![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
more poly ticks
May. 10th, 2004 09:57 amSaturday was our county Democratic Assembly. Can I just say that it was tremendously energizing to be in a room full of politically like-minded people?
The actual mechanics of the Assembly were somewhat agonizing. Parliamentary procedure is a pain in the butt, especially when the people actually running the meeting don't know it very well. The county commissioner race was particularly facepalm-inducing as in order to make the ballot the candidates had to get 30% of the vote, which was 49.05, and Black received 48, and there was a motion to suspend the rules so that Black could make the ballot, and oh, what a debate, what a procedure, oh my God, it was sausage. The inner workings of which you don't really want to know.
But the cool parts were listening to the candidates for our congressional district speak (and meeting them!), and listening to the representatives of our senatorial candidates, and doing the "stand up in the corner and be counted" thing for them and for the Presidential candidates. Both Britt and I will be going to the State Assembly in Pueblo in two weeks as delegates for Kerry, Ken Salazar (our Attorney General who is running for Senate), and John Salazar (who is a state legislator but not ours, who is running for Congress, who is Ken's brother, and who we met and really, really like).
We all had nametags and it was interesting to see how many names we recognized from newspaper columns (yes, a few people recognized me!) and letters to the editor and other articles (e.g. the director of an activist group, who makes the paper a lot).
Of course, in some sense we didn't really do much. There will be a primary in August, and I expect all the major candidates will be on the ballot. But the excitement was such a great feeling and we are hoping that (and will work hard for) Colorado will soon have a Democrat in the Senate (that won't switch parties as soon as he gets there!), another Democrat in the House (our delegation has been 3/5 Republican for some time) and maybe even help elect a Democrat President.
The actual mechanics of the Assembly were somewhat agonizing. Parliamentary procedure is a pain in the butt, especially when the people actually running the meeting don't know it very well. The county commissioner race was particularly facepalm-inducing as in order to make the ballot the candidates had to get 30% of the vote, which was 49.05, and Black received 48, and there was a motion to suspend the rules so that Black could make the ballot, and oh, what a debate, what a procedure, oh my God, it was sausage. The inner workings of which you don't really want to know.
But the cool parts were listening to the candidates for our congressional district speak (and meeting them!), and listening to the representatives of our senatorial candidates, and doing the "stand up in the corner and be counted" thing for them and for the Presidential candidates. Both Britt and I will be going to the State Assembly in Pueblo in two weeks as delegates for Kerry, Ken Salazar (our Attorney General who is running for Senate), and John Salazar (who is a state legislator but not ours, who is running for Congress, who is Ken's brother, and who we met and really, really like).
We all had nametags and it was interesting to see how many names we recognized from newspaper columns (yes, a few people recognized me!) and letters to the editor and other articles (e.g. the director of an activist group, who makes the paper a lot).
Of course, in some sense we didn't really do much. There will be a primary in August, and I expect all the major candidates will be on the ballot. But the excitement was such a great feeling and we are hoping that (and will work hard for) Colorado will soon have a Democrat in the Senate (that won't switch parties as soon as he gets there!), another Democrat in the House (our delegation has been 3/5 Republican for some time) and maybe even help elect a Democrat President.