This past Saturday, March 15, Andrea and I were delegates to the 2008 Jefferson County Democratic Convention and Assembly at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden. It was another interesting day of learning about the nuts and bolt of getting a candidate on the ballot actually happens.
The morning session was largely well organized. All 3500 or so delegates were seated in the main arena in the Mines recreation center. We went through some basic rules and credentialling, then Senator Ken Salazar, Congressman Mark Udall, and Congressman Ed Perlmutter addressed the assembly. Following that, we voted on a number of platform resolutions and unopposed candidates for county and statewide offices before breaking for lunch.
After lunch, we moved into the House District 24 Assembly. This was so poorly organized as to be a major turn off for most of the first time assembly delegates. The assembly was held in a gym with terrible acoustics and an equally terrible sound system, with the net result being that most everyone couldn’t hear any of the instructions. There were 4 votes taken for delegates to various Congressional District and State Assemblies, though none was in any way well organized. The final vote of the day was in the race between Dave Ruchman, whom Andrea and I supported, and Sue Schafer for the Colorado HD 24 seat. I imagine that both made quota, so there will be a primary election in August to determine the candidate for that seat.
None of the results from any of the votes taken on Saturday have yet been announced, and I’m sure there will be a credentials fight for the CD7 and State Assemblies based on the chaos of the HD24 Assembly. It was definitely an interesting day though and Andrea and I will be waiting to hear whether either of us will be delegates to the later assemblies.
