Aggressive Democratic ground game -- and demographics --made Colorado a "tipping point" for Obama and legislative races

The Denver Post reports that Colorado may have been the tipping point for President Obama on election night. Read all about it here.

One thing is clear -- Colorado voters get lots of credit for getting out the vote for Obama and for its state legislators, as Democrats recaptured the House. The ground game in contested counties such as Larimer (Fort Collins), and some of the suburban Denver counties, was superb. They did get some help from little ol' us in Wyoming, as all of the efforts of Obama for Wyoming were directed southward into The Reefer State. While it's irritating to be relegated to GOTV efforts aimed at Greenies, there was no way in hell that Obama was going to lay claim to Wyoming's hotly-contested three electoral votes.

So what makes Colorado so purplish-blue and Wyoming so fire-engine red? It's population, both the quantity, age and ethnicities thereof. Colorado's population is ten times Wyoming's, and it has big city Denver as well as hipster Boulder, art-and-craft-beer-friendly Fort Collins, working-class Pueblo, chi-chi Aspen and, well, Colorado Springs. Cities draw more people and they tend to be younger and more ethnic. Colorado has always been youth-friendly, going back to the sixties, when people my age gravitated to its outdoor ethos and groovy vibes. My roots are in Denver, where I spent part of my youth and a big chunk of my adult life. Denver has seen its up and downs but it's always been able to climb out of the doldrums and prosper. It's always had its share of hucksters and rip-off artists (Soapy Smith, William Byers and Neil Bush come to mind), but also more than its fair share of visionaries, including its current governor, John Hickenlooper.

My parents were Denver natives. My mother grew up in the Irish-American enclave near Washington Park and my father grew up in City Park, about midway between the Denver Museum of Natural History and Stapleton Field (then an airport, eventually "international"). Their parents, my grandparents, all came to Colorado in their twenties. My mom's father was an Irish immigrant looking for a nicer climate than Chicago, where he'd landed after fleeing Ireland. My mom's mother trekked from Ohio to Colorado on vacation, liked it, returned home, packed her bags, and moved West. My dad' s father was gassed in France and came to Denver's Fitzsimmons Army Hospital to recuperate. Florence Green of Baltimore returned from The Great War to find her hometown boring, so re-upped in the Army Nursing Corps and was sent to Denver to care for all the ailing doughboys.
 
Seems that Denver's always been a draw for young people, for the scenery, the climate, jobs. World War II drew GIs to Colorado in record numbers to train for the Army Air Corps at Lowry Field or for the 10th Mountain Division ski corps at Cooper Hill near Leadville. After the war, they returned to Colorado, prospered and bred lots of Boomer children. Like me.

Back to the election. Colorado has been gathering innovators and yuppies and Deadheads and techies for generations. Denver, especially, has reached a critical mass, turning it from a cowtown into a world-class city. And turning the state into a blue-and-red checkerboard, with all those blue islands of progressivism.

Meanwhile, Wyoming limps toward the political margins. Its population is aging and is mainly rural. The economy is not diversified enough to capture those talented young people graduating from its high schools, community colleges and one public university. It finds it difficult to lure its graduates back from colleges in other states. In some ways, state politics is no more crazier than Colorado's, Montana's or Idaho's. Problem is, right-wing loonies have an easier time getting elected because the Democratic Party is not competitive. And even when we get great Dems to run for the legislature, they often are overwhelmed by the 2-to-1 registered voter margin of the Republicans.

Who went for Romney on Tuesday? Older white voters. What does Wyoming have plenty of? Aging white voters. Who went for Obama on Tuesday? Young voters. Also Hispanic, African-American and Asian-American voters. What does Wyoming have little of? Young, multicultural voters. So great local candidates get defeated and we keep electing more extremists to the Wyoming State Legislature.

There is obviously more to it than that. But it's the start of an explanation. More to come (fair warning!).

