El Paso County Assembly

This past Saturday, Bryan and I were delegates to the El Paso County Republican Assembly. 

***

There is a simple explanation for why we wanted to be delegates to the County assembly:  we wanted to be delegates to the State Assembly.  And you cannot be a delegate to the State if you are not at least an alternate to the County. 

At our precinct caucus back in February--the first we'd ever attended, the first most people there that night had ever attended--we nominated each other to be County delegates.

9 people ran.  8 people were chosen. 

The woman who lost did so unanimously.  Her 1 minute campaign speech was about how Republicans are the "Party of war" and how she wanted our platform to call for an investigation of our air quality, for she had suspicions that planes flying overhead were dropping chemicals on us.

We 50 or so Republicans in the room (for both parties run closed caucuses) stared at her with mouths agape.  You're wondering if she'd shown up to the wrong caucus, right?  But she was one of our precinct captains!

We re-elected her to that position, too.  Because that part of the evening happened before her speech.

***

Our presidential straw poll was conducted first. And from there, the caucus dragged on so that by 8:30, 80% of the people had left and we still needed to pick people to send to this congressional assembly, or that judicial assembly. . .  No one wanted these jobs. 

So I volunteered.  What the heck.  I was free those days.  I wanted to set a good example for our kids, who were with us the whole night. 

By the end of the meeting, those remaining were cheering me on:  Go Amy!  They found my enthusiasm. . .bemusing.  I think.

***

When we got home, Bryan said, "By the end of April, you will know whether you want anything to do with politics."

This was part of it, too, though I hadn't said it out loud.  Is there a candidate inside of me?  A politician?  A campaign aid?  A speech writer?

***

We marked the calendar and thought, "We better remember to attend that county thing."

Then the campaign literature started coming.

And the phone calls.

The post cards.

The invitations to meet n' greets.  To the candidate's houses.  To new Facebook friendships.

We realized that we'd become delegates who would decide which Republicans would run on the November ticket in all sorts of local races.  Two of those were contested.  Sheesh.

Not what we bargained for, people.

***

There was one race in particular.  For a State Senate seat.  It was open, due to redistricting, and it was vied for by a super-experienced establishment guy and a new-comer grass-roots guy who has under his belt exactly one more caucus than I do. 

I wanted to tell them both as we talked on the phone, "Look.  I'm a total fraud.  I have practically no idea what is going on this State because I didn't even know until 2 years ago that I would be living here long term." 

But instead, I put on my big-girl panties and waded into the weeds with them. Time to learn about all the issues they were talking about.

***

So, then, the Assembly.  Held at Liberty High School, which was not a perfect venue, but it was inexpensive and there are better ways to spend money this year than on the pricey World Arena. 

It was crowded.  But so pleasant.  Everyone seemed in a good mood.  I imagine the Democrat's assembly felt the same for this reason:  It is relieving to be around people who share your politics.

All strangers to one another.  Yet we all had something in common.

It was a very civil, polite, generous, warm crowd. 

***

All the candidates had a table set up with various items you can take to make yourself a walking billboard.  Some people really bought into this.  Their torsos were covered front and back with candidate stickers. 

And so alliances became obvious.  A guy might only be voting in HD 15, but he was still wearing stickers for the guy running in HD 16. 

I was a no-sticker kind of person, because I only knew about the races I'd be voting in.  For one of them, "my" candidate didn't really need any show of support from me.  She had the thing locked up.

For the other, the SD 10 seat, I'd finally concluded that both candidates would do a great job and though I'd be voting for just one, I didn't necessarily support him above the other.

I did wear a sticker for my presidential choice.  I'd promised my precinct at the caucus that I'd fight for him if chosen, so the least I could do was sticker-up.

***

I felt comfortable saying, "No thanks" when offered a sticker.

Others used the line, "Sorry, not in my district."

I was behind a guy who used this line to say "no" to the candidate for County Commissioner 2 as we headed into the vote for. . .County Commissioner 2.  Oops.

***

This vote, CC 2, happened in the school auditorium.  It got started late because credentialing took so long.  Photo ID required for every ballot given out.

Then the meeting started and Amy Lathen, the current CC 2 came to the stage.  Some soft-spoken man dressed in bib overalls with a huge grey beard nominated her.  We could barely here what he said.

