New national Republican Party chairman Michael Steele urged Colorado Republicans on Friday night to stand up for their beliefs and told the youth of the party to take the reins of the GOP.
Speaking before a crowd of hundreds at an annual party fundraising dinner titled “Blueprint for Tomorrow,” Steele said it has not been the party’s ideals that caused the GOP to suffer losses across the country and particularly in Colorado the past several election cycles.
Rather, he said, it has been the party’s failure to stick to its principles, which he defined as fiscal conservatism, family values and personal liberty. He said the GOP must be the party of “individual ingenuity, idealism and a sense of ‘I can do this.’ ”
“We’re not going to re-make, re-brand or re-define the party. We’re not going to ‘re’ anything,” Steele told the crowd at the Denver Marriott South. “We’re going to move forward.”
Steele urged young members of the party to take the lead, telling them they are not the party’s future but rather its present.
“Take ownership of this party,” he told them.
Steele addressed a party faithful that has seen its members virtually routed out of prominent offices in Colorado. In 2004, Republicans held both Colorado U.S. Senate seats, five of seven congressional seats and all but one statewide elected office. Today, those numbers are reversed in favor of Democrats.
“I’m lonely and I don’t like it,” state Attorney General John Suthers, the only Republican in statewide elected office, joked to the crowd . “I need you to go out and work hard to change it.”
Steele, who had a rocky first few months as GOP chairman, joked Friday that he knows well how to learn from mistakes.
Steele also told Republicans to work harder and struck a sharply adversarial tone when speaking about Democrats, accusing them of “gleefully planning an America where there are more people moving down the ladder of prosperity than up.”
“What you have to understand,” Steele said, “is our opponents do not like us. They do not want to be bipartisan with you.”
“I want us,” Steele said, “to be ready to reclaim the future.”
John Ingold: 303-954-1068 or jingold@denverpost.com
