GRIEGO: Ready, set . . . this time, caucuses are reason to go

By Tina Griego, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published January 24, 2008 at 12:30 a.m.

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I'm a little scatterbrained. For reasons I cannot recall, I registered as an unaffiliated voter after moving to Colorado a decade ago. I'd been a Democrat up until then - stunning, I know.

Unaffiliated voters are big here. Statewide, nearly 995,000 were registered as such last December, the most recent data available. That sandwiches the group between Republicans and their 1,008,541 registered party members and Democrats with 875,650.

Many they may be, but unaffiliateds can't vote in local precinct caucuses. You must have been registered to a major party by Dec. 5 and in your precinct by Jan. 7. You can observe a caucus, but I've never done so. By the time the caucuses - cauci? - rolled around, the front-runner was clear. And if my precinct was like many others, two people showed up and ate cookies and cast their votes. Yawn.

But, here we are now, joining Super Tuesday just 12 days away. No front-runner in either presidential contest. Coloradans finally given the opportunity to state their preferences early, before the show is all but over and no one cares anymore what we think. People are flooding their Democrat and Republican county headquarters. Where is my caucus? How do I become a delegate?

There's so much interest that Carolyn Boller, state Democratic Party secretary, worries the senior center she booked for 34 precinct caucuses will be too small. She called them the other day: You got any more room?

We have a ceramics room.

I'll take it.

So, here I am, on the outside looking in, a bystander watching the parade pass, a kid, nose pressed against the glass, a . . . oh, you get the picture.

Living vicariously, I attend Delegate University on Tuesday night at the University of Denver. It's co-sponsored by the Latina Initiative and The White House Project, both nonpartisan nonprofits involving more women in politics.

About 75 people pack the class. An interesting mix. About a dozen more Democrats than Republicans. A wide range in age, race, ethnicity. A few men. Most of the group had never participated in a caucus.

Mary Smith, the Denver County Republican party chairwoman, and Boller launch into Caucus 101 and how to become a delegate, the odds growing ever slimmer, to the national convention.

"You'll find your neighbors at your caucus because that's who makes up your precinct," Smith says. "You'll take a straw poll of the presidential candidates. It's a sliver of time. All it will say is that between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Feb. 5, this was the mood of Denver."

Colorado's delegates won't be awarded until May's state conventions. By then a presumptive nominee should have emerged, but the caucuses offer candidates "media pop."

"It's all about building momentum," Smith says.

During training, the woman in front of me declares: "I want to be a delegate." Her name is Jill Eden, a Republican, a teacher. She was the only person to show up at her precinct caucus four years ago. She expects more company this time around. "I look at the bigger picture," she says. "It's grass roots and if you really want to make a difference, you talk to your neighbors. You pound on doors."

Sitting in the front row is Corey Baker, a 22-year-old African-American and Democrat. He moved from New York last summer. "I'm definitely going to my caucus," he says. "It's really an exciting time. When I think of the presidency, right now, it could go in such different directions . . . What happens in the next year will affect the rest of my life."

A few seats over is Estrella Alvarado, a North High School teacher and Colorado native. Her son is an Iraq war veteran who was awarded the Purple Heart. Her experience as a mother of a veteran and a teacher spurred her toward her first caucus. And, yes, she too wants to be a delegate to the Democratic National Convention later this year in Denver. "I want to be on that floor," she tells me.

A young woman says she came to the training because she's been to a caucus and it made no sense to her. "I went; I participated and I really don't know if it made a difference," she tells the room.

At this, Sarah Lehan, who's gone to her neighborhood caucuses for 20 years, says: "To me, the caucus is really the heart and soul of democracy."

"Yes!" Eden cheers in front of me.

"It's a very basic way of participating," Lehan continues. "There's excitement now because of the presidential elections, but you'll decide about local races, about party platform. It's really about the rest of democracy."

I belong to the "don't vote then don't complain" camp and I leave the training lamenting my bystander status. As I was writing this, I called Alton Dillard, Denver Elections Division spokesman, to find out when I became unaffiliated. Maybe a clue lies in the date.

Hold on, he says, then comes back on the line. You registered in Colorado in 1998, he says, but you declared Democratic affiliation on August 10, 2004.

What? 2004? Presidential race. U.S. Senate race. August 10, 2004. The primary. Dim bells ring.

So, I'm a registered Democrat?

You are, he says.

Game on!

griegot@RockyMountainNews.com

• January 25, 2008

  6:25 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  JohnSWren writes:

  Too bad you didn't write a column like this before December 5, the deadline for affiliating to vote in the Colorado Caucus. Seems to me a good story would be why neither daily newspaper here in Denver chose to cover that big, big story them. It was a front-page headline feature story in the Boulder paper.

  I just sent this letter to the RMN editor yesterday:

  After such great coverage of the Iowa Caucus, why are you giving so little attention to our own Colorado Caucus?
  
  Since 1912, Coloradoans have gathered with their neighbors to select our political leaders. People who don't participate, and newspapers that don't light the path for their readers, can't complain with the leaders that emerge Feb 5!
  
  To learn more and voice your opinion about our wonderful system, attend our Denver Grassroots Rally next Friday, more information and RSVP at http://cocacop.meetup.com/2

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