Why save the Colorado Caucus?

Don't let them shut you up!  Support candidates who support our 

Colorado Caucus-- where the voice of the common person makes a real difference.

The room is buzzing with conversation. Neighbors who may only have shared brief greetings in the past are now discussing pressing public policy issues and presidential candidates who will shape the nation for decades. 

Neighbors connect with each other at levels of nuance and depth that is nonexistent for passive subjects watching the nonstop chatter of today’s news media. They discover common ground that is translated into political action by their representatives at the local, state and federal levels.

This is the wonderful Colorado Caucus..  This is the grassroots of our representative democracy at its very best. In some 6,000 gatherings across Colorado citizens interact in an iron-sharpening-iron forums that challenge, enlighten, clarify. 

This is usually the Colorado Caucus, the wonderful grassroots system that has served us well since 1912 until recently. It was almost killed with a misguided experiment with a Presidential Primary for three election cycles, the test ended in 2004. It was never fully restored to health, and it has been under attack by powerful forces ever since 1912.

These forces are united by a single idea: to dupe Colorado citizens into reverting back to the pre-reform days, with party bosses having almost no oversight from rank-and-file party members.

If the Empire, in StarWars terms, fools enough people, our wonderful Coloradan grassroots will once again be replaced with the astroturf of a Presidential Primary. This is not a new fight.

Save The Caucus, a Colorado political committee, was first formed to do precisely that, to save the Colorado Caucus, which would have been killed by Amendment 29 in 2002. Despite being outspent 1400 to 1, Amendment 29 was defeated 60% to 40%.

The committee was formed by John Wren, Phil Perington, Frank & Sylvia Sullivan, Sharron and Ben Klein, , JoAnne & Dan Gray, Ruth Prendergast, Bill Armstrong and many others to fight Amendment 29, which would have killed what was left of the Colorado Caucus that had almost died trying to co-exist with expensive Presidential Primaries that were tried in 1992, 1996 and 2000. We fully re-adopted the caucus system in 2004.

Wren recently reactivated Save the Caucus with the Colorado Secretary of State and listed himself as registered agent. “Our intention was to be ready if a ballot initiative arose that would have the same impact as Amendment 29 in 2002, and that has now happened, and we could be taken back 100 years to the corruption that existed then that finally stopped with the progressive reforms adopted by states across the country," said Wren.

Why is the Colorado Caucus worth saving? Here's what CU political scientists very familiar and experienced in it's operations before our experiment with the Presidential Primary has said:

“…(The Colorado Caucus— the unique Colorado system adopted in 1912) permits citizens to run for office even though they may not be the ‘pets’ of the party organization, and at the same time it discourages persons without any real stature and public standing from becoming candidates,” wrote Curtis Martin and Wallace Stealey of the University of Colorado, Boulder, in 1967.

Caucuses are held every other year in 3,000 neighborhoods across Colorado, often in public spaces such as schools, and also in homes that are handicapped accessible. This is the start of a process that ends up with delegates going to the Democratic and Republican national conventions, where they will vote for a nominee for each party to represent the voters in the general election. 

At each neighborhood caucus, members of one of the major political parties vote for delegates to their county assembly. At the caucus and assembly citizens have the chance to persuade their neighbors about why their preferred candidate should be elected. A candidate must garner a minimum number of votes to be presented at the next level. At the county assemblies, some of those delegates will be chosen to go to the seven congressional district assemblies and others to represent the candidate at the state assembly. From there, delegates are chosen for the national convention, where they will have a chance to choose their political party’s nominee for President of the United States of America.

Some say our Colorado Caucus is too complicated. It is true that to be a self-governing citizen takes time. The obsession our culture has with instant gratification is not healthy for our society when it comes to important matters such as who represents us politically. 

"I love the caucus process," Chuck Broerman, El Paso County clerk and recorder, told the Colorado Springs Gazette in February. "I really enjoy the fact that grass-roots people can get in and participate in the process and make a decision about who the candidates are going to be."

If there are bad leaders in the party or among elected representatives, the Precinct Caucus enables concerned citizens to begin a powerful process to set a new direction.  A Presidential Primary only allows the quick pull of a lever or check of a box, the opportunity to easily correct problems is lost, which is exactly why dictatorial party leaders hate our wonderful Colorado Caucus. 

People complain that our nation’s elections are dominated by monied interests. Our 6,000 Colorado Precinct Caucus gatherings are a powerful corrective to this domination. The Colorado Caucus enables those who feel powerless to have a voice and enter the political process. Apathy about governance disappears when the politically-poor find their voice and connect with neighbors. Many, many of these formerly silent citizens over the past 100 years have subsequently been elected to public office. 

