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Just because the President denies facts doesn't mean that you should too! As we continue to work through these uncharted times, make sure that you're staying up to date on what's happening in Colorado and with our democratic processes by checking out these websites:
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You Can't Quarantine Democracy: Week 4! |
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Some of our friends holding down in the fort at CDP HQ show how important it is to wear your mask outside! |
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We may be working remotely, but you can bet that Team CDP is working hard to keep the wheels of democracy moving forward.
You may be wondering, though: What are Team CDP and local parties doing?
The caucuses, and the assemblies and conventions held by county parties, multi-county districts, and the state party are critical to our democratic process. They are planned over a year in advance, and in a presidential year, they are the process in which we elect delegates to go to the national Democratic convention!
So, when there's a nationwide pandemic that requires people to stay inside and practice social distancing...
What are we working on to execute these important processes? |
With your help and support, Team CDP and our dedicated county chairs and party activists have done months worth of work in weeks! Remember -- even in a pandemic, the work to protect the future of our country, our democracy, and our planet never stops! |
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Some of our fun coworkers practice social distancing! Some of our fun coworkers wear masks! Some of our fun coworkers really know how to have fun! |
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2020 State Assembly & Convention Saturday, April 18, 2020 |
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Sadly, the 2020 State Assembly and Convention won't look like this :( |
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Next Saturday, April 18, 2020, we will be having the Colorado Democratic Party's State Assembly and Convention! Here's a few key pointers for how it will be held:
We hope to "see" you there! Delegates will be receiving their calls for the assembly and convention tomorrow. If you haven't received your call by then, be sure to email David at [email protected] and we'll get you sorted! |
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2020 CDP Platform! |
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Want to read the 2020 Colorado Democratic Party platform delegates will vote on next Saturday? Click here to check it out and see what the CDP fights for! |
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COVID-19 Updates |
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Colorado Gov. Jared Polis extends statewide stay-at-home order to April 26 From the Denver Post
"In a special address to the state Monday evening, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said he is extending the statewide stay-at-home order, set to expire Saturday, until at least April 26.
"'If there is any way to safely end it sooner, then we will,' Polis said. 'And likewise if Coloradans aren’t staying at home and the numbers of the dead and dying continue to increase, then it could go longer.'
"The governor struck a hopeful tone in his 19-minute speech but emphasized, as he has for weeks, how important it is for Coloradans to obey the state stay-at-home order.
"'The sheer size of this crisis has forced us to take a series of drastic measures that we would have thought unthinkable, unimaginable just a month ago,' Polis said, later adding, 'By staying home, wearing a mask when you go out, practicing proper physical distancing and proper hygiene — you are literally saving lives.'"
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Important Links |
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DON'T FORGET: |
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We may all be practicing social distancing, but one activity we can all participate in is making sure to complete the 2020 Census you may have received in your mail by now! |
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What's the Census? The count is mandated by the Constitution and conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, a nonpartisan government agency. The 2020 Census counts the population in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and five U.S. territories. |
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Why should I participate? This critical process ensures that Colorado receives fair representation in Congress and its fair share of federal funding. There is approximately $880 billion in federal funding allocated across the United States based on Census counts. In Colorado, this equates to approximately $13 billion annually or an estimated $2,300 per person according to a study by George Washington University. Some of the programs funded by Census dollars are Head Start programs; section 8 housing; Tier 1 grants for educational agencies and emergency food and shelter. |
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Are my answers safe? The Census is safe and important; the answers are protected by law and are not shared with anyone pursuant to federal law, to include any other Federal Agency. |
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How do I participate? By April 1, 2020, every home will receive an invitation to participate in the 2020 Census. You will have three options for responding:
If you have not already received it, check your mail for official Census Bureau mail with detailed information on how to respond to the 2020 Census. |
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Click here to sign up for updates from the Federal Census Bureau, and click here to learn more! |
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Dems Leading the Way |
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DeGette Calls Out Trump's Despicable Politicization of COVID-19 Aid |
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Colorado Democrat believes Trump awarded ventilators as political favor to vulnerable GOP senator From CNN
"Rep. Diana DeGette, a veteran Democrat, said that President Donald Trump's announcement that he would send 100 ventilators to Colorado smacks of a political favor to vulnerable GOP Sen. Cory Gardner after the federal government had not fulfilled the delegation's request for the devices.
"'I think this thing that happened with Sen. Gardner and President Trump is very disturbing,' the Colorado Democrat told CNN Wednesday evening. 'What is the process here?'
"DeGette said that while she wants the state to get every ventilator it can -- after initially requesting 10,000 -- the process employed by the White House shows that the President appears to be doling out the ventilators to his allies at a time when the virus is affecting people of all political persuasions.
