HD 36 Democrats

This coming Tuesday, April 26, our regular HD 36 meeting will be a candidate forum with Democratic candidates for Aurora city and school board elections this November.. This will be a chance to hear from our candidates, ask them questions, and get involved to help their campaigns.

We will have the chance to hear from Debbie Stafford, candidate for mayor, Alfonso Nunez, candidate for Ward V, Dave Willman, candidate for Ward VI, and Peter Cukale who is running for re-election to the Aurora Public Schools Board of Education.

The candidate forum will begin at 6:30 PM at Arapahoe County Democratic HQ, 15455 E Iliff Ave (at the intersection with Chambers).

Hope to see you there!

This is a reminder that our regular meeting will be tomorrow, Tuesday Feb 22 at 6:30PM at Arapahoe Dems HQ (15455 E Iliff Ave).

This is the first meeting after county and district re-organizational elections earlier this month.  We will hear from Myrna Maier, chair of the county party’s new fundraising committee which is in formation.

Please also bring any ideas you have about projects you’d like to see HD 36 take on this year.

Now that the holidays are over and we are well into 2011 we are resuming our 4th Tuesday meetings each month.  Our January meeting will be next Tuesday the 25th at 6:30pm at Arapahoe Dems HQ at 15455 E Iliff Ave.

Since re-organization is upon us part of this meeting will be dedicated to answering any questions anyone has about how re-org works, what the various positions available in the county party and in HD 36 are and what their responsibilities are, and plans for 2011 and 2012 in general.  If you have questions but will not be able to attend, please email me.

As a reminder, the re-organizational meeting for the Arapahoe county Democratic party and HD 36 will take place February 5th at 10:00am at Rangeview High School, 17599 E Iliff Ave, Aurora, CO 80013.

Two main goals for this year will be to continue to support our state Rep Su Ryden in her outreach efforts to the district as well as to support our Aurora municipal candidates in this coming November’s elections.  If you have other ideas for HD 36 this year please come next Tuesday and share them!

The most important role of the county Democratic party, particularly for Precinct Committee People, is to get out the Democratic vote in November.

This year as in the past the county party has printed voter guides to be dropped at every Democratic door in the county.  The voter guide indicates the name and basic information for every Democratic candidate in the county to help increase name recognition for the candidates representing our party and our values this year.

In HD 36 we have 9,300 Democratic doors that need to get a copy of the voter guide. The first step to getting these distributed is to assemble them with other literature and with plastic bags to be hung on doors in each precinct.

This is the biggest and most important responsbility we have this year and we need your help.

Former State Sen. Steve and Ana Maria Ruddick have graciously opened their home on Thursday, September 23rd, beginning at 7:00 p.m. to volunteers who can help assemble the packets.  Their address is 15802 East 8th Circle, Aurora 80011.

Please RSVP to Diane Rich at dianerich40@gmail.com if you can attend.

If you are unable to attend Thursday, volunteers are also needed on Saturdays from 9:30 to about 12:00.  We meet at Arapahoe Democratic Headquarters 15445 E. Illiff, Unit C, Aurora, CO 80013.  Join your neighbors and help Su win re-election to the Colordo House of Representatives.

Su also walks precincts nearly every day.  You can join Su in the late afternoon, early evening.

If walking is not your forte´ we need people to do data entry, phone bank, deliver yard signs to persons who have requested them and assemble voter guide packets.

Please let me know what you can do and when you can help by e-mailing me at dianerich40@gmail.com.  Thanks from Su and the campaign.

This coming Tuesday, July 27, several volunteers for Su Ryden’s campaign will be gathering at Arapahoe County Dems HQ (15455 E Iliff Ave) to help make phone calls, assemble a mailing, and do data entry. These are all things to help re-elect Su in November so she can keep representing us at the state capitol and if you can help for an hour or two it will be very much appreciated.

We’ll be meeting at 6:30pm until about 8:00 or 8:30pm and we’ll have pizza and beverages for everyone. If you can attend, please RSVP to Diane Rich at dianerich40@gmail.com so we have enough for everyone.

Hope you can join us in helping Su!

REMINDER:  our regular HD 36 monthly working meeting will be TOMORROW, Tuesday April 27 at 6:30pm at Arapahoe Dems HQ (15455 E Iliff Ave).  We’ll be making phone calls to constituents in HD 36 on behalf of our state rep. Su Ryden to ask them about what issues are most important.  Please email mike@hd36dems.org if you can attend.