Then the Sheriff seconded the nomination, and I'd expected a better performance out of someone who himself had to be elected from time to time.

Then the introduction came from the DA, Dan May, who electrified the whole room with a simple, "Good Morning El Paso County!" and 20 more seconds of an energetic endorsement and I thought, "That guy is a good politician."

***

Amy's stage was full of supporters, most of them in her campaign t-shirts, most of them holding huge signs, many of those topped with smaller signs that read, "We want Amy!" and "Amy is down home!"  I do not know what they meant by that. 

Bryan noted, "Look at that. . .she's got a service dog up there, a guy with a walker, a guy with crutches, young people, old people. . ."  and it was funny because it was a little bit true.  Certainly no one thought it would hurt her appearance to have an old guy with a walker up there.

***

Amy's speech was well-delivered.  Kind of well-written. 

She shared a lot of detail about what she'd accomplished in her first term, including a story of leaving her family on 4th of July to go help a resident who was flooding and she herself was waste deep in the water but that's what being a public servant is all about.

And I thought, "How on earth was it helpful for a County Commissioner to be wading the flood waters?"  Moral support, maybe. 

Her biggest applause lines were the very few that mentioned national issues like, "Boo to federal debt!" and "Boo to federal interference!" and "Boo to Obamacare!"

Rightly so that these lines were few because County Commissioner has practically nothing to do with federal issues. 

But that was the pulse of the day.  That's what had brought me and Bryan to that Assembly.  That's why so many of the other delegates I met were also first-timers.  National issues.

She got huge applause.

***

Her opponent came out to the stage with less than half the people, with a nomination and endorsement not from the Sheriff or DA, but from his father.  And his speech was negative.  In that he made serious allegations against Amy, as he'd been doing in his campaign literature.

What of these allegations?  I didn't buy them.

But I wanted to pull him aside and say, "Are you blind?  This woman is practically revered as a saint among us.  Of all elected positions, why on earth are you going for this one?"

He didn't get as much applause.

And she beat him with 75% of the vote.

***

There was one candidate I wanted to track down that day.  A guy who's going for the 5th Congressional seat.

It's currently held by Doug Lamborn who has not once, but twice!, been identified as "Congress' Most Conservative Member."

You know those organizations who rate legislators by using some scorecard and then boil it down to a percentage to describe their voting records?  Well, every one of them has scored Lamborn "100% conservative."

100%, friends.  One hundred.  Percent.  This is our incumbent.  His constituents have been electing him to some sort of office since 1995.

Two guys are contesting the R-nomination.  One of them has been sending me campaign literature because I am a delegate to the 5th congressional assembly.  (One of those positions no one wanted the night of the caucus.) 

On the literature, he describes himself as "Freedom of Choice," and I looked that up on his web site to see what it meant and so I wanted to see him in person to make sure I hadn't misunderstood. 

I found him, and I asked him, "To be clear:  you're pro-choice?"

He said, "Yes," and then started into whatever argument he had for that.

I politely interrupted and said, "I'm not here to change your mind.  I just wanted to hear this for myself.  You are running for the 5th congressional district.  And you're pro-choice."

He nodded his head.  Kind of like: Yep!  That's me!

I wanted to give him campaign advice:  Dude.  Pick any other congressional district in Colorado and run as a pro-choice candidate and go out of your way to call attention to it.  But 5th Congressional?  You can't be serious.

***

Speaking of this race, we heard from all 3 candidates.  The one I have not mentioned is named Blaha.  Which sounds like the first 2 syllables of a maniacal laugh. 

His whole point was, "Sure, Lamborn is a strong conservative.  But what has he accomplished?  He's been there 6 years and what has he gotten done for us?" 

He used the metaphor of a quarterback who completes a lot of plays but doesn't actually score.  "Time to change quarterbacks.  Put me in the game."

It was a good speech.  Well-delivered.  Well-written. 

I thought, "We cannot have it both ways.  The guys who scores 100% on the scorecard is not the guy who will move and shake and 'get things done.'  That's not what legislation is.  The guy who scores 100% is a guy who doesn't compromise.  And if you don't have a super-majority in the House and Senate with a President of your party as well, you aren't going to be writing and passing legislation."

Seems to me this is the point Blaha should be making.

