figured there’d be some celebration.
But this was more than a celebration — it was a release. Several delegates from Colorado were shedding tears of joy. Indeed, I felt a little emotional. I jumped up on a chair and just screamed and cheered. Then, I got back down and gave several folks who I’d seen work so hard hugs and high fives. It was a rather touching moment.
But the convention must go on, and it did. Later in the evening, we heard from President Bill Clinton. There had been some concerns among delegates about what he’d say, but — like his wife — did a wonderful job of working to unify this Party and make it clear: He’s going to work to elect Barack Obama the next President of the United States.
We also heard a speech from Senator John Kerry. Senator Kerry — well, what can I say but WOW. He laid out about as compelling a case as can be made as to why John McCain is a poor choice to lead our nation, and then did a wonderful pivot and contrasted that well with how Senator Obama represents the values and the judgment needed to be President. He also — in a very ironic way — pointed out how John McCain has changed his position on an unbelievable number of issues.
That brought us to the nomination of Joe Biden as Vice President. We went through the process and nominated him by acclamation. Then, we heard from his son, the attorney general of Delaware. He gave a very moving speech that gave us a glimpse into the personal life and values of Senator Biden. We heard about his commitment to return home to Delaware on the train every night — and how tragedy marked his initial swearing-in to the U.S. Senate, so much so that he almost did not decide to swear in to the Senate. “Delaware can get another Senator. My children cannot get another father.” In the end, he was sworn in at his son’s bedside in the hospital.
And Joe Biden showed up to prove why he’s our Vice Presidential nominee.
He gave a great talk — including introducing us to his wonderful mother in the crowd, and talked of the values that he learned from her. He talked about what kind of race this will be, and also talked of John McCain, who he listed as a true friend, but who is wrong on so many issues important to America today.
That should have been the end of the night. You’d normally have the VP nominee’s family come out, and there would be a celebration. But not tonight.
We usually hear rumors about what is going to happen each night. For instance, I’d heard generally how the vote would be conducted the evening before. We’d heard that Senator Obama was going to be on the video screen after Obama’s speech. But when Joe Biden’s wife came out to the stage and said she had a surprise, it was news to all of us. I expected us to have another video feed.
But there was a slight delay: Biden looked genuinely confused. Then, we in the Colorado delegation saw the curtain to the side of the stage open and out came… Barack Obama. The delegation went wild. Senator Obama told us why he’d wanted to move the Convention to Invesco Field tomorrow night: he wanted to open the Convention to as many as possible.
I don’t know what the best adjective is for the night: “magical” seems trite. Amazing?
————————
The morning began with another breakfast. We heard from Congressman John Salazar, and the vice president of the United Farm Workers of America. There were a number of other speakers, but I had to leave to get over to Rocky Mountain PBS, where I was a guest on “Colorado Matters,” which is on Colorado Public Radio, but is also showing on PBS this convention week.
I felt like the show went well. I was on with Congressman Ed Perlmutter, who is so energized this week. (As an aside, I sat next to him at the Convention, and I can tell you that he’s about as enthusiastic about Barack Obama as you can be.) The host asked several really good questions and I felt that Congressman Perlmutter and I did a pretty good job talking about the differences Colorado voters will face between John McCain and Barack Obama.
After the show, we went over to a lunch for Western states delegates, and then headed over to the Pepsi Center because of the need to be there earlier than normal.
Tomorrow is the big day. I know many of you will be there — I hope to see so many of you, and I’m so glad that many Colorado Democrats will have a chance to be a part of history. Invesco Field has never seen a Super Bowl, but this may very well be even better than any Super Bowl!
If there was any doubt about the unity of the Democratic Party, tonight Hillary Clinton squashed those doubts. If you missed Sen. Clinton’s speech, you missed something special. She made it clear that this is a race of clear choices — between four years of the same with John McCain and a fresh new direction for all of the things that Hillary Clinton stood for during her campaign.
Tonight it was definitely Senator Clinton’s night. The Colorado Democratic Party even took the unusual move of assigning the best seats in our delegation — the first two rows closest to the podium — to the Clinton delegates. But the message that we need to all support Barack Obama was not lost on any delegate in the delegation.
The night was an exciting night — Keynoter Mark Warner showed why many consider him a lock for taking over an open Senate seat in Virginia. And if you missed Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer’s speech to the convention just before Hillary’s speech, you missed a speech that truly energized the hall and got the crowd dancing. Former Denver Mayor and Clinton cabinet member Federico Pena spoke earlier in the evening, as well, before coming down to join the Colorado delegation.
Today was a very busy day. We started with the delegation breakfast. Congresswoman DeGette and Congressman Perlmutter spoke to us. We were also joined by a Colorado native named Kelly Doherty, who is the executive director of Iraq Veterans Against the War. Kelly, an Iraq and Bosnia veteran (and a good childhood friend of Brandy’s), has helped found and now leads an organization of veterans committed to ending the war in Iraq. She gave a great breakdown of the organization’s goals, and the crowd responded with a standing ovation for her.
Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano also spoke; however, I had to leave the breakfast early to do a taping of a television show, GritTV with Laura Flanders. I headed over to the television studios and taped a segment discussing the “transformative” nature of the Denver Convention with Laura and the Washington editor of The Nation magazine. You should be able to see it at http://lauraflanders.firedoglake.com/.
After handling the taping, we went down to Civic Center park to take a look at the protests that the media has been reporting on lately. I was rather surprised by how few people were actually there protesting. There were a wide number of different types of protests, but in reality, the park was not filled like I had expected from prior conventions.
We met up again with Kelly, where we got to meet Ron Kopic, who is the individual whose life is purportedly portrayed by Tom Cruise in “Born on the Fourth of July”. From there, we headed back up 14th to see some IVAW members participate in some street theater — portraying what it is truly like to patrol the cities of Iraq.
From there, I switched roles and took my turn as Brandy’s guest. We went over to the Denver Downtown Aquarium for a reception honoring the Rules Committee members (Brandy is one). It was a nice break to a busy day, and we got to see the wonderful exhibits at the museum.
From there, we finally headed over to the Pepsi Center, where we saw a great program which was capped by the speeches I mentioned above.
Finally, after the convention, we headed over to the DCPA, where we saw a wonderful performance by Boyz II Men. We ended the evening on the rooftop of the Denver Athletic Club, where Congresswoman DeGette was sponsoring a reception. It was a great chance for Colorado delegates to cut loose — and to cut a rug. Brandy and I even briefly got out on the dance floor, and that’s pretty rare. When I finally get around to posting all of the pictures from the Convention, I’ve got a few of Colorado delegates dancing and enjoying the evening.
Tomorrow is a similarly busy day. I’ll be a guest with Congressman Perlmutter on Colorado Matters, which is both on Colorado Public Radio and on public television in Denver. If you get a chance, take a look! Also, if you’re around C-SPAN tomorrow afternoon, note that Senator Ken Salazar will be speaking to the convention early — probably in the first hour, between 3 and 4.
Last night was an amazingly touching evening in so many ways.
After an unusually long bus ride to the Pepsi Center, we finally got into the arena. Almost immediately, we were greeted by Rob Riggle of The Daily Show frisking random convention-goers. Then, I worked my way onto the floor to the Colorado delegation. Already, the energy and excitement was palpable.
Being on the front of the convention hall the way Colorado is has its obvious advantages. But it also has its disadvantages, as well. I spent most of the evening in the front row; however, I had a few rows of photographers in front of me jostling for the best position. As with attending most of these conventions, it was definitely surreal.
But even those distractions could not take away from the two highlights of the evening: Sen. Ted Kennedy and Michelle Obama. Sen. Kennedy surprised everybody by not only showing up, by not only speaking, but also by giving a great speech that reminded so many in the hall of the Kennedy charm and power. His appearance not only reminded us of the fighters that have long been a part of the Democratic Party, it also reminded us of the torch being passed to Sen. Obama.
Michelle Obama concluded the evening, and, boy, did she conclude it! With a speech worthy of her husband’s oratorical prowess, she talked of Sen. Obama as a family man, as a husband, and as an idealistic yet effective public leader. She brought many of us to tears with her stories of Obama’s commitment to his family and how they met and fell in love.
By the end, we were certainly on our feet and cheering wildly. But then, we got to see the Obama children say hello to their father on the television screen in an obviously unscripted moment. It was one of those times during conventions that will likely be replayed again and again, but was real and showed exactly what Michelle had been talking about — Barack Obama has an amazing history and an amazing family.
Tonight, we’re looking forward to hearing from Senator Clinton and former Virginia Governor Mark Warner. Based on Sen. Clinton’s speeches so far, I don’t think this is one speech you want to miss!
I’m off to the delegation breakfast, then off to do a television interview on Grit TV (available on the Dish Network, I’m told) with Laura Flanders. I’ll write more later!
After writing my post this morning to DemNotes, we headed over to the Convention Center to attend the Hispanic Caucus meeting. We made it to hear the end of Senator Clinton’s very amazing speech to the delegates there. Everybody I spoke to — whether a Clinton supporter or an Obama supporter — was raving about the speech afterwards. Senator Clinton made it clear that she’s going to do whatever it takes to elect Barack Obama and Joe Biden as President.
I saw Blanca O’Leary, a delegate from Pitkin County, right after the speech (and gave a few comments to the Aspen press). Blanca — an Obama delegate — was struck by how hard Senator Clinton worked to build support for Barack Obama’s campaign. She was truly excited, and it was great to run across a fellow Coloradan like that.
After the speech, on our way out of the Convention Center, we ran into former Senator Bob Graham of Florida. He and I chatted briefly as we walked about the Senate race here in Colorado. He was interested to find out what kind of attacks the Republicans were lobbing against Congressman Udall.
