Claudette Konola

Mesa County Stealth Party

03/27/2012

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As an officer of the Mesa County Democratic Party, I knew about and attended the Assembly on Saturday.  It seems that other than the precinct captains, who are the party’s most active members, few others knew that an assembly was held.

The Sentinel’s opinion piece on Sunday was written by Jim Spehar about the lack of news coverage on either the Republican or Democratic meetings. Spehar is an old news hound, so for him it was personal that there was a dearth of coverage in his old stomping grounds. Then blogger Ralphie took Spehar to task for expecting him to report on the DEM assembly.

To be fair, Gary Harmon wrote his piece about the Republican assembly, although Laura Bradford and her challengers weren’t mentioned. Gary did describe his eyes popping out at the fiery red dress worn to the Republican assembly by Rose Pugliese. I’ve never heard him mention the attire of any of the male candidates, so that was quite the news scoop.

So, for those of you who missed hearing about the Democrat’s Assembly, here goes:

It started with a beautiful rendition of the Star Spangled Banner performed by a CMU student. Then we all pledged our allegiance to the flag. As soon as the meeting was gaveled to order, Sal Pace told us why he is running for office, followed by Jessica Garrow telling us why she is running for office. Do any of you know about Jessica Garrow? She’s running for CD3 CU Regent. Locally nobody knows about her because she’s a stealth candidate running in a stealth party. If any reporters had been in attendance at the assembly they would’ve had a real scoop!

For me the most fun part came before the Assembly was called to order, and just before it was gaveled to a close. I can’t stand the fact that there is no Democrat running in House District 54. When a woman I know, who happens to live in the district, emerged from her car I grabbed her and asked if she had ever considered running for office. I told her that we might even draft her from the floor.

Then I spent the rest of the time between meeting her at her car door and the opening gavel trying to convince this woman to run. I introduced her to every person I could find at the assembly, always pointing out that she’s a retired Air Force Officer, really smart, and quite easy on the eyes. Bernie Buescher tried to talk her into running. Sal Pace even spoke privately with her when he finished speaking. I sent Paul Brown to talk to her. I sent Martelle Daniels to talk to her. I sent Co-Chairs Karl Castleton and Arn McConnell to talk to her. I even got some delegates chanting “Run, Mary, Run.”

As the last order of business, I stood up and asked the Assembly Chair if there was any truth to the rumor that there was a woman willing to throw her hat into the ring and run for House District 54. The Chair decided we should ask. Mary stood up and said that she hadn’t decided to run, but would take some time to consider it.

For the record, after the Assembly, I got all of the paperwork together to get our candidates Dave Edwards and Dan Robinson on the ballot. We got our business done, and we had a good time doing it. Too bad that you all missed the fun! See you in two years. Run, Mary, Run—it isn’t too late to get on the ballot, and there are a lot of people willing to get you elected.

Homework

Google Search of DEM Assembly

Jim Spehar Couldn't Read about the Assembly

Junction Daily Blog Responds to Spehar
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Change Is in the Air

02/05/2011

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The two major parties in Mesa County held meetings today to elect new officers. The Daily Sentinel reported that many of the people seeking the GOP leadership positions first petitioned the Western Colorado Conservative Alliance for their support. The Sentinel article was followed by Tea Party activists objecting to the idea that the Tea Party was simply a subsidiary of the Republican Party, or the other way around.

Not many people knew about the Democratic Party meeting. I doubt there was a press release. I wouldn’t have known about it if I hadn’t attended the regularly scheduled monthly meeting of the Executive Committee. People who were notified were precinct chairs, existing officers, and local elected Democratic officials. They got official notification because they were the only people allowed to vote today. I wasn’t one of the people eligible to vote, but next time I will be.

Our new officers are:

Co-Chairmen—Karl Castleton and Arn McConnell

1st Vice Chairman—Rick Baer

2nd Vice Chairman—JoLynn Phillips

3rd Vice Chairman—James Milligan

4th Vice Chairman—Judy Hegge

Secretary—Laura Fowler

Treasurer—Claudette Konola

There were other positions filled to work on the Executive Committee and vacancy committees and as representatives to the state Democratic Party committees.