But the 5th Congressional isn't going to want to hear it.

Another guy who has picked the wrong race to run.

***

This dynamic, I realized that afternoon, is kind of what the SD 10 race is.

We have a State Rep, Larry Liston, running for the Senate District seat.  Larry doesn't have a to-the-moon conservative voting record.  He does have a few votes that no doubt came of the wheeling and dealing nature of legislation.

But small businesses love him.  He's voted the right way for them every time. 

And he voted for a health care exchange called "200."  The opposition made a millstone out of this bill and hung it around his neck and the neck of the majority leader, Amy Stephens.  (Who lost to Marsha Looper by just 1 percentage point.) 

It's an excellent piece of work, though, that 200.  It was the right thing to do for our State.  It was, indeed, a compromise with the Democrats.  But it was a good-looking compromise. It's what good governance should look like. 

It also threatens to sink the Republicans who voted for it.

***

The challenger, Owen Hill, has a completely different appeal. 

He's young.  (Bryan: "He's got babies up on stage!") 
He's hip to social media.  (We're "friends" on Facebook.) 
He advertises himself as one who will be a "principled conservative" in office, and I have every reason to believe he'll be true to that.

He did a good job delivering his speech.  I could have written a better one.  I could tell he has done time in academia (indeed, he's got his PhD) because he wrote for the page, and not the ear.

Got to write for the ear.  Especially if what you're writing is a speech.

His stage was full of supporters, many of them my age or younger, and that appeal is not to be underestimated, either. 

He did a lot in his campaign to run to Larry's right by painting him as a liberal.  (I'm avoiding the term "negative campaign" because it wasn't a personally negative campaign.) 

Owen said early in his speech, after a campaign like this, "Thank you for your service" to Larry Liston and I thought, "Boy is that rich."

And so, what to do?  One guy has experience getting things done, can be counted on to get more done if sent to the Senate.  But this guy is not going to have a perfect scorecard. 

The other guy has no experience, and might well become a 100%-er. 
If he'd been in office when 200 came about, he'd have voted the wrong way. 
But I also think we need some 100%-ers around. 
And he's so young.  So talented.  This State Senate seat might be the first step in a career I'd be glad to help launch.


And so, what to do. . .  


***

The part I really liked about the day was the speech-making.  I enjoyed critiquing them.  Internally, of course. 

The highlight was probably when I stood in line to place my ballot in the box and found myself in a conversation with a young man about the arguments coming before the Supreme Court regarding the AHC Act. 

20 years old, maybe.  A delegate already! 

He was Hispanic, and I point that out because the other woman in our conversation was African American.  And he was spouting forth with great optimism what this argument would have to be, what that argument would mean.  The other woman was unfamiliar with the legalities of the case and was taking notes.  I was saying--cynically!  I admit it!--the political cost is too high for this to be decided by legal reasoning.  It should be, of course.  But it won't be.

The 3 of us there, with little in common.  She, a professional woman (a mother--so there was that).  He,  a young student.  We all of a different ethnic background.  We all of a different mind regarding one of the most important legal decisions of our lifetime.

And yet, we all had something in common.

***

Oh?  About Owen and Larry?

I won't tell you what I did.  I'll tell you that I gave one man my word that I'd vote for him, and even though I debated all the way to the ballot box, I kept my word.

Owen beat Larry with 64% of the vote.

But it doesn't matter.

What's that?  What doesn't matter?

These votes.  Any candidate getting at least 30% at the Assembly gets his or her name on the ballot in June's primary. 

(What primary?  I thought this was a caucus state!)

Colorado is a caucus and a primary state.  What the caucus is for--besides the presidential straw poll and election of un-bound delegates to a state convention that will elect more un-bound delegates to go to the National--I'm not even sure.

What is the Assembly is for?  I don't even know.  Glad they didn't spend 8000 bucks on the venue, though.

Amy Stephens, who lost to Marsha Looper by 1%?  Doesn't matter.  They'll face of in the primary.

Owen and Larry?  Doesn't matter.  Primary.

Amy Lathen and the guy she beat with 75% of the vote?  He's not automatically on the primary ballot, but if he gets 2000 signatures, he can petition his way onto it. 

***

I still have the 4th Judicial, 5th Congressional and State assemblies to attend.

But I know already:  This stuff is not really in me.