The Democratic National Committee touted this year’s convention in Denver as its most diverse in history. And two local delegates showed the inclusively wide range of Democrats representing their American constituents this year.
Blanca O’Leary is co-chair of the Pitkin County Democratic Party, and a lifelong Democrat and political organizer. A 50-year-old mother, Texas native and non-practicing lawyer, O’Leary was elected as a delegate for Barack Obama this spring at the Colorado Democratic Convention in Colorado Springs.
A loquacious dyed-in-the-wool donkey with an easy smile and jet black hair, O’Leary has been working the streets of Aspen for Obama all year. “You’ll see me talking about Barack while picking up my laundry, shopping at City Market, in the post office,” she said.
Bryan Gonzales is a local real estate salesman and executive director of the Roaring Fork Valley Gay and Lesbian Community Fund. A political newcomer at 43, Gonzales was elected as a delegate for Hillary Clinton from Eagle County.
“I’ve always been a political junkie,” Gonzales said on the convention floor Monday night at Denver’s Pepsi Center. “But it wasn’t until this year that I started raising my hand at meetings and putting myself out there.”
He was among the largest group of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered delegates ever at a political convention — making up nearly 6 percent of the Democrats on the floor. And he was among 300 delegates nationwide who petitioned successfully back in June to get Clinton on the ballot in Denver, after she had suspended her campaign. That effort was spearheaded by the Colorado delegation, marking the first time there was more than one candidate on the Democratic convention ballot since 1952.
Gonzales was at the center of the most controversial aspect of this year’s convention — among the diehard Clinton delegates who, coming into the week, hadn’t fully gotten behind the party’s nominee, Barack Obama.
But on Wednesday during the state-by-state roll call, when Clinton herself made a motion from the New York delegation to nominate Obama by acclimation, Gonzales seconded the motion along with just about every other delegate at the Pepsi Center — and he wept.
A few hours earlier, he stood on a riser at the Colorado Convention Center, where Clinton addressed her pledged delegates and released them to vote for Obama, if they so chose. “She is so good,” Gonzales said at the event. “I just wish she could be our president.”
He had cast his written vote for Clinton that morning at the Colorado delegation’s 7 a.m. breakfast. But Gonzales says he’s 100-percent behind the party’s nominee now. For the next two months before Election Day, he will be knocking on doors, registering Roaring Fork Valley voters and making phone calls for Obama.
That morning Gonzales was featured prominently in a photograph in USA Today’s lead story on Clinton’s prime time Tuesday speech at the convention. He was featured jumping above the Colorado delegation, giving a full-throated yell of support to the stage and raising two fingers in a victory “V.”
“Check it out,” Gonzales chuckled, pointing to the photo. “I’m throwing her the Dick Nixon.”
During Clinton’s speech he was also featured in a close-up reaction shot by an NBC television cameraman.
The first delegates to represent the Aspen area since Mayor Bill Stirling was a delegate for Jesse Jackson at the Democratic National Convention in 1984 in San Francisco, O’Leary and Gonzales stayed busy during a week that kicked off with Sunday night parties and rolled sleeplessly until Obama’s outdoor acceptance speech at Invsco Field.
Sunday, O’Leary attended a benefit concert for Friends of New Orleans with Aspen Institute President and CEO Walter Isaacson. Gonzales went to a show at Red Rocks featuring the Dave Matthews band and a speech on climate change by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Along with their official duties, the Aspen representatives jostled to get into the best evening events and parties. O’Leary was growing tired of the hustle by Wednesday. “It’s so funny,” she said, shaking the credential lanyards around her neck. “People are always running around, bartering, like, ‘Oh, I’ve got this pass. I’ll trade you for that pass.’ It’s kind of overwhelming.”
Gonzales chimed in, saying, “I’m a former Deadhead, you know, so I enjoy and understand this barter system. I’m pretty good at it.”
Each morning they attended a mandatory delegation meeting that featured Colorado’s 60-person delegation and speakers like Gov. Bill Ritter, Rep. Mark Udall and Missouri Sen. Claire McKaskill.
On Wednesday they served lunch together at a local soup kitchen, scooping casserole onto plates for Denver’s homeless — O’Leary wearing an apron over her red “Yes We Can!” Obama T-shirt, Gonzales with an “I’m a smart ass” pin featuring a Democrat donkey.
With their official delegate duties behind them now, Gonzales and O’Leary both pledge to volunteer for the Obama campaign until November (after they catch up on some sleep). With the race between Obama and Republican candidate John McCain looking tight as can be in Colorado, they believe the solidly liberal Roaring Fork Valley could put Obama over the top and get the state to go blue for the first time since 1992.
“What if he wins Colorado by 5,000 votes?” O’Leary said. “Then it could be us who will elect him.”
andrew@aspendailynews.com