Then, we headed up to Coors Field for a reception honoring labor members and veterans for Colorado and other delegates. We saw Pat Waak there, as well as several other Colorado delegates. It was a nice relaxing stop in the middle of a hectic day.
Then we headed back over to the Convention Center for the Rural Council meeting. At the rural council meeting, we heard a lot of great information about how John McCain has consistently voted against rural interests, including his opposition to about every Farm Bill ever written. We were able to pick up some information about messaging for the campaign in rural areas, which should be helpful.
Right after posting, we’re going to head over to the Pepsi Center for this evening’s session. Michelle Obama is the “headliner” — we should hear a lot about Barack Obama the person, the husband and the father. I’m really looking forward to it.
This morning, we had our first Delegation Breakfast. We’ve had delegation breakfasts at each convention, but this was something more. To start, the room was at least twice as large — perhaps three times as large — as the rooms where we held our breakfasts in Boston and Los Angeles at the last two conventions. And we filled the room — Colorado’s delegates were only a part of the crowd.
We had some great speakers this morning. We heard from Senator Salazar, as well as Reps. Salazar and Perlmutter. Senator Salazar was bursting with pride at being the host Senator at this convention. We heard from several other speakers, as well, including a great speech from former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman. Gov. Siegelman was targeted by the U.S. Justice Department and Karl Rove because he was a Democrat in the South they couldn’t beat legitimately. He was even thrown into a maximum security prison before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered his release, with the comment that he was likely to win his appeal.
Siegelman did a great job keeping the crowd energized by his compelling story. He was introduced by CDP Political Director Billy Compton, who got his start when Siegelman hired him out of college in Alabama.
It was a great morning to be a Colorado Democrat. And I’ve seen a list of some of our speakers in the days to come, and it is only going to get better!
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Last night, after we left the star-studded Green Concert at Red Rocks, we headed back into the heart of Denver for the evening soiree for the Young Democrats of America and the Colorado Young Democrats. We arrived just in time to hear CYD President (and Colorado delegate) Crisanta Duran energize the crowd and introduce the YDA President. We also heard an excited and inspiring speech from Congressman Jeff Merkeley — the club was certainly “jumping” with YD energy.
Today, there are a number of events we’re headed out to do before we go over to the Pepsi Center this afternoon. As always, I will try to write to DemNotes as I can. Note that it appears if I post from my cell phone, you won’t get DemNotes via e-mail, so you might want to check online at www.DemNotes.com for the latest reports.
I’m live-blogging from Red Rocks right now; Sheryl Crow has just finished entertaining this capacity crowd here - it is truly an energized collection of delegates and Coloradans joined together in an excitement level for the Obama-Biden ticket like I’ve never seen. They’re showing a great video of Will Ferrell playing the President talking about global warming.
Well, this afternoon, I saw some global warming of my own. State Party Executive Director Sherry Jackson and I had to skip the Colorado delegation welcoming party in order to attend to the last-minute preparations at the Pepsi Center. We joined other state party chairs, vice chairs, and executive directors at the Convention Center for a briefing. After the briefing, we walked over to the Pepsi Center.
Well, most of the way, anyway.
Because of protests, the Pepsi Center’s perimeter security was placed on lockdown, locking us out of our last-minute walkthrough. In the heat. And, important for my pasty-white flesh, in the sun.
After about an hour and a half, we were able to get in. But the damage to my head was already done. So look for a reddish-pink glow toward the front-right of the stage in following days. That will be my balding and now burned head.
When we did get in, though, it was truly breath-taking. The stage and Pepsi Center are unbelievable up close. You are truly in for a visual treat when you watch this thing on tv in the days to come.
We tested out the microphones and the voting equipment and they are in great working order. And our seats — oh, man! They are as good as they get: right on the edge of the stage in the first few rows.
After we finally got out of Pepsi Center, we went back to the delegation hotel. I had heard from Brandy that the hotel was on lock down - apparently, there was a moderate-level security threat to the hotel. We were hearing that nobody was being allowed in or out, but the situation was resolved by the time we returned.
After a quick bite at the hotel, Brandy and I headed out to another delegation event at a private home in South Denver. There, we heard energetic speeches from Gov. Ritter and Sen. Salazar - who broke the news of a poll in the 5th CD showing Hal Bidlack leading incumbent GOP rep Doug Lamborn by a point! Both Bidlack and Hank Eng (6th CD) were there, joining Reps. Perlmutter and Salazar. It was an outstanding show of energy for Democrats in Colorado!
We then rushed over here to Red Rocks for the “Green Concert”. Sen. Salazar just finished giving a rousing speech, and country band Sugarland is now entertaining the crowd. We’re anxious to see Dave Matthews next.
Well, that was about all for today. Tomorrow is the big day. I’ll try to write more after the delegation breakfast — and hopefully I won’t be writing this from a BlackBerry then. Signing off from Row 21 at Red Rocks…..