"'It seems that way to me,' DeGette said when asked if it appeared to be a political favor to Gardner. 'I was totally outraged.'"
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Griswold Urges States to Look to Colorado on Mail-In Voting |
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Jena Griswold advises states to 'lean on' Colorado in transition to mail voting From the Colorado Springs Gazette
"Secretary of State Jena Griswold on Wednesday invited other states seeking to transition to voting by mail to 'lean on' Colorado, arguing that voter suppression would result from adhering to the status quo during a pandemic.
"'A health crisis can’t be used as a tactic to suppress the vote,' Griswold said on a webinar coordinated by the Center for American Progress. 'Our constitutional rights do not stop during a crisis.'
"Griswold said that much of the solution to running elections during a time when distancing is essential is to institute mail ballots and absentee voting, but that other protocols also had value. She singled out online and automatic voter registration, election day registration and mobile voting locations.
"'We were social distancing in our elections before we even knew that was a thing,' she added, and advised states to set up centralized scanners to read ballots, hire seasoned election administrators, and 'lean on states like us.'
"Two-thirds of states permit absentee voting by mail without an excuse and five states allow for all-mail elections."
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Neguse Fights for Families Struggling in COVID-19 Crisis |
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Changes being considered to help families relying on SNAP benefits From 9News
For the first ten days of the month, tens of thousands of people receive their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits in Colorado to buy food for their families.
With COVID-19, where limiting visits to the grocery store and buying online are encouraged, SNAP beneficiaries find themselves tangled in rules created before the pandemic. ... Democratic Rep. Joe Neguse is working on legislation to make it easier to buy groceries online with these benefits.
The legislation will address the following:
"Given Congress's expanded emergency funding of SNAP and WIC throughout this public health emergency and the economic uncertainty of the COVID-19 outbreak, it is imperative that we adapt the rules of these benefits to meet the pressing realities of our time," Neguse said. "We must ensure families across Colorado who depend on food security offered through these programs can continue to feed their families without violating social distancing protocols or Colorado's "stay-at-home" order."
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CO Supreme Court: Legislative Session Can Pick Up Where It Left Off |
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Colorado Supreme Court Decides Legislative Session Can Extend End Date From CPR News
The Colorado Supreme Court ruled in a split decision that the state’s legislative session does not need to end as originally scheduled on May 6. The decision is a victory for Democrats, who control both chambers of the legislature. They argued that under a declared state of emergency the legislature could take a break without losing any working days. This ruling means the clock would start ticking again when lawmakers return to the Capitol.
The state legislature suspended its work March 14 amid the growing novel coronavirus pandemic in an attempt to slow down the spread of COVID-19.
“I thank the court in reaching the common-sense conclusion that during this public health crisis, the legislature can pause and return back when it’s safe to do so,” said Democratic Sen. Majority Leader Steve Fenberg. “This ruling means that when we return to the Capitol, we’ll have time to pass legislation to get Colorado’s families, businesses, and economy back on their feet.”
The state constitution requires the legislature to conclude its work after 120 days. Over the years, the requirement has been interpreted to mean 120 consecutive days, essentially a four-month-long session. But amid the current crisis, the political parties disagree on whether that endpoint still applies when the session has to temporarily stop during an emergency. Lawmakers passed a joint rule more than a decade ago when the session appeared to be under threat from a different outbreak.
The joint rule said, "...in response to the H1N1 viral pandemic, the General Assembly construes this provision to be 'one hundred twenty separate working calendar days (when) the Governor has declared a state of disaster emergency due to a public health emergency.' "
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Trump, Gardner, & GOP Watch |
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Denver Post Ed. Board Scorches Trump |
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Editorial: Trump is playing a disgusting political game with our lives From the Denver Post
President Donald Trump is treating life-saving medical equipment as emoluments he can dole out as favors to loyalists. It’s the worst imaginable form of corruption — playing political games with lives. For the good of this nation during what should be a time of unity, he must stop.
In just the latest example of his gross display, the president tweeted on Wednesday: |
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Trump had only days before prevented Colorado Gov. Jared Polis from securing 500 ventilators from a private company, instead, taking the ventilators for the federal government. Polis sent a formal letter pleading for medical equipment, but the president took the time to make clear he was responding to a request from Gardner. We are left to believe that if Colorado didn’t have a Republican senator in office, our state would not be getting these 100 ventilators. How many ventilators would we be getting if we had a Republican governor and a second Republican senator? Would that indicate we had more Republican lives in our state worth saving for Trump and resources would start flowing? Should Utah be concerned that Sen. Mitt Romney voted to remove the president from office?
