Colorado Dems change gears
The Colorado Democratic Party, the cool folks that every Dem wants to be since the election of the Salazar brothers, changed gears when they elected Pat Waak, replacing Chris Gates. Opinions differ on the reason for this change, but it can be seen as changing quarterbacks after a surprising win, which isn't exactly a good strategy.
Makesmeralph is really down on this point of view, calling the really close vote, saying: "The GOP has got to be a strong, strong favorite to win the Governor's race, especially now that Pat Waak is Democratic Chair. Colorado has a GOP bias, and Pat Waak is taking the Democratic Party in the wrong direction."
Luis is not at all depressed about the new chair:
I'm not worried about Gates' loss for the same reason I didn't think it would have been so horrible if Howard Dean didn't win the national party chair election. It's not as if Dean (or Simon Rosenberg) was going to turn Republican or stop working to build the party if he didn't win the chair race, and I doubt we'll see any drop off in commitment to the Democratic Party from Gates losing, either. And if Waak winning makes some Democrats who currently feel excluded have a sense of ownership of the party, it could turn into a net plus by helping unify the party.
Mentioning Dean, Luis implies maybe a third way to look at Chairperson Waak, the close election indicated that there were a lot of strong feelings on both sides of the chair race. This is good, because after a breakout election, which the Salazaars seemed to be, the last thing you want to do is just sit on your hands. You want your party to get excited.
And, it seems they got so damned excited that they elected a new chair. Waak's election could be the same sort of grass roots excitement that gassed Dean's presidential campaign for so long and that he seems to be pumping into the national party.
Emmett O'Connell | March 8, 2005 | Comment on This Post (5 so far) |
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Comments
My impression of this is that Pat Waak had the support of the 'netroots'. I was given to understand that with Pat Waak being the chair of the Colorado party, there would be more a focus on the grassroots and their concerns, establishing more in the way of communication between the grassroots nd the leadership of the party.
Now, I certainly think that has the potential to be a godo thing. It will give more people a feeling of being involved in their party. But then again, I've seen some oddballs too.
Best of luck to the Colorado Dems.
Posted by: Matusleo | Mar 9, 2005 3:08:15 AM
Unbelievably stupid.
Posted by: dan | Mar 9, 2005 10:16:29 AM
What is unbelievably stupid?
Posted by: Emmett O'Connell | Mar 9, 2005 10:42:23 AM
Replacing a successful Chair with someone who's name is associated with "Loser" and who wants to drag the party to the left is unbelievably stupid.
Sorry to put words in your mouth, Dan.
Posted by: Ralph | Mar 15, 2005 2:25:29 PM
As a Colorado Dem myself I can tell you that the reason Gates lost was because he concentrated on three counties in the entire state. It was the combination of the votes from the rural counties that defeated Gates. NOT a bunch of left wing wackos.
Posted by: Strider | Mar 21, 2005 2:58:09 PM
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(and yes, we know that sometimes they're very, very wrong. Other times, they're right on.)
