Denver Blog

By Friday morning, most of the big names from the DNC, Hollywood and the traveling press will have packed up their bags and headed for home (or the Twin Cities for the RNC). But for those of you who just aren’t quite ready to let it go, you’ve got one more shot. The Early Show will be taping live on Friday morning from 5am-7am at Racines (650 Sherman Street). And while we can’t promise that this will be a star-studded event, seeing Harry Smith and Julie Chen right here in Denver is still better than just watching them on the TV. What’s more, the first fifty people through the doors will be getting a free breakfast, courtesy of Racines — CBS staff not included. -- Jason Sheehan

As Ralph Nader continues his fifth campaign for the presidency, he joins an elite club of independent mainstays—Gus Hall for the U.S. Communist Party (4 runs), Howard Phillips for the Constitution Party (3 runs), Norman Thomas for the Socialist Party (6 runs). Nader’s message, like his rumpled suits, has changed little over the years—mostly, he says, because neither major party has taken him up on his invitations to merge aspects of his platform with theirs. Now 74, he laps youngsters like Barack Obama, 47, and John McCain, 71, but has no intentions of slowing down. No word yet on whether this will be Nader’s last run for the White House or whether he’s already printing up Nader ’12 and Nader ’16 stickers.

Here, Nader discusses his contempt for the policies of the two major party candidates, itemizes why Obama is nothing new for the Democrats, and, as always, defends his candidacy.

Westword (Joe Horton): If, as you described in 2000, Al Gore and George Bush were “Tweedledee and Tweedledum,” what are McCain and Obama this year?

Guess who.

Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre's trade to the New York Jets late on August 6, about which you may have heard, has negative repercussions on the preseason schedule of your Denver Broncos. The Pack is slated to face off against the Broncos on August 22, and had Favre been locked in a quarterback controversy with previously anointed starter Aaron Rodgers, the contest would have attracted scrutiny nearly on par with the Democratic National Convention slated to begin three days later.

How interesting is the contest now? What do you think?

Leticia Van de Putte: "We’ve got to put a tremendous effort into making sure that Colorado and Nevada and New Mexico shift totally for Barack Obama."

Leticia Van de Putte wears many hats in a state that’s known for some major headwear. As a Texas state senator, the chair of the state Senate Democratic Caucus, a pharmacist and the mother of six, her nomination as a convention co-chair only adds to an already manic schedule.

She achieved national attention by leading the 2003 walkout of the “Texas Eleven”— 11 Democratic senators who left the Texas state house and holed up in New Mexico, where their 45-day stay temporarily prevented Republicans from establishing a quorum and passing redistricting legislation that benefited the GOP. Her star has also been on the rise this year, as she was selected to give the Spanish-speaking Democratic response to President Bush’s final State of the Union address in January.

Here, she talks about the highs and lows of having the convention in Denver, and explains in great detail the importance of the Latino vote to Democrats, with particular attention to her Spanish-speaking response to the State of the Union and this year’s first-ever Spanish language simulcast of the convention.

From Colorado Public Radio: Colorado Matters this morning aired a great interview with Kennedy adviser Ted Sorensen, who addressed the potential impact of Obama's acceptance speech. Hear the interview -- and Kennedy's "New Frontier" speech -- at kcfr.org.

Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin:"Some of that healing and unification has started with Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama and their respective camps. The convention, however, has to advance that."

Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin might be Howard Dean’s most experienced choice among his three nominated co-chairs of the Democratic National Convention. She’s not a career politician—her first term as Atlanta’s mayor was her first ever elected office—but as the city’s former Chief Administrative Officer, she oversaw Atlanta’s hosting of the 1988 Democratic convention and volunteered for the most difficult beat on the job: supervising the safety and security of the public-protest areas.

In this interview, Franklin tells Demver about the importance of having the convention in Denver and offers advice to Mayor Hickenlooper on how to deal with the pressures and problems of hosting a national convention.

Westword (Joe Horton): What's the importance of having the convention in Denver?