Suite 1901 returns to Cheyenne's Art Design & Dine this evening

Suite 1901 in Cheyenne did a terrific job hosting the Democratic Party's election night bash on Tuesday. In case you didn't know, Suite 1901 is under new management and the food and drinks are fabulous. This evening, the downtown bar/restaurant will be participating in the Art Design & Dine art walk for the second time. Welcome back to AD&D! Featured artists in the downstairs exhibition space include Seth Ledger, Heather Johns, Kristine Frankler, and Charles Johns. Suite 1901 is also one of the featured restaurants on the art tour. It's offering 10% off your order and the coupon is good till the end of December. The restaurant is located on the corner of Central and 19th Street. Note to craft beer fans: the bar has New Belgium's Prickly Passion on tap. Locate all of the other AD&D locations by going here.

Note to the GOP: Don't mess with our right to vote!

Andrew Cohen writes in The Atlantic about the main reason that the Republicans lost. And no, it wasn't Super Storm Sandy and Chris Christie's praise for President Obama. It was the GOP's attempt to take the vote away from you and me. Read the column here.

Marilyn Miller brings her socially engaged art to the Cheyenne Family YMCA

In November, Marilyn Miller brings her outspoken Liberal self and her artwork to the Cheyenne Family YMCA. Opening reception for her exhibit is on Friday, Nov. 9, 5-6 p.m. Free and open to the public. Come in, meet Marilyn, view the art and eat some snacks. 

Congrats to Lee Filer, winner in HD12 race for the Wyoming State Legislature

Democrat Lee Filer was elected tonight in House District 12. When the news broke at Suite 1901 in downtown Cheyenne, Lee hooted and hollered and cried. Never saw such joy. He worked hard for this seat in the Wyoming State Legislature. Wishing him good luck as he takes the reins in the House and has to deal with a whole herd of whackadoodles from right-wing Wyoming. But we Wyo Dems know that we're on the correct side of history and will eventually turn this red state blue. Short-term, we'll shoot for purple. 

Hanging out with the Dems on election night

My wife Chris and I at Suite 1901 in Cheyenne for the Laramie County Democrats' celebration. Not all the Wyoming news was good but the national news was fantastic.

Vote for these good people for the LCSD No. 1 Board of Trustees

The Wyoming Public Employees Association (WPEA), the union that represents Wyoming's public servants, has endorsed a slate of candidates in Laramie County. In my previous post, I forgot the mention the endorsements for the Laramie County School District No. 1 Board of Trustees. They are:

Nate Breen
Mark Klaasen
Tim Lockwood

There is another great candidate in the running. That is Lynn A. Storey-Huylar. Not sure why she didn't get the endorsement. It's possible she didn't come into the WPEA for an interview. Anyway, all of these people are worthy of the post. They decide school district policy and make sure that we have the best teachers and administrators. They believe in public education. Pick the best three.

There are a few knuckle-draggers among the other candidates. Avoid them.

In his second term, President Obama should say "I Like My Inner Ike!"

I recall the 1950s political slogan "I Like Ike!"

So does my thoughtful friend and writer Larry Letich.

He has penned an essay entitled "In Obama's Second Term -- Should He Have One -- Obama Must Embrace His Inner Eisenhower." He's posted it as a note on his Facebook page. If you like reasonable discourse (or even if you don't), I encourage you to read it. Go to http://www.facebook.com/notes/larry-letich/in-obamas-second-term-should-he-have-one-obama-must-embrace-his-inner-eisenhower/10151223979882305

New York Times editorial: Republican voter intimidation is a big fail

While voter intimidation may be attempted in Wyoming, it won't have nearly the impact that it will have in swing states such as Colorado and Florida.

Here's a brilliant staff editorial in today's New York Times:

This year, voting is more than just the core responsibility of citizenship; it is an act of defiance against malicious political forces determined to reduce access to democracy. Millions of ballots on Tuesday — along with those already turned in — will be cast despite the best efforts of Republican officials around the country to prevent them from playing a role in the 2012 election.