This was clearly a take-over of the local Democratic Party by OFA. Okay, I’m kidding. But Karl, Arn, Rick, and JoLynn all worked really hard to get Obama elected. Rick and James add a new twist—both are affiliated with unions. Rick is a retired union organizer and James is a current union organizer.

I had lunch with Karl when I first learned that he might be running for Chairman. He has a lot of ideas about how to reenergize the party in Mesa County, and I’m looking forward to working with him.

Homework

Gary Harmon Talks About Changes in GOP Leadership
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Only in a Small City

04/19/2010

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Last Friday was quite the day here in Grand Junction for Democrats. I lived in Denver for many years, and never had the opportunity to shake hands with as many politicos in one day. I had breakfast with candidate for U.S. Senate. There was lunch with the Governor and Secretary of State. I had dinner with one aspiring U.S. Senator, one sitting U.S. Senator, a U.S. Representative, the Secretary of State, an aspiring Attorney General, the Governor, the head of the Colorado Democratic Party, the head of the Mesa County Democratic Party and about 1,000 other Democrats. This opportunity would be rare in Denver, but is actually pretty common here.

I even gave a speech at the dinner, but it was so brief that it was overshadowed by the politicos who followed. I did get a few cheers when I mentioned that Steve King needed an opponent!

Bennet mentioned that he shook hands with the Tea Party protestors who were outside the convention center. I considered stopping to speak with them. I didn’t stop because I was alone. Since I arrived early, there weren’t many people around other than me and the protestors, and I was concerned about my own safety. One of the protestors was pretty adamant that I read his hand-lettered sign. He kept shaking it in my face and asking if it was spelled right. Well it was spelled right, but the content was confusing. It said “Impeach the Muslim.” Barack Obama is a Christian, born in Hawaii, and the legitimate president of the U.S., who has not been accused of any impeachable offense. For a group of people who claim to love the U.S. Constitution, they sure seem to be unaware of the actual content of the document.

Sunday, a local church leader showed me a picture of a bus parked in the background at the convention center. He said that it was the bus in which the Tea Party protestors came to the event. They must be the people Janice Rich is talking about when she speaks out against same day voter registration. There is fear people would come in by busload to vote.

Homework

http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/articles/state_democrats_at_impasse/

http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/articles/voter_registration_idea_draws/

http://www.coloradopols.com/diary/12199/paul-weissmann-interview
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No inspiration

02/20/2010

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I’ve read most of the local bloggers, both liberal and conservative. I’ve read the Sentinel, the Delta County Independent, Westword, the Denver Post, all in-coming E-mail, and yet noting has inspired me today. I’m attending a League of Women Voter’s legislative update later today, but I can’t write about that until it is over.

Yesterday I met with Gi Moon, Executive Director of the local homeless shelter, Homeward Bound. She always needs financial support and/or volunteers, so if you are looking for a way to spend some time, check out their website—linked below. Gi is a wonderful woman. I first met her when we worked together at the Incubator.

Bill Grant and Claudia Crowell sponsored a wonderful fundraiser for me this past week. Thank you to all who attended, and especially those who left behind envelopes filled with well wishes and donations. Rich Alward, the last Democrat to run for this seat, also left lots of campaign advice, including lists of people who supported him, sample press releases, his analysis of what he might have done differently were he campaigning today, including the budget he wished he had.

I’m still the invisible candidate. I’ve challenged my campaign team to raise $30,000 by March 31 so that we can start printing candidate brochures, yard signs, and producing radio and TV ads. So far we’ve raised about 10% of what we need, with less than six weeks to go. The Republicans are going to laugh at our campaign if we don’t have at least as much in the bank as they do when quarterly financial reports are due. That is, they’ll laugh at us if we are even on their radar screen. I’ve introduced myself to local Democrats recently who didn’t know I was running, despite having a lot of support from the Grand Junction and Delta Democratic Parties. We need money to change that, especially since the Supreme Court has ruled that money is speech.  Please donate what you can by using the ActBlue link on this page. It doesn’t have to be much. If every Democrat in Mesa County donated just $10, we’d have all the money we’d need to run the campaign that Rich Alward wished he could run.

Homework:

http://www.homewardboundgj.org/
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