“Are You Ready to Get This Party Started? That has two meanings this week!”
And thus, the Flobots truly defined in short and simple terms what this week is about.
Oh, yeah. Let me first explain who the Flobots are. The Flobots are a musical group dedicated to civic action and making change in America. They’re a Denver band that is sweeping the nation. And important to this discussion, they headlined the Media Party that kicked off the 2008 Democratic National Convention tonight.
Brandy and I have been listening to the Flobots for a couple of months now, but seeing them in concert was truly revolutionary. They challenge their audience to get involved — to become activists. They’ve even started a nonprofit organization whose goal is to engage youth and register them to vote across American.
Tonight, approximately 15,000 members of the media joined together to enjoy the opening event of the National Convention at Elitch Gardens. As a member of the Host Committee Board of Directors, I was lucky enough to join the crowd at Elitches. Beyond the amazing concept of being able to ride the Mind Eraser without any line, the evening was truly a night to celebrate Denver’s week in the limelight.
Senator Ken Salazar kicked off the night as we enjoyed traditional Native American dances. Then, we heard a few words from Governor Ritter and Mayor Hickenlooper before the Flobots kept the energy of the night moving. The evening ended with a fantastic three-level fireworks display that was, in a word, breathtaking.
The day began over at the Convention Center, where we attended the Rules Committee meeting. Brandy is one of Colorado’s representatives to the Rules Committee. The Committee rather uneventfully adopted the permanent rules that will govern the National Convention this week. The Clinton and Obama campaigns worked hard to ensure that both sides were satisfied with the outcome. The Rules Committee also adopted a proposal to create a commission to review the timeline and caucus / primary process for the nomination, which will start up next year. I had some discussions with campaign officials out of concerns that out of state interests would attempt to dictate how Colorado runs our caucuses; I’m confident we will have our voice heard when this Commission forms next year.
After the Rules Committee, we headed over to the Grand Hyatt to check in to the Colorado delegation hotel. Interestingly, this is also the DCCC hotel, where many members of Congress are staying. Security here is rather tight; it is a rather surreal experience.
On the way over to the Media Party, we stopped at a reception for State Party Chairs, Vice Chairs and Executive Directors at Tamayo on Larimer. It was great to see so many of our colleagues — they all seem to be enjoying their stays here in the Mile High City so far.
Tomorrow, there are a lot of things going on, including a couple of Colorado Delegation events. I also may have to do a walk-through of the Pepsi Center, missing the key Colorado reception. As with tonight, I will try to write when I can.
We now know the name of the individual to be nominated this week in Denver for Vice President: Joe Biden of Delaware. Senator Obama announced the pick early this morning.
From nearly every perspective, this seems to be an excellent choice. Senator Biden will be a key and knowledgeable advisor to a President Obama. He knows the world, the world leaders, and the complexities of international relations. Added to that foreign relations expertise is Sen. Biden’s knowledge of finance and banking law. In times like these, Sen. Biden makes a perfect partner to the Obama Administration.
Of course, I’m a little disappointed that we don’t have a Westerner on the ticket. Some of you may recall that I set three goals in August of 2005 at our State Central Committee meeting for national priorities. Those were:
1) Include the West in the pre-window nominating process.
2) Bring the National Convention to the Intermountain West (i.e., Denver).
3) Press to put a Westerner on the national ticket.
Well, two out of three ain’t bad. We were able to add a state with an important Hispanic presence in the West to the pre-window nominating process by adding an early caucus in Nevada. Of course, this week we will see the fruits of our labors since then in this Convention in Denver. And I will tell you that when I first met with Sen. Obama, I brought up the need for him to choose a Westerner as a running mate. (As an aside, I made the same pitch to Joe Biden when I met him the same weekend.)
In the end, though, the choice of Biden makes sense. As I mentioned, Joe Biden knows the world and will be an effective campaigner on the trail between now and November. I’m quite certain that we will have the opportunity to get to know Sen. Biden much better in the weeks and months to come, because I’ll bet he’ll be in Colorado quite a bit between now and November 4.
If it was possible to become even more excited about Senator Obama as a Presidential nominee, this pick certainly does that. Make sure and watch for Senator Biden’s speech here in Denver Wednesday night!
I’m in Denver now for the week, and I’m getting ready to head over to the Convention Center to watch the Rules Committee meeting. I’ll try to write about that this afternoon.
Today’s post to DemNotes feels like the original DemNotes. For those who don’t remember, or who weren’t involved with the Party back then, DemNotes began during the 2004 election cycle as an e-mail newsletter from me as State Party Secretary to everybody on the then-small State Party e-mail list. After 2004 — where I first blogged during the Democratic National Convention in Boston — I turned it into the blog demnotes.com that is in use today. In any event, when it was a newsletter format, there were several posts all at once, and there’s so much to report today that it seems a lot like that again.