Even now, many Republicans are assembling teams to intimidate voters at polling places, to demand photo ID where none is required, and to cast doubt on voting machines or counting systems whose results do not go their way. The good news is that the assault on voting will not affect the election nearly as much as some had hoped. Courts have either rejected or postponed many of the worst laws. Predictions that up to five million people might be disenfranchised turned out to be unfounded.

Read the rest at http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/04/opinion/sunday/voting-rights-upholding-democracy.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0

Laramie artist asks readers to step out of their political comfort zone for new takes on creativity

GRACE, Felicia Follum, 24"x36", $150 

Laramie artist Felicia Follum made this poster to celebrate "grace," and also to help us think about what it means. She also asks her readers to design graphics based on the upcoming election:

All right, to kick off my Art+ Creativity Prompts I figured I would start with some election inspiration.  So many people seem to be fueled by the politics surrounding us though we never really step out and look at the 2012 election (or any other for that matter) from the other side or analyze the benefits of the opposition. Regardless of results, we need to learn to honor and support our country/president even if we disagree. Since this post is a little late in the game I am offering a couple alternative options. 

She's requesting a bit of grace from all of us. Read the "alternative options" at Creativity Prompt: Political Promo. And then turn loose your creativity.

Rodger McDaniel outs Richard Wall's McCarthyism

In today's Wyoming Tribune-Eagle, and on his blog, Rev. Rodger McDaniel explores a case of home-grown McCarthyism.

Richard Wall, a well-known local Republican extremist, "outed" Democratic Party candidates in his Tuesday WTE column. This was his lame attempt to purge Wyoming, once and for all, of that annoying two-party system that is a hallmark of our democracy. True, we could use more than two serious political parties. But in Mr. Wall's universe, a one-size-fits-all, one-thought-process-for-all, is in tune with his reactionary political philosophy.

In keeping with transparency, Rodger also names those Democrats who are running in all local races, whether those are bipartisan or non-partisan race. He is as proud of them as I am. It's not easy being a Democrat in Wyoming. Only the bravest and most thoughtful follow that course.

Read Rodger's blog post at http://blowinginthewyomingwind.blogspot.com/2012/11/are-you-now-or-have-you-ever-beena.html

I also encourage you to buy and read today's WTE. Interesting and well-researched cover story on "Agenda 21," the United Nations' plan that allegedly will allegedly force us to live in "prescribed habitation zones" where we all will dwell in identical, government-built hobbit homes. We will be forced to abandon our cars and ride bicycles to work, unless Cheyenne builds a U.N-mandated monorail -- we'll commute on that instead. Sing it folks: Monorail!

I was surprised to find that WTE had posted the story on its low-tech web site. But it did. Reading the comments is half the fun (I've heard of "whackadoodles" but "whackaloons?"). Go to http://www.wyomingnews.com/articles/2012/11/04/news/01top_11-04-12.txt

Wyoming Tribune Eagle: Early voting eclipses 2008 numbers

Lots of people voting early in Wyoming, including a fair number of our Laramie County neighbors. Read more here: Early voting eclipses 2008 tally.

You can still vote early in downtown Cheyenne on Monday. And on Tuesday, vote at your precincts. 

For all of my writer friends -- and me too: Everybody gets a trophy!

From the New York Times Sunday Book Review

Vote for balance and equality in The Equality State's Legislature

Linda Stowers from the Laramie County Democrats sends this info: Daily through November 5 we will be making calls to precincts to get out the vote on November 6. We need all of your help. The script is very easy and more of a courtesy call. We will be calling by precincts. The calls can be made from your home or the office and can be done within this time frame. Please help the Democrats in Laramie County get elected. E-mail me at lpstowers at bresnan dot net if you can help and I will arrange to get you a list and script. Your help will make a difference this year.

Multimedia Environmental Concert in Laramie asks "What Can I Do -- to help this planet?"

Vote for Pres. Obama, for one thing.

