The Colorado Democratic Party's Central Committee met yesterday at the IBEW hall in north Denver. The main agenda of the meeting was to approve the delegate selection process for next year's state convention. The other agenda, the one most people came for, was to hear the leaders of the party rouse them to noble efforts and humanitarian deeds.
Gov. Ritter led off. He said it was going to be a difficult year, which was echoed by several of the other speakers. This seemed a bit...defensive. It made me appreciate the remarks of House Speaker Terrence Carroll, whose attitude was more along the lines of "let's take 'em on" and Senate candidate, Andrew Romanoff, who said, "The point of getting power is not to keep it, but to use it." Dang straight.
Surprisingly, Ritter named his opponent, which usually isn't done, especially this early. If you're going to name your opponent, then you need to follow that by either making a case against him, or zinging him with some deft one liners, neither of which Ritter did.
Lots of people think Ritter's in trouble, and I do too, but I still expect him to pull it out. This is a bad year for governors. Every state has had to cut back and lay off, which wins few friends, but influences many people. Organized labor doesn't care for Ritter, and for good reason. On the other hand, that wins him some points on the other end, so who knows?
His opponent, Scott McInnis, has a powerful political operation, including big money. He virtually swatted Josh Penry (R-Grand Junction) aside. Tom Tancredo then thought he'd toss his hat in the ring, then quickly pulled it out. For sheer muscle, McInnis stands astride the GOP like a colossus!
The flip side is that McInnis has the whiff of the "operator" about him. Plus, he got cross-ways with the "tea-baggers" and the hard-core conservatives have their doubts about where he stands on some of their issues. "You don't know where he stands," again to quote House Speaker Terrence Carroll. Ritter can take McInnis, but it's going to be a battle in the trenches.
Diana DeGette (D-CO1) spoke after Ritter. She said that our slogan this campaign year should be "Jobs, Jobs, Jobs." Some people might think this is a point of vulnerability for Democrats, and the Republicans surely will try to make it so. The problem for them is that people don't trust the Republicans on jobs, and, historically speaking, they are right to make that judgment. Secondly, the jobs situation was truly catastrophic in the last year of the Bush administration, and has undeniably gotten at least some better in the past 9 months.
DeGette gave a brief rundown of health care reform, and hit all the right notes. She seemed to be enjoying herself. As she closed, she made reference to herself, somewhat jokingly, as the "Dean of the Democratic Congressional Delegation." She has not only earned that designation through longevity, but seems to have grown into it as well.
State Treasurer Cary Kennedy unloaded the most memorable factoid of the day, and one certainly appropriate to the times: "Last year, the American people spent more on bank overdraft fees than they did on vegetables." She also said, and I frankly wonder if this can be right, but this is what she said, "The amount of money 'bet' on derivatives was ten times more than the economic output of the entire world."
As she made her spot on remarks about the banking crisis, it occurred to me that this gathering was mainly working class, or sympathetic to the working class. In my view, Pres. Obama's biggest political challenge will be to resolve the disconnect between this core of the Democratic Party and its Wall Street wing.
Treasurer Kennedy and I go way back, incidentally. We sat next to each other during now President Obama's acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention last summer. The home state delegation traditionally gets the seats that are front-and-center. The Obama campaign, however, awarded that honor to Illinois. Colorado was shift slightly to front-and-right center, which was actually better because you had better sight lines. In any case, we were right down on the front row. Eat your heart out, Bob Uecker.
Andrew Romanoff gave a good speech. He opened by noting that, no, he did not teepee the Governor's Mansion, which got a laugh, then said that Gov. Ritter told him he knew it wasn't a Democrat who did it because the quality of the toilet paper was too luxurious for a Democrat, which also got a laugh.
Romanoff can be inspiring, especially when he echoed Diana DeGette that jobs should be the central priority of the party. He even called for bringing back the Roosevelt-era Works Progress Administration--the WPA--a remark which was warmly received by all, including me.
Susan Daggett spoke on behalf of her husband, and Romanoff's opponent, Senator Michael Bennett. Bennett was in Washington over the weekend for health care reform work. It so happened--they said--that Senator Bennett called his wife at precisely the time she began her speech. This more or less fizzled because nobody really believed that, and because they had difficulty making Bennett heard through the public address system.
After an unimpressive start, Romanoff has started to score some points on Bennett. His refusal to take PAC money highlights Bennett's out-of-state PAC contributions, and Romanoff recently added a couple of highly regarded Obama campaign organizers to his staff.
For his part, Bennett seems to have raised his profile in the health care reform debate. He was given high marks by some for his response to the question of whether he would risk his Senate seat on a vote for health care reform. He answered yes--of course. How could you answer otherwise? What he should have said was, "I'm not risking my Senate seat by voting for health care reform. I'm proud to vote for it, proud to run on it, and proud to win on it."
Also as soon as I can take a couple photos I am going to post a couple newsy bits about last Monday's Portrait Party. Please check back to see what's up.
Posted by: NFL Jerseys | August 18, 2010 at 08:10 PM