DENVER-
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said Thursday that holding the Democratic National Convention in Denver will show the nation that the West has a road map for Democrats to win the White House next year.
“This is going to be the beginning of a new America,” Dean told an overflow rally of supporters at the Denver Convention Center.
Dean said Democratic gains in the West show that voters want politicians to focus on collaboration and values. He said those values include fairness, honesty and a system of government for all Americans, not just a chosen few.
Dean had been scheduled to meet with AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and local labor leaders to discuss concerns that Denver isn’t friendly enough to organized labor. The DNC said Dean and Sweeney ended up meeting separately with local leaders—and not with each other—after Sweeney’s flight was delayed.
A DNC representative, who did not want to be identified, noted that Dean and Sweeney talk frequently and would meet soon to discuss labor’s concerns. The representative declined to comment on Dean’s meeting with local labor leaders.
Leslie Moody, president of the Denver Area Labor Federation, said the meeting with Dean was a good opportunity for regional and national union leaders to discuss issues, including the lack of union membership at area hotels, to ensure a successful convention.
Moody said she met with Sweeney after he addressed union leaders.
“He said it was an opportunity to meet city leaders and build relationships around issues that come up at every convention,” she said.
Both the AFL-CIO and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters claim Colorado has an anti-union bias, and the AFL-CIO has suggested the convention be moved elsewhere.
Shoshana Kregarman, a Denver bookkeeper and lifelong Democrat, said she was disappointed by Dean’s speech because Dean didn’t tell her what she could do to move the country forward.
“The Democratic Party has to change and be accountable and that we the people need to hold them accountable. He didn’t give us any details and he didn’t give us the understanding how we could do it,” she said.
Julia Hicks, former vice chairwoman of the Colorado Democratic Party, said she was moved by Dean’s speech and that Dean was right about his support for western values that have allowed Democrats to make steady progress in the region, picking up governorships from Montana to Arizona in recent years and in Colorado in November. The party also has gained House seats and made significant inroads in state legislatures.
She said Democrats in the West want to focus on problems, not divisive social issues, and that many regional Democrats are moderates who support gun rights, taking away issues traditionally considered Republican standards.
“People in the West are independent. They march to their own drummer,” Hicks said.
However, the fight with organized labor has threatened to derail the convention, highlighting the fact that Colorado in the past hasn’t been friendly to unions.
Last month, the AFL-CIO threatened to force Democrats to abandon Denver after Colorado’s Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter vetoed a bill making it easier to set up all-union workplaces. “Unless we can be assured that the governor will support our values and priorities, we will strongly urge the Democratic Party to relocate the convention,” said the AFL-CIO’s executive council.
Mitch Ackerman, president of the Service Employees International Union Colorado State Council, issued a statement Thursday welcoming the Denver convention as an opportunity for labor to work out its differences with Democratic leaders.
“It’s long past the time to move forward beyond the recent controversy,” Ackerman said.
“SEIU, like other unions, is impatient for change because working families in our state desperately need improvements,” Ackerman said. “But moving an agenda that benefits Colorado’s working families is only possible when we are willing to work productively with the elected leaders of our state and our country, before the curtain rises at the convention.”
