Hello there, all y’all who are a mile high or thereabouts, in physical locale or in spirit. That’s not even a 4/20 joke, because really, we barely need to make those anymore. It’s… passe? I’m unsure, as I do not partake myself, being merely content and pleased that others can do so without fear of Mister Law. I recognize only that these jokes are fading along with the underground history of the culture. End digression.
Before I begin, I must point out an inaccuracy in the above graphic that is my fault: these DNC Committee Members are not YET superdelegates. I did not know they gained that status upon re-election, at the beginning of their second 4 year term. There are people in this world who are Democratic Party rules experts, and one day I hope to be one of them, but—quoth Aragorn—BUT IT IS NOT THIS DAY!
Now that you have inspected the graphic at least once, you start to see what I did here. As you may know, Colorado was and remains blessed with a great grassroots group who got on the Bernie train early, and got organized in a way that impressed the national campaign greatly, ultimately resulting in a 58.8-40.1 win on Caucus Night, Super Tuesday, March 1.
Er, scratch that; there was nothing ultimate about that, as we marshaled our supporters—now delegates--through County Assembly and Convention (Assembly pertaining to State/local races, and Convention pertaining to Presidential Preference), then Congressional District A&C, then FINALLY, ultimately, State A&C. For a great recap of that event, please see our own RWN’s post, A PLEO's Report From The Floors of CO's Dem State Convention and CD5's Convention/Assembly.
(OK: ULTIMATELY, this journey concludes with our National Delegates in Philadelphia.)
So at State Convention, the orders of business were: * Conduct the Presidential Preference Poll of delegates in attendance. This resulted in a gain of a few points for Sanders, similar to those seen at most County and CD Conventions.
* Elect DNC Committee Members
* Elect National Delegates and Alternates from two pools: PLEO (Party Leader & Elected Official) and At Large.
So, my project—taken on entirely in a volunteer capacity, as I have been off the campaign for a month—was to manage this minimalist campaign to elect new DNC Committee members.
It’s nothing personal against the existing members; they have served for a few terms, and they have put in their share of work for the CDP and the DNC over that time. Colorado, however, is feelin’ itself some Bern, and that should be reflected as much as possible in elected officials. Time to get some new Bernie supportin’ DNC Members, no? YES.
A couple of dedicated activists mentioned this to me in separate events within a few hours. One—Mike McCorkle, whom I think of as our Bernie Atternie, even had the temerity to nominate me for the job! HAAAAAAHAHAHAHANo. Not yet, at least. But we took it upon ourselves to figure out who WOULD be good in that spot, get them on the ballot, and help them win.
Process discernment was a group effort. The first candidate, Terry Tucker, is a longtime party activist in JeffCo. She just dialed up CDP Executive Director Anne Wilseck and asked to be on the ballot. DONE! How is this so easy after everything else was so arcane? So from there, it was recruiting the other two, eventually settling (after some discussion) on Weld County’s Jeri Shepherd, and Arapahoe County’s Mike Hamrick, both of whom also have stellar Dem cred as well as Bern Feel.
We knew we would have the primary requirement in winning—The Numbers—so all we needed was for our delegates to know how to vote. I put out the ask for graphic design, and local activist and designer Jules (shameless plug for his site, he deserves it) came through with the leadoff graphic featuring our slate and our strategy. The top three vote getters win the three spots (with a mandate for a gender split as close to 50/50 as possible), so it was critical to communicate that.
Take the graphic, share on social media, and distribute at Convention.
Well… it WORKED!
Bernie Sanders supporters won Colorado’s three seats on the Democratic National Committee, ousting longtime party leaders and Hillary Clinton loyalists.
The Democratic delegates at the state convention elected Terry Tucker, Jeri Shepherd and Mike Hamrick, the party announced late Monday. Sanders supporters pushed the slate and worked to get them elected at the party confab Saturday in Loveland, though the campaign said it didn’t officially endorse them.
I want to reiterate that this didn’t require much work on my part: I just facilitated candidate recruitment, communication, graphic design requirement, and distribution. And in any state where Bernie won big, I hope you or someone is working on this same project. Those seats belong to Y’ALL.
Setting aside the dynamics of this particular campaign: we are committed to more and better Democrats. When you have a progressive movement with energy, there’s nothing like it. Otherwise big lifts become light. So don’t miss the opportunities this year presents.
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