(Cross-Posted to DemNotes at www.DemNotes.com)
Lots of stuff to write about today — but the first thing is a procedural key to electing Colorado’s delegation to serve at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Today, the State Party received word that the Colorado Democratic Delegate Selection Plan is in full compliance with the rules of the DNC and its Rules and Bylaws Committee. Political Director Bill Compton and Secretary Carolyn Boller did the yeoman’s work on this effort, and we now have an officially-sanctioned plan for electing our delegates.
In reality, there really wasn’t much doubt that the DNC would approve our plan — it was “conditionally approved” in August — but there is always a sigh of relief when the DNC finally gives its stamp of approval, and our staff can focus on other issues — such as electing Democrats across Colorado. Kudos to the DNC, because they acted very quickly. The revised Plan was submitted this morning, and Pat Waak received the approval letter this afternoon.
Look for the final version of the Delegate Selection Plan — which is the authority for the rules in the process of electing delegates from the caucus to the national convention — on the CDP website soon!
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In addition, the State Party released to county chairs the numbers of delegates from each county to the state and multi-county district conventions / assemblies a couple of weeks ago. Because of the anticipated increased interest in attendance due to the national convention in Denver, we decided to increase the delegate base — the total number of delegates that are split among the counties — to 5,000 instead of the 4,000 we’ve used in the past few assemblies / conventions. The delegation numbers are based on the vote for Bill Ritter in 2006 across the state. I’ve got a copy of the document on DemNotes here:
Link few notes: Denver still has the largest delegation, at 684 delegates; however, Jefferson County is not far behind, with 672 delegates. Rounding out the top five are Arapahoe, with 553 delegates; Boulder, with 474 delegates; and El Paso, with 390 delegates. Every delegation, regardless of the county size, is guaranteed 4 delegates. Several counties have the 4 delegate minimum this year (although fewer counties than normal): Baca, Cheyenne, Crowley, Custer, Dolores, Hinsdale, Jackson, Kiowa, Lincoln, Mineral, Phillips, San Juan, Sedgwick, and Washington.
If you download the file, you’ll also see delegation numbers for the Congressional Districts, other multi-county districts, and numbers for the members to the State Permanent Organization and Credentials Committees (the Platform Committee was selected out of the various House Districts at their reorganization meetings in February / March of this year).
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Finally, what is up with the Colorado Republican Party? While you can get a bevy of information about all sorts of things from the CDP website at www.coloradodems.org, our Republican counterpart has been “under construction” for the entire tenure of GOP Chair Dick Wadhams. I recall attempting to check out their website around the time of the Party elections, and it looks the same as it does now: just a message: “coming soon - the new Colorado Republican Party online”. Hmmm…. I guess they must be too busy with the ideological purity testing in their laboratory to work on outreach to Coloradans.
That’s fine with me.