Colorado Springs is turning blue.
For this weekend at least, when as many as 10,000 state Democrats are expected to descend on the bastion of Colorado conservatism for the state Democratic Convention.
Today, the statewide delegation will choose who will represent Colorado at the Democratic National Convention in Denver this summer. But electing delegates from mountain communities like Aspen and the Roaring Fork Valley is a long shot, and some Dems are frustrated about the lack of representation.
They say that almost all of the 70 delegate spots are likely to go to people from densely populated counties around the state, and having any mountain-town national delegates is unlikely.
To try to overcome the odds, Kim Doyle Wille — an Eagle County delegate for Barack Obama — has formed the Coalition of Mountain and Rural Counties (CoMoCo).
“We are the stewards of the state’s water and of its natural resources,” Wille said over the telephone Friday as she drove to Colorado Springs. “We ought to be represented.”
The fact that the national convention is being held in Denver this summer has created unprecedented excitement and desire to participate from Democrats throughout the state — and the mountain/rural portions of Colorado want in.
CoMoCo has been trying to organize rural and mountain members of the assembly to rally around some of their own. “It’s kind of our little revolution,” Wille added.
A 29-person delegation from Pitkin County is at the convention — 23 of them for Obama, six for Hillary Clinton — proportional to the Feb. 5 caucus breakdowns.
“We are working in concert to get a Pitkin County citizen elected as a delegate to the national convention,” said Chris Bryan, an Aspen lawyer who is a delegate for Obama at the state convention. “But it is exceedingly difficult and the odds are astronomically against us.”
Straying slightly from the CoMoCo playbook, the Pitkin County Democrats focused their efforts on getting one of their own selected through the 3rd Congressional District Assembly, which was held last night in advance of today’s statewide assembly when the remaining at-large delegates will be seated.
On the Obama side, they pushed for Pitkin County Democratic Party Vice Chair Blanca O’Leary. For Clinton, they campaigned for county Democratic Chair Camilla Auger. They chose Aspen Mayor Mick Ireland as their lead campaigner.
“He’s been doing some good old politicking for us,” Bryan said Friday afternoon from the convention site. “He’s backslapping, horse-trading and flesh-pumping to get our people elected.”
At Friday night’s assembly, 772 delegates representing the 29 counties in the 3rd District chose their share of delegates to go to the national convention in Denver. At press time Friday, it had yet to be determined whether one of Pitkin County’s delegates was chosen.
And at today’s statewide assembly — where former President Bill Clinton and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson are expected to appear as surrogates for candidates Clinton and Obama — the Pitkin delegation and the rest of Colorado’s donkey mountainfolk will have their last shot at getting seated in Denver.
andrew@aspendailynews.com
