(Cross-Posted to DemNotes at www.DemNotes.com)
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.
Here is the story those who are intrested in others thoughts please follow the link and read the comments below. Read More »
(Cross-Posted to DemNotes at www.DemNotes.com)
The Pueblo Chieftain today has quite an interesting piece on John McCain that — in one article — gives reason enough why Coloradans can’t afford to support John McCain. In the Chieftain, McCain supports opening up the Colorado River Interstate Compact to renegotiation:
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.
Spray-On Condoms: Still a Hard Sell Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2008 By CALLIE LEFEVRE Spray-on condoms Tyne News / WENN Edison had his lightbulb, Ford had his Model T, and Jan Vinzenz Krause has his spray-on condom. Inspired by the mechanics of a drive-through car wash, the German sexual-health educator designed a custom-fitting male contraceptive using liquid latex and some materials from a hardware store. "I felt a little like MacGyver," he says of building the contraption. Read More »
#6 seems odd to me but whatever Read More »
Anyone know what exactly sort of field you need to have experiance in to get one of these jobs? Read More »
Intresting articl I found.
Some Clinton backers won't go quietly at convention
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 6 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Still sore from an epic primary battle, some of Hillary Rodham Clinton's supporters aren't buying the unity theme planned for the Democratic National Convention.
Read More »Oh and another question and I mean no harm but only asking. How many pro Obama people have been banned for their insults? Also what of those dems who have worked hard to elect dems in other areas of goverment.... are they no longer needed here?
Why can people be banned for speaking about Obama but other dems can be slammed?
(Cross-Posted to DemNotes at www.DemNotes.com)
They’re whistling past the graveyard down at Republican headquarters in Colorado Springs. They’ve got themselves convinced that the Fifth Congressional District is theirs, and there is no way the Democrats have a shot. Heck, they’ve even been successful in convincing some in the media that’s true, too. They’re so convinced, they may be about to nominate Doug Lamborn for a second term in Congress, even though he’s proven to be about, oh, 435th on the list of most effective members of Congress.
Don’t be surprised, though, if you hear the name “Bidlack” shouted out in anger by those same folks at GOP headquarters after November 4. Jay Fawcett certainly paved the way for a Democrat to be competitive here, and let me tell you, Hal Bidlack can win the 5th CD.
Friday night, we came up to Denver to attend a fundraiser for Hal, which I co-hosted. The primary host of the fundraiser was Senator Ken Salazar, and Senator Salazar was introduced by Mayor Wellington Webb. Senator Salazar was clear and unequivocal in his support for Bidlack, and pledged to raise several thousand more dollars to help Hal Bidlack win. The room was packed with several key funders from the Denver area (and beyond), and it was an impressive showing for Hal’s campaign. He even had several folks drive from Canon City and Colorado Springs attend, including El Paso Democratic Chair John Morris and Canon City Councilmember Pat Freda. State Chair Pat Waak was on hand to show her support, as was the Chair of the State Party’s Finance Committee, Frances Koncilja.
Hal gave a stirring and wonderful talk about his values and the key issues in the race — and while I’d heard much of what he said just a couple of nights before at a campaign forum in Canon City, it never gets old. His support for the Constitution alone (he does give President Bush credit for preserving the 3rd Amendment to the Constitution — none of us has had to worry about British soldiers quartered in our homes… yet) is reason enough to support Hal Bidlack.
I want to take this moment to encourage you to stop what you’re doing and donate what you can — even if it is only a few dollars — to Bidlack’s efforts. Here’s a few reasons why your doing so will help Hal win:
The 5th CD is Winnable in 2008:
The winds of change in 2008 are even stronger than in 2006. Just look at the results a couple of months ago in Mississippi, where a special election in the First Congressional District resulted in a lopsided Democratic win. In Mississippi’s First CD, President Bush beat John Kerry by a 62-37 margin — not too different from the margin of victory for the Republicans in Colorado’s 5th CD. More importantly, the victory in Mississippi wasn’t even close; Childers won handily by a 54-46 margin.