Here's the event:

"What Can I Do?" Multimedia Environmental Concert
8 p.m., Saturday, November 3
Coal Creek Coffee Company
110 E. Grand Ave, Laramie

This is a 60-75-minute educational keynote presentation featuring the photography of renowned John Fielder, Karl Snyder and Laurie Dameron, video, information and live music. Special guest speaker Erik Molvar, Wildlife Biologist, City Council member in Laramie and Executive Director for Biodiversity Conservation Alliance. 

FMI: www.facebook.com/WhatCanIDoSpaceshipEarth and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml4gzZthi5o

Think about this before you shop at the new Menards store being built in Cheyenne

This story originally ran on AlterNet and was reposted on Salon Nov. 1:

This January, as the Iowa Caucuses were underway, Menards began encouraging employees to take an at-home online “civics” course that characterizes the economic policies of President Barack Obama as a threat to the success of businesses such as Menards, and by extension, to the employees’ own well-being.

The course, titled “Civics 101: The National Self Governing Will In-Home Training,” incorporates much of the material comprising the Prosperity 101 program that AlterNet, working in partnership with the Investigative Fund at the Nation Institute, exposed last year — a program concocted by Koch-linked political operatives Mark Block and Linda Hansen, late of the now-defunct Herman Cain presidential campaign. In March, Daniel Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that the FBI is investigating possible financial improprieties involving two non-profit organizations founded by Block that are linked to Prosperity 101, which is a for-profit venture.

Full story at Retailer pressures workers to take anti-Obama “civics course”

Slate asks: What if UW President Tom Buchanan had given a speech defending "Carbon Sink?"

From an Oct. 31 article by Michelle Nijhuis on Slate Online about the "Carbon Sink" brouhaha at the University of Wyoming (the controversy that wouldn't die):

The University of Wyoming, like most public universities, has a mission statement that calls for academic freedom and free expression. University donors are supposed to further that mission, not try to restrict it, and university leaders are supposed to defend it.

What if President Buchanan had given a speech...? He could have acknowledged the reaction to Carbon Sink (taking care to first learn its name), and acknowledged the economic and political power of the coal industry in Wyoming. He could have acknowledged the science -- some conducted at his own university -- that demonstrates the connections between coal power and climate change, and climate change and forest decline. And he could have said that while coal is useful and important, it’s equally important to not only acknowledge its costs but also work to reduce them. He could have pointed to existing university programs aimed at doing just that, and called on the legislature -- and the industry -- to fund more.

It wouldn’t have ended the controversy. But it might have opened the conversation.

Nijhuis also explored another controversy over public art, this one at the University of Indiana at Bloomington. A student group demanded the removal of a Thomas Hart Benton mural that shows KKK members in robes. The KKK almost took over the state of Indiana. Benton was just trying to show his state's history, major warts and all. This controversy ended when the UI President made a speech, refusing to remove the mural, calling on UI students and faculty to use it as a teaching moment. Which they did.

Imagine that?

Whistle Stop Film Festival stops at Mt. Sinai Synagogue in Cheyenne

From Wyoming Community Media's Whistle Stop Film Festival:

Mt. Sinai Synagogue in Cheyenne will present a double feature of two short documentary films on Saturday, Nov. 3, 7 p.m.  The films are:

Shanghai Ghetto (95 minutes): A gentle, loving accounting of 20,000 mostly German Jews who were able to escape the Nazi's before World War II started and go to Shanghai, China, where the Japanese were in control of that city.

Visas and Virtues (30 minutes): 1997 Oscar-winning short by Chris Tashima. Haunted by the sight of hundreds of Jewish refugees outside the consulate gates, a Japanese diplomat and his wife, at the beginning of World War II, must decide how much they are willing to risk. Inspired by a true story, this Academy Award® winning portrait gracefully captured in period black and white by noted cinematographer Hiro Narita poignantly pays tribute to the rescuer of 6,000 Jews from the Holocaust.