Our first post-caucus district meeting will be this coming Tuesday, March 23 at 6:30pm at Arapahoe County Dems HQ (15455 E Iliff).

Over 150 people attended caucuses at Hinkley High last week, about three times as many as turned out to caucus in 2006 – the last non-presidential caucus year.  I consider this a success!  Thank you again to everyone who helped us call all prior caucus attendees in the past weeks to motivate turnout this year.

Whether you went to caucus for Andrew Romanoff or Michael Bennet or were undecided, as HD 36 Democrats we have a few common goals in front of us for the rest of this year.  Our State Representative, Su Ryden, is up for re-election in November and it’s our job to help keep HD 36 blue.  In so doing, we need to try to turn out as many Democratic voters in HD 36 as possible, which will benefit other Democratic candidates and campaigns as well.

At this week’s meeting we will start working toward these goals by making plans for volunteer recruitment and targeted voter contact in HD 36 for the rest of the year.  We may also be able to hear updates from our state legislators.

Hope you can join us Tuesday.

This is a reminder that our regular 4th Tuesday meeting will be February 23 at 6:30pm at Arapahoe Dems HQ (15455 E Iliff).  Our two goals will be to finish calling all prior HD 36 caucus attendees and to plan for this year’s caucuses at Hinkley High school.  (Thank you to everyone who has helped make hundreds of calls to caucus attendees thus far!)

Also next week, we will have the chance to hear from former Colorado House Speaker and present U.S. Senate candidate Andrew Romanoff. He is expected to arrive at our meeting between 7:45pm and 8:00pm based on scheduling information from his staff.  If you have questions for Andrew Romanoff or want to learn more about his platform, this is a good chance to speak to him in person!  (Note – neither the HD 36 Democrats nor the Arapahoe County Democrats are endorsing one candidate or the other in the U.S. Senate primary.)

As a reminder, precinct caucuses this year will be Tuesday, March 16.  If you are willing to help with set up and clean up of our location at Hinkley High school, please email mike@hd36dems.org

There will be an HD 36 phone bank Monday, February 15 from 6:30pm to 8:30pm at Arapahoe County Dems HQ (15455 E Iliff Ave).  If you can help, please email mike@hd36dems.org

Our next regularly scheduled 4th Tuesday meeting will be February 23. This will also be from 6:30pm to 8:30pm at Arapahoe County Dems HQ.

If you plan to attend precinct caucus and would like to attend a training on how to run your own precinct’s caucus, the county party is holding several training sessions in early March:

Thursday March 4, 6pm
Saturday March 6, 1pm
Monday March 8, 6pm
Wednesday March 10, 6pm

All trainings will be held at Arapahoe County Dems HQ.

As a reminder, HD 36 State Representative Su Ryden along with State Senator Morgan Carroll (SD 29) and State Representative Karen Middleton (HD 42) will be holding their regular town hall meeting Thursday, February 18 from 7:00pm to 8:30pm at the Community College of Aurora (16000 East Centretech Parkway).  For more information visit www.suryden.com or www.senmorgancarroll.com

This year HD 36 precinct caucuses (for all precincts in HD 36) will be held at Hinkley High School, 1250 Chambers Road.  Caucus Day is Tuesday, March 16.

Precinct Caucuses have several important functions:

• Election of Precinct Committee People (PCPs) – PCPs are the foundation of the county party and members of the HD 36 and County central committees.  PCPs get to vote on all official matters before the HD 36 or County central committee.
• Submission of proposals for the party platform – Every two years the State Platform Committee revises the official platform.  If you want to be involved, you can submit ideas at caucuses.
• Preference poll for the U.S. Senate race – Whether you support Andrew Romanoff or Michael Bennet, you can cast your preference vote at caucus.
• Election of delegates to county assemblies - Each precinct will elect a few delegates to the Arapahoe County Assembly, where candidates for county offices will be placed on the Democratic ballot and where delegates to the State Assembly will be chosen.

Precinct Caucuses are the beginning of getting organized for the 2010 election!

This year HD 36 will work to re-elect State Rep. Su Ryden and turn out as many Democratic votes as possible for all candidates.  We hope you can help!