Colorado Springs – For decades, some of the most forgotten people in Colorado might have been those in El Paso County who dared to put a “D” for Democrat behind their names.
They had for years been unloved by the state party and ignored by the national party because the county was seen as a “no-win” territory. Few of the Democratic powerful bothered to visit, preferring to stop in the strongholds of Denver and Pueblo instead.
So impotent were the El Paso County Democrats that no one answered the phone at headquarters on Iowa Street. Website information was 18 months old. The online address received fewer than 100 hits a month.
But buoyed by the elections of Democratic state Rep. Michael Merrifield and Sen. John Morse, and a recall election in Colorado Springs School District 11 in which two board members were ousted for more moderate ones, the Democrats in El Paso County are more organized than ever.
“We’ve come to life,” said Lois Fornander, a former schoolteacher. “There are lots of people poking their heads out these days.”
Previously, said Fornander, the county was “deliberately ignored. It’s a no-win place; why bother?” said Fornander.
The new excitement stems in part from the national resurgence of Democrats, and the national convention coming to Denver in 2008. This month, state Democrats may decide to hold the 2008 state convention in Colorado Springs. No one in the party can remember the last time, if ever, that happened.
“I actually think that over the last two-and-a-half years or so, the Democrats here have really become re-energized. Well, I don’t know if you can re- energize something that’s never been energized in the last 20 years, but people are excited,” said Keith Varney, who helped reformat the party’s website.
Locals say the party’s new chairman, John Morris, has resuscitated the group by organizing precinct chairs, encouraging Democrats to run for office, and promoting social gatherings.
Republicans have had a stronghold on the county for 30 years, and Democrats seemed content with that. But in 2003, Democrats quietly began coming together, inspired by Howard Dean’s “meet up” process.
“People started coming out of the woodwork. We’d meet up down at Jose Muldoons (restaurant) or someplace, and we were amazed to see other Democrats. It was sort of a revelation,” Morris said.
Fornander believes Republicans have had so much pull in El Paso County for so long that people were intimidated.
“There are a lot of people who are in a position of working for a Republican corporation and they are nervous about exposing themselves,” Fornander said. “But now it doesn’t look like such a dangerous thing to do.”
Local Democrats say frustration nationally with the Iraq war and the Bush administration has helped galvanize them.
“People are really fed up with not being listened to and a handful apparently running the government,” Fornander said.
In the past two years, Pat Waak, chairwoman of the Colorado Democratic Party, has made frequent visits to El Paso County. There’s a reason why. It’s a numbers game. Any Democratic candidate running in a statewide race needs 40 percent of the county to win.
El Paso County has 66,507 registered Democrats, according to the Colorado secretary of state’s office. That’s the fifth-largest number of registered Democrats by county in Colorado, behind Denver, Jefferson, Arapahoe and Boulder counties.
“So how a Democrat performs in El Paso County in a statewide race is absolutely critical,” Morris said.
Although Republicans outnumber Democrats by more than a 2-to-1 margin, Waak said there are many RINOs (Republican in Name Only) and unaffiliateds (102,287) to court.
The county is part of a 64-county effort by Democrats in 2008.
“Our philosophy is that we want to run a candidate in every race. We want to be out there striving to win,” Waak said.
The GOP isn’t worried about any new competition, and it welcomes a state convention.
“I welcome them spending their money here,” said Chuck Broerman, a longtime Republican and former county chairman. “It will be a boost to the men and women who own small businesses in the community.”
Broerman said Republicans in El Paso County “never underestimate or overestimate our opponents. We have one of the strongest get-out-the vote efforts, one of the strongest organizations in the state. So, if it helps us to bring our game up, we welcome it.”
Locally, Democrats are trying to pick up a third seat in the Colorado legislature in House District 17, on the city’s diverse, working-class southeastern side where the number of registered Democrats and Republicans is split 50-50.
“That’s been our push, to identify those areas of the county that have a strong progressive presence and first of all, get people elected in those areas. But I think in the long term, we want to demonstrate to the people in the county that there is a viable alternative now that people don’t have to sit back and let one party rule,” Morris said.
“So that’s the key thing; it is not to win the county at this point, but it is to provide some quality alternatives.”
Staff writer Erin Emery can be reached at 719-522-1360 or eemery@denverpost.com.
