6 posts tagged “douglas county”

I'm standing in the cold waiting to get into the school. On the way here there were a hundred Hillary signs lining the median. Then in the school parking lot they have a motorhome with giant Hillary signs. I didn't see hardly any other signs.

Considering the fact that the votes at the lower level are just being tallied up and Obama already won at that level, it a little sad. I really don't think any of the Obama delegates are going to change their minds at this point.

It all just smacks of the desperation of someone who knows they are involved in a lost cause.

6th Congressional District Assembly & Convention

Well, I'm in!

I was elected as a Delegate to the Colorado Democratic Assembly, Saturday May 17 in Colorado Springs. This also includes being a Delegate to the Judicial District 18 Assembly, the evening of Friday May 16, also in Colorado Springs.

This means I could be choosing candidates for US Senate, District Attorney, State Senator, and State Representative. I will also get to help shape the state party's platform and elect delegates to the Democratic National Convention.

I'm also an Alternate to the Congressional District 6 Democratic Assembly, Saturday May 3 in Littleton. If I get seated as a delegate for this I would get to help choose a candidate for the US Congress, and vote for Presidential Electors and delegates to the Democratic National Convention.

I'm very excited about the whole process and am proud just to be a part of it.

As for the County Assembly and Convention. I was seated as a Delegate for Congressional District 6 for Mark Udall. I got to vote for candidates for Douglas County Commissioner as well as US Senate and US Congress.

I wasn't able to stay for the party platform part of the Assembly because I had to get home to lay my new computer room flooring. However, I did take a copy so I will be reading over all the proposed platform items.

I'm also looking to attend any local Democratic Party meetings to get more up to speed on everything that's going on in the party.

I finally got checked in at 8:55 and was sent to the 'Alternates Room'. It's pretty full and I don't even know if I will get to go anywhere from here, but I am here.

Alternate Holding Pen

I'm about to head out to the convention. I'm only an alternate delegate so there's a good chance I won't even be involved. I 'm excited to be a part of this whole process, but I'm also nervous that I'm in over my head.

Well, I guess we'll just have to see how it goes. I caucused for Obama, now It's time to take the next step.

Last night Bonnie and I caucused for the first time. It was very exciting to go down to Victor's elementary school and stand up for our candidate. The turnout was amazing and it was so great to see all the committed Democrats coming out for their candidate.

We started out in the cafeteria but our precinct had too many people and was moved to the art room. In the end we had 46 people. It was a diverse group that ranged in my estimation from 21 to 80 years of age. There was a good division of men and women. In our initial vote we had about seven undecided voters.

We had about a half an hour of debate with some good speakers who made good points for their candidates. There were also passionate speakers who did nothing to convince me that they had thought their decision through. In the end all but one was persuaded to vote for Obama. Our final vote for precinct 94 was 31 for Obama and 15 for Hillary.

Then we voted for our delegates to the county meeting. Our Hillary delegate was a 21 year old college student. She was very excited to be chosen. Our two delegates for Obama were a middle-aged man and woman. The man seemed to be very knowledgeable and had experience working on Capital Hill several years ago. The woman said she had been a Republican until two months and two days ago. She said three men had made her a Democrat; Bush, Cheney, and Obama. Her story was inspiring and she was very optimistic about the prospect of a President Obama. I think our three delegates are excellent choices and I hope that some of them can be elected as delegates at the next level of the nomination process.

I also put my name in to be a delegate and was elected as an alternate. I'm OK with this since the first two were so well suited to perform the task.

In the end our efforts combined with the rest of the state to give Obama a 2-1 win over Hillary in Colorado. The reports of the turnout for the Democrats are five times the previous year's Democrat turnout. It was also more than double the turnout for the Republican caucus.

I can't hope but to feel optimistic that this trend of the Democrats turning out twice the number of voters as the Republicans is a sign of how the general election will go in November.

I'm still a little shaken by my morning commute today.

This morning I tried to get to work a little early so I left home as quickly as I could. I was driving west down Lincoln Ave when it happened.

I had just changed lanes into the 3rd lane (right hand side) that starts just before Peoria when the light at Peoria turned yellow. As I slowed down in front of the Parker Fire Station House #4 a car just ahead of me in the 2nd (middle) lane stopped at the intersection.

All of a sudden a red Toyota pickup slammed into the other car. The driver never even tried to stop. The first car was blown across the intersection and pulled over to the right side of the road on the other side of the intersection. The Toyota was sitting in the middle of the intersection.

It was just surreal. I saw it coming because I saw the truck before it hit the first car. But, there was nothing I could do. By the time I would have hit my horn it would have been over. The sound of the crash and the pieces flying were just shocking. As I was calling 911 I saw the first car pull forward some and lost it in the dark.

As I talked to the 911 operator I would have sworn that the first car was an older Jeep Cherokee, say 1998-2000ish but I couldn't remember a color. All I could see was a bright red Toyota pickup. Before I got off the phone a Douglas County Sheriff Deputy coming east on Lincoln had stopped to check on the driver in the Toyota. Then he checked me to see if I was alright. He said the woman in the Toyota was pretty shaken up.

As the police and rescue started to show up they asked me if I was OK and if I knew where the other driver went. I didn't. I kept repeating my story that it had pulled away into the dark and I thought it was a Jeep. The Sheriff's dispatcher even called me back to ask.

Finally, a firefighter asked me to pull over to the side, out of the way so I wouldn't get hit. I waited a few minutes in the back driveway of the fire station for a little while. Then a Deputy came over and took down my information in case they needed to contact me about the accident and said I could go.

As I was leaving I saw that just past the intersection at the entrance to the shops there was a blue, late '80s Chevy Blazer with the fire and rescue personnel there. So much for my memory of a possibly white Jeep Cherokee. The memory is a funny thing in these situations. So much happens so fast that it's hard to process it all and retain it correctly. The red Toyota pickup was so dominant in the scene that even though I had seen the other car I couldn't recall what it was.

Being that only seconds before I was in that lane and that I was only a few feet away from the accident it shook me up pretty well. If I hadn't changed lanes I would have been sandwiched between the cars and probably injured pretty seriously. The rest of the way to work I was a bit more on edge than usual and hyper aware of the cars around me.