D Minus Three Days. Or two days. Or one day. Depends on your point of view. Tomorrow, Saturday, is the first day for official convention-related activities in Denver. The Rules Committee meets in the morning, and the Media Party is in the evening. Sunday is the first day for delegation events, with an Interfaith Service and all-delegation party during the day, and the Green Concert with Sheryl Crow and Dave Matthews at Red Rocks in the evening. But the gavel doesn’t officially come down to start the convention until around 3:00 Monday afternoon at the Pepsi Center, so that’s why I say “three days”.
We saw today the first public look at the Pepsi Center’s interior, and it looks fantastic! If you haven’t seen it, go online to the Denver Post or Rocky, or CNN, or any other news site and take a look. It is colorful, bright, and stunning. If you’re looking at this by e-mail, I’ve put a picture up on the website at www.DemNotes.com.
If you’re not going to be able to get into the Pepsi Center, don’t worry. There will be PLENTY to do in Denver without getting into the Pepsi Center. I’d encourage you to attend the Caucus meetings during the day at the Convention Center if you can. Here is the schedule of caucus meetings. On Monday and Wednesday, the following caucuses will meet from 10 am to Noon: African American Caucus, Asian / Pacific Islander Caucus, Hispanic Caucus, Native American Council, and the Ethnic Coordinating Council. From Noon to 2 on Monday and Wednesday, the GLBT Caucus and the Senior Council will be meeting. Finally, from 1 to 3 on Monday and Wednesday, the Rural Council will be meeting.
On Tuesday and Thursday, there are more caucus and council meetings. From 10 am to Noon, the Women’s Caucus — the largest DNC Caucus — will be meeting. From Noon to 2 on Tuesday and Thursday, the Disability Caucus, the Faith Council, and the Youth Council will be meeting. Finally, the Veterans and Military Families Council will be meeting from 1 to 3 on Tuesday and Thursday.
If you’re not a delegate, you can definitely attend any of these caucus meetings, but you need to pre-register online for the caucus meetings BEFORE 5 PM ON SATURDAY! You can pre-register for the caucuses at: http://www.demconvention.com/caucus-meeting-preregistration
I will try to keep DemNotes updated during the week with the activities; however, I’m not sure yet how regular that will be. The calendar is already looking pretty packed each day from about 7 am to about 2 am, so I’m not sure when I will find a computer to write, but I promise to try. I will say that it seems like there are an awful lot more things to be done as a superdelegate than when I was a pledged delegate in 2000 and 2004.
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Folks are already arriving in Denver for the Convention, as you may have noticed if you’re in Denver. Governor Dean is here — and if you get this e-mail in time, you can attend a rally with Governor Dean at Noon today (Friday). He will be at a “Register for Change” event at the Auraria College Campus, St. Cajetan’s Chapel, Lawrence Way in Denver. There are sure to be other key Colorado leaders there, so stop by during your lunch hour if you get a chance.
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Looking for a yard sign? Tired of waiting for the campaigns to get your own in? There’s a great promotion out there that we as Democrats should take advantage of before the other side does: a sign-making company is offering free signs that you can design yourself. Go to www.buildasign.com/vote and you can design your own sign that they will make for you for FREE. They’re giving away 100,000 of these signs as a promotion of their services.
Note that these signs are NOT union-made, so I would not endorse you buying their services, but if you can get a sign for free, I’m not sure how you can complain. I’ll also make a caveat that I only heard about this site on the radio yesterday, so I don’t really know much more about it than I’ve already indicated.
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Last Saturday, we headed up the road to a great event in Coaldale. For those who don’t know, Coaldale is in the heart of the mountainous portion of Fremont County, and the more sparsely-populated area of Fremont County. It’s also historically been a heavily Republican area. When I was county chair, we tried to do a couple of events out there, and the best turnout we had was maybe 20-30 people.
Saturday did not look good for an outdoor rally for Democrats. It was raining. It was a bit chilly. Parking along Highway 50 could get dicey. And did I mention that this was a heavily Republican area?
About 150 people showed up.
150.
Last year, we had a traditional summer picnic for Fremont County Democrats in Canon City, the population center of the county. It was a beautiful day — sunny but not too hot. No rain in sight. We didn’t see even close to 150 people there.
It was a truly great event — people huddled under umbrellas and tents to hear great candidates like Hal Bidlack (5th CD), Cal Cali (HD60), Gloria Stultz and Walt Myers (County Commissioner). Even Rep. Michael Merrifield came down from Colorado Springs to speak for Mark Udall. The wet crowd was enthusiastic — and did I mention it was a large crowd? Even State Chair Pat Waak briefly stopped by to say hello and deliver Invesco Field tickets to the county chair.
Change is in the air in Colorado — even in the most Republican of areas of our state!
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Last night, I drove down to San Luis to attend and assist with the Costilla County Dems’ Central Committee meeting. They were filling some officer vacancies, including that of the county chair. Congrats to their new chair, Ubaldo Padilla, who was elected last night. In addition, Natalie Cisco was elected Treasurer, and Raphael Maestas was elected the Second Vice Chair.