Fifth CD Voters Were Malleable in 2006:
In 2006, a couple of key independent polls about a month before the election showed Jay Fawcett and Doug Lamborn in a dead heat. And the internal polls of the Republican Party showed that, too. That’s why the RNCC — the national arm of the Republican Party focused on winning Congressional races — spent hundreds of thousands of dollars attacking Fawcett during the last month of the election. They even sent in Vice President Cheney to help prop up Lamborn. In the end, that effort worked primarily because Fawcett did not have enough money to respond to the grim attacks on him by the Republicans; while he’d raised more money than any Democrat before him in the Fifth CD, the RNCC simply drowned him with their ability to spend in this cheap media market. But I don’t think anybody doubts that the polls showing a tight race were real, and reflected that voters in the Fifth CD had serious doubts about Doug Lamborn.
The GOP Won’t Be Able to Buy This Race in 2008:
In 2008, the Republican Party had a lot of money to throw at last-minute races like the Fifth CD. This year, the Republicans have had immense difficulty keeping their heads above water financially, and are facing some pretty serious financial abuses in their organization that are under investigation. Meanwhile, their counterparts, the DCCC, have had an amazingly good cycle raising money, and will be able to protect last-minute attacks on challengers in a way they simply were unable to do in 2006. Just as important, a hard-fought Republican primary will leave Bidlack as coming out of August with more cash on hand than his Republican opponent (likely to still be Lamborn). In fact, when you count the loans and debts owed by campaigns, of all of the candidates for the Fifth CD, Hal Bidlack has the MOST cash-on-hand of anybody. His Second Quarter haul of over $100,000 surprised nearly every political observer in Colorado and across the nation, and people in DC are starting to whisper about the 5th CD as a possibility. Here’s the cash-on-hand of all four candidates (minus loans and debts), as of July 23 (the last reporting period):
Lamborn: 64,752
Crank: -20,588
Rayburn: -43,880
Bidlack: 68,368
Of course, if he can’t keep up that financial steam, it won’t matter. That’s where you come in. Go, right now, to Bidlack’s website and donate:
http://bidlack2008.com/contribute.php
If you’re still not convinced Hal can win, think of this. Even if Hal doesn’t win, every dollar spent in his race will result in a rate of return that helps everybody. It means that more Republican money has to go to help Doug Lamborn (or whomever is the GOP nominee). And it means that money won’t be going to people like Marilyn Musgrave, Bob Schaffer, or Republicans running for key State House and State Senate races. It also means that more money goes into organizing a field campaign in the 5th CD — a district where, if Barack Obama or Mark Udall can pull just 40%, it pretty much becomes mathematically impossible for the Republicans to win statewide. By motivating more Democratic-minded voters in El Paso County and the other counties in the 5th CD, it helps build a base that guarantees Democratic victories across the board.
So, once again, I implore you to head over and help Hal:
http://bidlack2008.com/contribute.php
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One other quick note: I want to welcome Matt Farrauto to the Colorado Democratic Party family. I’ve known Matt for a few years now; he’s been the Executive Director of the New Mexico Democratic Party for several years. His joining the CDP is quite a coup, and we are honored to have him with us. I’ve always been impressed with how Matt thinks and what he has done in New Mexico; his handling of our Communications duties is going to help put us over the top in November. Here’s some of the CDP press release announcing Matt’s new position with the CDP:
“Because Colorado is hosting the Democratic National Convention and has become a competitive battleground state, we are enjoying a new degree of media attention. I am pleased that we could find someone like Matt Farrauto, who brings a unique set of qualifications and experience to the job of Communications Director,” said Colorado Democratic Party Chair Pat Waak. “He has steady hand and a passion for Democratic politics.”
Matt Farrauto comes to Colorado from New Mexico where he served as the Executive Director of the Democratic Party of New Mexico from 2005 until late 2007. Prior to being promoted to Executive Director, Farrauto served as spokesman for New Mexico’s Democratic Coordinated Campaign.
Welcome aboard, Matt!
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