Shirley Franklin: Denver is a great city. It’s a community that pulls itself together around a lot of issues. I was in Denver at the invitation of the mayor along with other mayors in January to talk about the issue of homelessness and how we as mayors address issues of poverty and homelessness in our community. That caused me to really understand how a mayor who is from the business community and who’s an entrepreneur himself has been able to galvanize support. And in order to host the convention, Denver has reached out to civic leaders as well as to business leaders all over the country.

Brian Colón, chairman of the New Mexico Democratic Party, knows a little something about elections in the West. So we asked his take on the Denver convention's importance to the West, the Udall family dynasty, and the most famous political facial hair in the West.

Westword (Joe Horton): What's the significance of having the convention in Denver this year?

Brian Colón: It goes to showing the importance of the western states. In the past they may not have been in play, but clearly in this election cycle, the road to the White House leads through the West, and I think there were a couple of important factors and some very persistent and persuasive governors here in the West—my governor most especially.

For Mark Udall, 2008 must seem like the perfect political storm. After seeing what could have been his one shot at the U.S. Senate pass by in 2004, when Ken Salazar’s victory was one of the few bright spots for national Democrats who lost seats in Congress and saw a George Bush re-election, what a difference four years makes.

Now the state’s leadership is fully blue, TIME magazine’s “Invisible Man” -- Wayne Allard -- is retiring (does anyone on Capitol Hill know it yet?), and the most recent Rasmussen polls have Udall up nine points on GOP rival Bob Schaffer. Add to that cosmic alignment the retirement of another Republican senatorial stalwart, Pete Domenici, in New Mexico and the robust fortunes of Udall's cousin Tom, who is currently 28 points up on his competition, Representative Steve Pearce, according to June 24 Rasmussen data.

Even for a family whose powerful western roots branch from judgeships to mayoral offices to state and national legislatures, not since 1961 has the Washington Beltway ball bounced so kindly for the Udalls, who in the early days of the Kennedy administration saw Stewart Udall named Secretary of the Interior and his brother (and former Denver Nugget) Morris “Mo” Udall take over his Arizona congressional seat for the next thirty years.

But Mark makes it clear that his family is no Camelot, and despite the major national implications of his race to a Democratic Senate that’s hoping to pick up enough seats to move within striking distance of the 60 members it needs to shut the door on Republican filibustering, he’s focused on the issues that matter to voters in Colorado. From there, he talks about Colorado’s role in renewable energy; lists the major Democratic players in the West; discusses what he considers to be western values; assesses the significance of the balloon farms on the state’s eastern plains; notes the differences between Cape Cod and Colorado Democrats; explains how he hopes to capitalize on having the Democratic convention in Denver; and illustrates how Mother Nature makes reaching across the partisan aisle an historically western virtue.

With the TV in his office on Capitol Hill showing live shots of his peers on the Senate floor preparing their legislative case against Republicans for November, Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) speaks about his role on the Senatorial Campaign Committee and on spending late August in Denver. The junior senator from New Jersey was elected to his first full term in 2006 after spending thirteen years in the House, rising to Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus as the highest-ranking Hispanic in congressional history.

Westword (Joe Horton): What is, in your mind, the significance of having the national convention in Denver this year?

Bob Menendez: Well, I'm proud that my party recognizes that the West is a place of importance and opportunity, as is evidenced by moving Nevada up in its primary process and choosing Denver as the place for the convention. And those aren't just about finding a great site to hold the convention, they are about commitments as a party to the importance of the western states and appealing to the issues that voters in the West are concerned about. And so I think Denver's a great city, traveled there several times when I campaigned for House members when I was in the House, but beyond being a great city for a convention, I think it's commitment to the West. I think that combination of having Nevada earlier in the primary process and making Denver the convention city is a recognition of the importance of the West.

You know, if you look at New Mexico, Nevada and Colorado, they provided nineteen electoral votes -- the amount that George Bush won and John Kerry lost. And if you look at the margins by which he lost in those states, they were very thin. And so the reality is I think that after eight years of Bush and with a candidate who can appeal on many of the important issues as well as the independence that exists out in the West -- there's an independent streak in the West -- I think you can do very well.

WW: Speaking of those issues, with your position on the Senatorial Campaign Committee and looking at the West as unique voters, what kind of issues specifically do you see that are critical for Democrats to control or at least address going forward? You talk about those three states as being very critical states this time around, what are the issues that are important?