After the elections, the central committee — along with several guests — had a great discussion about how they can help out in the local and state races. It was an enthusiastic and inspiring session of people understanding how important it is to get out and walk and help all of the candidates on the ballot. I told them it was a wonderful way to kick off convention week, as I head for Denver this afternoon.
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Finally, this morning, I was on the radio in Sterling to talk about the Democratic Party, our candidates, and the National Convention. The half-hour interview went well, I think, and I worked to make sure that folks in Northeast Colorado understand that Republicans like Marilyn Musgrave are not standing for Colorado values and issues that are most important to Eastern Colorado. I hope to be on again in the near future.
Well, that’s enough for one post. Hopefully, I’ll see you around Denver in the next week!
The water compact that Colorado and other upper basin states have with California and Arizona should be renegotiated, U.S. Sen. John McCain said Thursday.
In a telephone interview with The Pueblo Chieftain, the presumptive GOP candidate for president said the water sharing agreement reached in 1922 between seven Western states doesn’t take into account increases in population and the changing water needs.
Here’s the folly with that argument: renegotiating likely means less water for Colorado and more water for thirsty growing downstream states like Nevada and California. Right now, the Interstate Compact truly provides protection for upstream users in Colorado. A renegotiation would only diminish those rights.
If Ken Salazar knows anything, he knows water law. Ken Salazar probably understands water issues better than any elected official in the United States; indeed, it was his work with water law and negotiating water agreements that was key to electing him as our Attorney General in the 1990s. And Senator Salazar knows exactly what McCain’s water proposal would do. Here’s Salazar’s response:
“Senator McCain’s position on opening up the Colorado River Compact is absolutely wrong and would only happen over my dead body,” Salazar said. “It’s an anathema to the fundamental principles of Colorado’s water rights and our compacts.”
The senator said that when the state’s compacts with the lower basin states were negotiated, everyone knew at the time that those states would grow in population faster than Colorado. As a result, the upper basin states’ water rights needed to be protected.
“We did not want California to gobble up all of the water supply on the Colorado River, and they would have done that under the doctrine of equitable apportionment,” Salazar said. “In my view the compact is sacrosanct. I will fight tooth and nail to make sure that it is not opened up.”
I know a little about water issues myself. And from my travels across this state, I can also tell you that Democrats and Republicans alike are highly distrustful with politicians like John McCain that play fast and loose with our water. The phrase, “Whiskey’s for drinkin’, water’s for fightin’!” has much truth for it in Colorado — especially in parts of rural Colorado McCain needs to win heavily in order to compete in Colorado.
John McCain either doesn’t understand or doesn’t care how important water is to Colorado voters. Either way, that is reason enough for many to vote for Barack Obama in November.
UPDATE: Here is the statement from Colorado Democratic Party Chair Pat Waak. Her words speak for me, as well:
Chairwoman of the Colorado Democratic Party Pat Waak issued the below statement in response to the loss of her Arkansas counterpart, Bill Gwatney.
“We are deeply sorrowed by the death of the Arkansas Democratic Party Chair, Bill Gwatney. While we do not know the motive of the assailant, we do know that a dedicated public servant lost his life today.
“Under the Association of State Democratic Chairs, the chairs, vice-chairs and executive directors of each state form a close bond. We are a family.
“Today we lost one of our members. We send our condolences to Bill’s family and to the people of Arkansas which were long served by him.”
For those of you who have not heard, Arkansas State Democratic Chair Bill Gwatney was killed today by a lone gunman at the State Party headquarters in Little Rock. Gwatney was a colleague of our Chair, Pat Waak, and myself on the ASDC. Here are the details as they are known now by CNN:
The chairman of the Arkansas Democratic Party died Wednesday, hours after a shooting at the party’s headquarters, police said.
Chairman Bill Gwatney died at 3:59 Wednesday afternoon after a gunman entered his Little Rock office and shot him several times in the upper body, Little Rock Police Lt. Terry Hastings said.
Authorities confirmed the news shortly after former President Clinton and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton released a statement expressing their condolences.
“We are deeply saddened by the news that Bill Gwatney has passed away,” the former governor and first lady of Arkansas said. “His leadership and commitment to Arkansas and this country have always inspired us and those who had the opportunity to know him.”
I’ve sent a personal note of our thoughts and prayers here in Colorado to my colleague, Arkansas Democratic Party Vice Chair Karla Bradley. Please keep the Arkansas Democrats, their Party leadership, and Mr. Gwatney’s family, in your thoughts as we move into this Convention period. I’ve offered my help to Arkansas Democrats as they are less than two weeks from arriving in Denver; I’m sure everybody will be wanting to do what we can to help Arkansas Democrats through this horribly tragic time.