This behavior comes, of course, weeks after Trump informed states they would have to compete against one another in the procurement of medical supplies at a time of global shortages due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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Gardner Brags About Getting 1% of What Colorado Needs, Gets Dragged |
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After Trump's tweet, Gardner lambasted for ventilator issue From Grand Junction Sentinel
President Donald Trump’s tweet Wednesday morning that he was sending 100 ventilators to Colorado at the behest of U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner met with praise from some and condemnation from others.
The praise came from the Republican senator himself, saying he was appreciative of Trump agreeing to send the ventilators to the state.
The condemnation came from Democrats, who said Gardner was “spineless” for losing 400 ventilators. That’s because Gov. Jared Polis went on national television last week to complain that after the state had successfully ordered 500, the federal government stepped in and took them all.
Regardless of that, though, Polis said he wouldn’t join the Democratic bandwagon to attack Gardner or the president.
“You’re not really going to get my read on it because I’m not here to do a political analysis,” Polis said at a press conference Wednesday, much of which was conducted virtually. “I’m here to celebrate any ventilators that arrive in our state. I’m grateful for 100 ventilators. If Coloradans are successful at staying at home in very high numbers, we are hopeful the surge will be developed in time.”
That sentiment wasn’t shared by many others in Polis’s party, who said Trump only did it to help Gardner’s re-election bid.
“Cory Gardner is such a spineless yes-man to Donald Trump that he is literally thanking Trump for only stealing 400 ventilators from the state,” said Zach Hudson, spokesman for American Bridge 21st Century, a Washington, D.C.-based super PAC that supports Democratic candidates. “Gardner’s pathetic groveling to the president who just hijacked hundreds of desperately needed ventilators from this state highlights why Gardner is currently losing his re-election campaign by double digits.”
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Volunteer of the Week |
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Howard Wallach, Chair of the Pitkin County Democratic Party, has been passionate about politics since before he could vote, more than fifty years ago. His devotion to duty showed most recently in his decision to hold a virtual County Assembly in Pitkin, despite the fact that both he and his wife Betty had COVID-19 at the time! When asked why he went ahead to organize, find a way to connect all delegates via cell phones, and hold a very successful assembly, he simply shrugs and says, “There was no alternative.” When given a problem to solve, Howard attacks it with a burst of energy and optimism, supporting Dems in his county and in the state. He has knocked on thousands of doors, has run dozens of meetings and events each year, and has worked the Saturday market in Aspen from June to November as well as planning the annual sold-out dinner for Pitkin County Democrats—if it’s a volunteer activity for the Dems, Howard Wallach has done it. In 2019, he earned the Rural Outreach Award for all those efforts, a well-deserved recognition at the Obama Dinner that made him very happy.
Howard’s volunteer mission is deeply personal: if someone asks him what religion he is, he’s most likely to say “Democrat.” And of his work, he says, “I do it because I must.” Raised in a Democratic household in New York, he has consistently been active in party politics; his long career in education in New York is actually an outgrowth of his devotion to the liberal values of the Democratic Party, as he taught for 37 years in the difficult but extremely rewarding inner-city schools of Brooklyn. He hopes now that others will work alongside him: his advice to those who want to volunteer is to dig in! This year, he says, the future of our country is at stake, and four more years of the current administration “can’t be allowed on our watch.” Howard is determined to prevent more damage to our democracy, and he has been a stalwart defender of Democratic values all his life, for which we think he deserves Volunteer of the Week. |
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Do you want to volunteer? Reach out to our volunteer coordinator Karin Asensio at [email protected], and see how YOU CAN GET INVOLVED! |
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Join the Elbow Bumpers Club! |
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What's the Elbow Bumpers Club (formerly known as the High Fivers Club), you ask? It started with a simple idea: There are nearly 1.2 million registered Democrats in Colorado -- what if every single one of them gave just $5 a month to the Colorado Democratic Party (CDP)?
Answer: The CDP would be the best-funded state party in the country -- with zero dollars from corporate PACs and plenty for flipping red seats to blue!
Here's the reality -- the Colorado Dems are working in overdrive to keep the wheels of democracy moving forward, and now is a time when we could really use your help! If you haven't joined the High Fivers Club (temporarily known as the Elbow Bumpers Club now) -- please consider a few reasons to give!
Click the gif below to join the Elbow Bumpers Club! |
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The Funnies! |
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Editor's Note: Since we haven't been able to be on the road, we thought we would end today's edition of the Dispatch by showing a few solid political cartoons! |
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If you know someone interested in receiving our weekly newsletter, they can sign up here! |
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Contributions or gifts to the Democratic Party of Colorado are not tax deductible |
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