Today is Caucus Day for Colorado Republicans. They moved their primary ahead of “Super Tuesday” believing that they would have more say in the nominating process by doing so. Colorado Democrats didn’t move their caucus date, so now there are two separate caucus dates in Colorado. Democrats will caucus on March 6.

Parties are increasingly becoming irrelevant in Colorado, although only people registered as a member of a party are eligible to vote in caucuses or primary elections.  Despite being left out of the primary process, Coloradans are registering as independent. Right now the split is pretty even, with about 1/3 of registered voters being independent, 1/3 being GOP, and 1/3 being DEMs.

One of my favorite Democrats has jumped on the bandwagon. Ken Gordon, a former DEM leader in the Colorado Senate has been reaching out to independents and Democrats to forget about party designations and vote for what is right for Coloradans. It could be said that is the true patriotism—voting for what is best, not for what is ideologically pure by party standards.

For the record, I’ll be caucusing with my Democrats in March. But I’ll be watching the 10:00 news to see how my Republican friends voted. Rumor has it that there might be some surprises coming out of Colorado.

Homework

Independents on the Rise