Somebody screwed up. You see, they included me in a distribution list when they sent around an e-mail that included some pretty blatant falsehoods about Sen. Obama’s tax policies versus Sen. McCain. I’m sure they’d forwarded this e-mail several times, but from their response, nobody had bothered to call them on it.
Until now.
I think it is vitally important that each one of you out there work hard to respond to false e-mails as you receive them. One of the most insidious things about this campaign has been the ability of underhanded characters to affect public opinion behind the scenes without any accountability. They do this by drafting e-mails that attack Sen. Obama through every falsehood imaginable, from his patriotism to his religion, to his policy proposals. The only defense we have to this tactic by the Republican misinformation machine is to attack these things head-on when they see them.
How do you respond? With the truth, plain and simple — and don’t be afraid to use the “Reply All” function; indeed, that’s the most important part of this response. You’re often not going to get anywhere with the sender, but you’ll at least present the truth to those affected by the e-mail.
There’s a couple of key places to go to check out the veracity of e-mails. The first one is: http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/obama.asp
Snopes has been around about as long as the World Wide Web, and it is an impartial site devoted to debunking urban legends often circulated by e-mail. The link above is to the Obama page, where a number of anti-Obama e-mails exist. (As an aside, you should also check out Snopes if you have an e-mail about John McCain before forwarding it — they have pages devoted to McCain, Bush, and several other common topics. This works both ways: don’t forward something you don’t know to be true without fact-checking it.)
The second place you should check out is the Obama campaign’s “Fight the Smears” page: http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/fightthesmearshome/
This page is filled with the campaign’s official responses to a number of Internet rumors and smears, as well as responses to the smears from more mainstream sources, such as John McCain’s television advertisements.
Use those to build a response. The e-mail to which I responded today talked about how John McCain was going to lower taxes, while all of Obama’s plans would massively increase taxes across the board. Here’s my response:
I wanted to take a moment to respond to this misleading and factually inaccurate e-mail.
This e-mail is thoroughly debunked as another one of those “urban legend” e-mails akin to those suggesting that Sen. Obama is muslim or that you’ve just won the Canadian Lottery, or that you’ve got a wealthy relative in Africa waiting to deposit money in your bank account. Here’s the link to Snopes, which is a site devoted to debunking Internet myths, without regard to politics; it takes this e-mail apart and fact-checks the inaccuracies of this e-mail piece by piece:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/taxes.asp
Below is a chart of what each candidate’s total tax impact is on different income levels. As you can see, it is in fact Sen. Obama’s plans that more appropriately direct tax relief where it is needed – middle income Americans, while Sen. McCain focuses his tax policy on those making the most money. This chart is based on an independent analysis by the non-partisan Tax Policy Center.
If you’ve forwarded the prior e-mail in error to friends and acquaintances, I’d ask that you forward this correction indicating the true facts as opposed to the urban legends proposed in the previous e-mail.
– Dan
Now, some folks may appreciate that kind of response. If, for instance, your kindly old grandmother just forwarded this because she was alarmed, she may thank you for setting the record straight. However, some are fully aware of what they are doing — and that’s what happened today. Shortly after sending that e-mail, here was the response from the original sender:
you need to be enlightened, you better read THE OBAMA NATION, this is not a myth this is the truth how dare you send to these people you are in for a rude awaking. perhaps you like the fact that he is a follower and believer of louis farakan etc. believe me all the disenfranchised democrat’s will definitly vote for Mccain. at least we know what his record is and he is not A muslim from kenya. read how much your taxes will go up under obama get entlightened
Note no factual response. Just emotion. And poor grammar.
Now maybe I went a little overboard — and I wouldn’t recommend necessarily doing this — but I had to respond. That’s who I am. Here was my simple response to the above diatribe:
Wow. You seem awfully upset that you were called out on factual inaccuracies. Simply because you say it is true doesn’t make it true. Simply because you throw out the name “Farakhan” doesn’t make it fact. The facts are right there – confirmed by independent sources who have no axes to grind. But folks like you simply aren’t interested in facts, are you – you’re interested in smears. That’s why you have the audacity to send me and several others an unsolicited e-mail, but respond “how dare you” when somebody actually bothers to check out the facts.
Anyway, be sure and respond. Be sure and check the facts and respond with the facts. Don’t let this election be decided by e-mails that aren’t tracked in the media. Don’t let them get away with this kind of hateful and deceptive practice of false e-mails.
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On a brighter side, if you’re in Denver tomorrow, you have an opportunity to be a part of our “Town Hall” national convention. Stop by the 16th Street Mall with your questions, and you could be “center stage” at the National Convention! Here’s some of the press release:
As part of its commitment to throw open the doors to the 2008 Democratic National Convention, the Democratic National Convention Committee (DNCC) today announced that Coloradans will have the opportunity to videotape questions for elected leaders and national experts on the 16th Street Mall in Denver tomorrow Wednesday, August 13, and have their questions answered live from the Convention floor or online through “America’s Town Hall,” an interactive dialogue designed to bring more people into the Convention.