The movies will be shown in the Social Hall at the Synagogue. For more information, go to
http://mtsinaicheyenne.org/special_events.asp, or contact Jaimee Sodosky, 303-503-1844

Wyoming Public Employees Association releases its list of Nov. 6 endorsements

Spent yesterday evening at union HQ making phone calls for Kathleen Petersen, Democrat running for the seat in House District 8. I left a lot of messages (other people screen their call too) but did talk to a number of people who had already voted for Kathleen or were going to on Nov. 6. Many had talked to the candidate as she made her rounds in Precinct 2-5, which is just a stone's throw from my precinct. We vote at the same place -- the Cheyenne Berean Church on Powderhouse. Anyone who has talked to Kathleen is impressed. We wish her the best on Nov. 6.

My union is the Wyoming Public Employees Union. The WPEA sent out thousands of postcards listing its endorsements for Laramie County legislative races. They are:

SD4: Tony Ross (R)
SD6: Wayne Johnson (R)
SD8: Floyd Esquibel (D)
HD7: Joe Fender (D)
HD8: Kathleen Petersen (D)
HD11: Mary A. Throne (D)
HD12: Lee Filer (D)
HD41: Ken A. Esquibel (D)
HD42: Gary Datus (D)
HD43: Dan Zwonitzer (R)
HD44: James W. Byrd (D)

The WPEA doesn't endorse a candidate unless he/she comes in for an extensive interview by union members. I did a few of those and was impressed by the scope of the process. Many questions concerned preservation of the state's defined benefits pension plan, which TEA Party Republicans want to dismantle. Suffice to say, none of the R's on this list are pension-busters. Some of their opponents are: Sue Wilson (R-TEA Party), HD7; Lynn Hutchings (R-TEA Party), HD42; David Kniseley (R-TEA Party), HD 12. Not sure about Jerry Zellars who is running against incumbent Mary Throne in HD11. I will look up his web site and read the platform.

I received a postcard today from Kathleen's Republican opponent in HD8, Bob Nicholas. Bob's talking points include increasing funding for Cheyenne and Laramie County, and increased funding for LCCC. Lower down on the list, he says that he wants to "limit government spending and interference." Those are code words for "shrink government so small that it can be drowned in a bathtub." I believe those are right-winger Grover Norquist's words.

You actually have to fund a government so it can be effective in any number of tasks, such as emergency response (remember last summer's raging wildfires), building schools, paving roads, plowing highways, policing the bad guys, licensing food outlets, monitoring the weather, guiding airplanes so they don't crash, etc. You also have to pay those people a living wage with benefits. That's something that this legislature has refused to do.

Vote for the WPEA slate. And support your local union.

Feel like writing 50,000 words in November? The library wants to help...

Press release from the Laramie County Public Library:

Get ready with your laptops, pens and paper (or even quills and parchment!) for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)! Participants begin writing on November 1 and must finish their novel on or before November 30. The Laramie County Library will host several events for adults and teens.

The kick-off will be Thursday, November 1, from 6:00-7:30 pm in the Willow Room. We’ll have plenty of food and drink available as you buckle down and get writing for this annual challenge. Bring everything you need to make this a successful hour and a half and get started on your 50,000 words!

Next, on Saturday, November 10, 10:00am-4:00 pm in the Cottonwood Room, participate in a one-day workshop designed to help you navigate the next steps toward publication of your novel. Paths to Publication will have you joining seven Wyoming authors for a day of workshops filled with insights into the journey from “the end” to publication. These workshops are designed for teen and adult novelists at all levels.

Have some crazy fun on Thursday, November 15 from 6:00-7:30 pm in the Willow Room, where you’ll be designing your own book cover. Now’s your chance in this hands-on workshop to create your own cover for a blank book that could be used as a journal, sketchbook, recipe anthology, or even the first draft of your novel! We provide all the supplies needed – just bring your imagination.  Sign up required for this – call 307.634.3561, or visit the library.

The final event for NaNoWriMo will be the wrap-up party on Sunday, December 2, 3:00-4:00pm in the Willow Room. Prizes will be given to everyone who finishes their 50,000 words on time!

Laramie County Library is located at 2200 Pioneer Avenue, Cheyenne. For more information call the library at 307.634.3561.

Quills and parchment? Count me in...