“We're systematically replacing ‘social capital’ with plain old monetary capital (with primaries),” wrote Sue O'Brien in 2002. “Colorado's traditional caucus-convention system, in contrast, rewards the shoe-leather and diligence. It provides a low-cost way for aspirants to work the neighborhoods, investing energy instead of dollars.”

Those screaming “Kill the Caucus” say the 6,000 neighborhood gatherings for a couple of hours every two years creates radicalization, but the opposite is true. When they are well led, which they were not this year, face to face discussion helps citizens realize the people they share their votes with are real human beings with similar life struggles, experiences and desires. 

Washington State has estimated changing from a Presidential Primary to a caucus-assembly system like the Colorado Caucus would save $11 million. Political parties pay for the caucus.

Cost of Presidential Primary— $Millions. The experience of shared humanity lost— Priceless. That is why it is so important that we once again Save the Caucus. Support candidates who support the Colorado Caucus. 

For more see Colorado Caucus News (click here) or call John Wren at (303)861-1447. 

John Wren is registered agent for Save the Caucus, a Colorado political committee. 1881 Buchtel Blvd #501, Denver, CO 80210

Colorado underestimates cost of a Presidential Primary.

Some are saying the special election could cost as "little" as $4.7 million, money that could be much better spent in other ways.

And many thing that is underestimating the cost considerably.

Here's what's being said about Washington State's Presidential Primary: "The state budget enacted this month included $11.5 million to pay for the primary, which had been canceled in 2012 due to cost concerns."

For more see our Facebook Page (click here) for the complete newspaper article.

Absentee ballot for Colorado Caucus?

Question:  if I'm going to be out of town March 1 can I mail in my vote?

John Wren's personal opinion: No, your neighborhood caucus is a deliberative body, voting in it by mail would be like serving on a jury but skipping the trial and just mailing in you guilty or not guilty decision. 

You have a couple of months, if it's very important to you, maybe you can rearrange your schedule. 

Otherwise be part of the sample in two years, and you can certainly work in your neighborhood and elsewhere for the candidate of your choice between now and March 1 to influence those who will be taking their turn for "jury duty" in our representative system the Colorado Caucus, the best chance the common person as of serving in elected public office. 

For the official answer contact the Colorado Secretary of States office, they are doing a better and better job explaining the Colorado Caucus. 

I've suggested part of the Secretary of States job be to put on a TV special and info in the blue book explaining the virtues of our two party system Colorado Caucus, and the enhanced ability it gives the person without great wealth or other power to serve their neighbors as their elective representative or party leader.

Other opinions on this? Please post as a comment here. If you do call the Colorado Secretary of State please let us know what they say to you, ok?

Next question? 

The people of Colorado win!

Today the Colorado Senate Appropriations Committee voted to not send SB15-286 to the floor of the Colorado Senate for further consideration.

What I've done to help stop this very misguided idea from becoming a reality has very much been in the spirit of Save the Caucus, the committee that was formed to fight Amendment 29 in 2002. Despite being outspent 1400 to 1 (yes 1400 to one) Save the Caucus won big 60% to 40%.

SB15-286 was brought to the Senate last Friday in the closing hours of this session. I've been monitoring such a possibility for the entire session after the Denver Post editorial created the idea of a Presidential Primary in Colorado.

Some reporter needs to dig into what triggered the idea of a Presidential Primary with the with the Denver Post? Was it something that came out of their advertising department? Ad revenues would sky rocket with a primary election, that's for sure.

Is Colorado better off with our Colorado Caucus than we would be with a Presidential Primary? Absolutely! Look at the states with our system (down to 17) to those that powerful forces have driven to the darkside and what do you observe? Here's what:

"Primaries (as opposed to selection of delegates via a caucus system) have probably fostered exactly the kind of television-driven, sound-bite-heavy, attack-oriented presidential politics Americans deplore,' writes Christopher C. Hull in his Stanford University Press book "Grassroots Rules."

"The last three decades' drive toward more representativeness (the illusion created by a Presidential Primary instead of the Caucus system) may be not only be selecting worse candidates but harming the country's politics."

I did the little that was possible for me to do myself, posting here on the Internet, Twitter, Facebook, and this educational website that has been my personal project for a few years, making phone calls, and, most importantly, getting Corky Kyle and others involved in fighting it..

This fight about how Colorado selects our delegates to the national nominating conventions of the major political parties is far from over.

More about what might happen next tomorrow.

Thanks again to Corky Kyle and all the others who gave our wonderful Colorado Caucus a reprieve so it has that tomorrow.