“As Barack Obama has said, this is not our Convention – this is America’s Convention,” said Governor Howard Dean, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. “And now, at a critical moment in our history, Americans will have their concerns addressed, challenges listened to and their questions answered live by our country’s leaders. We want Americans to be at the center of this Convention, and ‘America’s Town Hall’ will allow us to do just that.”
The “open call” where Coloradans can record their questions and individual stories in-person will take place on the 16th Street Mall at the intersection of 16th and California Streets in Denver from 11:30 AM – 5:30 PM MT tomorrow Wednesday, August 13. Text and video questions can also be submitted online at DemConvention.com/townhall beginning today and through Wednesday, August 27, though participants are encouraged to submit their questions as early as possible.
Then Monday through Wednesday of Convention week, the Convention program will feature a nightly segment in which elected leaders, national policy experts and other Convention speakers will respond to voters’ questions live from the Convention floor in front of thousands of delegates in the Convention hall, millions of Americans watching the Convention at home on television and millions more watching online. In addition, elected leaders and policy experts will also answer questions online during Convention week at DemConvention.com.
So take a few minutes and either stop by or go online! Denver is one of only a handful of cities where you have this opportunity, so make sure and take advantage of this!
For a few of you out there (i.e., the Second CD, and a few Denver districts and Pueblo county), you already know what today is. But for Democrats in most parts of the state, today hasn’t been hyped so much. But it is election day, and it is important to get out there today and show your support for Democratic candidates — even if none of the races are contested.
Mind you, if you have contested races, it is even more important for you to get out and vote for the Democrat of your choice. We have several hotly-contested primary races with very tough choices; our “bench” is so incredibly good that it is getting a bit crowded.
In any event, this is just a short public-service DemNotes reminder: Get Out and VOTE!!!
I had planned to write this morning on the details of getting credentialed to attend Sen. Obama’s acceptance speech at Invecso Field. Indeed, we only learned of the details for requesting such credentials Wednesday afternoon — and when I say “we”, I mean everybody; State Chairs and Vice Chairs only learned of the details Wednesday as well.
I suppose I should have anticipated the World Series-like enthusiasm for the event; we’ve seen record crowds and interest all across Colorado for our Democratic nomination process; why should it stop now? But the reality is that we have seen unprecedented interest — the response has been so overwhelming that about 24 hours after announcing the phone lines for requesting credentials, the DNCC had to shut down requests and allow only “waiting list” applications. Here’s what a press release from the Obama campaign has to say:
The Colorado Campaign for Change announced this afternoon that more than 60,000 Coloradans from across the Rocky Mountain state have requested community credentials to take part in the historic final night of the Democratic National Convention at Invesco Field.
“This incredible response and excitement shows that there is a huge appetite for change in Colorado,” said Anne Filipic, the General Election Director for the Campaign for Change.
Due to demand, which has exceeded community seating capacity, the campaign will now place Coloradans who request community credentials on a waitlist. Coloradans can request to be placed on the waitlist online at co.barackobama.com/invesco or by stopping by a Campaign for Change office.
Wow. Now, even though 60,000 requests were received in one day from Coloradans, remember that we don’t even have that many seats allocated to Colorado. We’re extraordinarily fortunate that about half of the “community credentials” will go to Coloradans (and about 2/3 will go to the Rocky Mountain states, including Colorado), but every state will have an allocation of these community credentials. If you’re fortunate enough to get a Community Credential, you’ll be rubbing elbows with Obama supporters from Maine, Alabama, American Samoa, Montana — every corner of this Nation.
As we get closer to this Convention, we’re starting to get more and more clarity on what each day will look like. In one word: Busy. The Post estimated that something like 1000 different events will be occuring during Convention week in Denver. And, no, contrary to what some of you have inferred, they’re not all parties. Indeed, the days will be filled with all sorts of issues conferences, forums, and trainings. While the official website lists a lot of entertainment events (http://www.denverconvention2008.com/index.cfm?page=events), just check out the Rocky Mountain Roundtable for some pretty high-level discussions of all sorts of pressing issues: http://www.2008rmr.org/
Whether you can get into Invesco or not, you certainly don’t want to miss out on the excitement of the Convention — there will be plenty of events around Denver (and the state) for you to attend during Convention week.
We saw today the first public look at the Pepsi Center’s interior, and it looks fantastic! If you haven’t seen it, go online to the Denver Post or Rocky, or CNN, or any other news site and take a look. It is colorful, bright, and stunning. If you’re looking at this by e-mail, I’ve put a picture up on the website at www.DemNotes.com.
I had planned to write this morning on the details of getting credentialed to attend Sen. Obama’s acceptance speech at Invecso Field. Indeed, we only learned of the details for requesting such credentials Wednesday afternoon — and when I say “we”, I mean everybody; State Chairs and Vice Chairs only learned of the details Wednesday as well.