I'm not going to bother posting this elsewhere, but it should hearten you

[rockymountaindem]

I just returned from a Ken Salazar tour event. He appeared at the county comissioners' meeting in a rural Colorado town. I believe it is the USDA that has classified that county as "frontier". This classification is below "rural". Many homes there are not fully electrified.

Sen. Salazar spoke to an audience of about three dozen about energy issues and about making that area a "National Heritage Area".

This county voted for Bush in both 2000 and 2004. It voted for Pete Coors. All three of their comissioners are Republicans. They have a Republican Congressman, and all of their state-level reps. are Republicans.

Salazar really connected with that crowd. The comissioners' eyes lit up like kids on Chrismas morning when Salazar said he would support their bid to become a national heritage area. He approached the citizens on their level and recieved a warm reception. I'd say we hit a home run based on what I heard from the locals afterwards:

"Ken, yer gonna turn this Republican county into a Democrat one! (said to the Senator's face)"
"He's gonna keep his job for a long time..."
"Salazar is going to be great for this county..."

Now, on the other hand, we could have nominated a farther left candidate in 2004, Mike Miles. Mr. Miles would have made a great Senator as well, but he would never have won in Colorado. If not for a moderate Democrat like Salazar, all this love would be going to Pete Coors, the man who just moved his company's mailing address from Colorado to Delaware to benefit from lower taxes.

People in GD would whine about "DLC moderates" and DINOs, but they need to get a dose of reality. Solid Democrats like Salazar are how we're going to make progress in these areas, and these are the areas where we need to win the most. Go ahead, San Fran and Boston liberals, drive through South Park, Colorado. You will see abandoned buildings, closed mines and struggling ranches. These are the people who are supposed to be our base. We can reach out to them with people like Salazar, whom you wanabee Greens castigate, or we can continue to lose them to Republicans.

I report, you decide.

[beachmom]

1. You're preaching to the choir for me, Rockymountain

The Democratic party is really a coalition party made up of different interest groups and ideological slants. We're a big tent party, and if only Moveon.org and Michael Moore types were allowed, it would be a rather small party indeed. Now I welcome the anti-war crowd to sit at the Democratic table, mind you, but they sure as hell don't own the place like they think they do. There's enough room for everyone.

[Mass]

2. A Mass liberal and proud to be

We have had the same abandonned buildings, closed factories, ... This has nothing to do with nothing.

Yes, GDP is tiring with these DLC and DINO, but we need solid Dems that understand the issues, not people who are ready to vote against their state's interest. Salazar may not be a bleeding heart liberal and I disagree with him on many things, but he at least had the good sense to vote against CAFTA.

What you need to do is not to adopt the right wing positions. It is to show to the people from these areas that we have better solutions for them, and a liberal from MA was the best solutions for them in the previous election.

[rockymountaindem]

3. I wasn't talking about MA liberals in general.

Hey, I like you guys a lot!

What I meant was those people in GD who seem to have no idea what it takes to win in parts of the country where not everybody thinks like them. These are the people who always ask "how could anybody vote for Bush?" Well, it may seem like an awful decision to us, but there are concrete reasons why people did. I'm just saying that a lot of people like that on DU (and DU was all I was talking about, not the real world) are pretty naieve.

[Mass]

4. May be they are naive , but I have problems with what you said

What do you suggest we do? MOve to the right in order to get these people? May be I am naive, but one of the things I am the most thankful to Kerry in this campaign was to have held to his refusal to endorsae anti-gay referendums. Clinton's triangulation is too much for me. One of the reason I supported Kerry was that he was the most liberal of the bunch, not the least.

There are a lot of things I like in Salazar (the best one was the reason why he voted against CAFTA).

[rockymountaindem]

5. No, I'm not saying we should move right per se.

But we should run candidates who can win in their state. There are people talking about knocking out incumbent moderate Dems in moderate states. That's just shooting ourselves in the foot. I'm saying we should run candidates who can win, not set some "he's got to be *this* liberal" litmus test to use nationwide that a lot of people here seem to advocate.

There are still people in Colorado who maintain that we shouldn't have run Salazar. Nevermind the fact that Salazar crushed Miles in the primary and that he's winning moderate Republicans and independents to his (our) side in a state where until recently Democrats have had a really hard time getting traction. Salazar's record speaks for itself, but people still try to argue with it.

[Mass]

6. You're righ - we should run candidates that correspond to the states

This is why there are primaries.

Sure, some people will always object that their candidate was better. I tend to ignore these people anyway. This is a loss of time and energy.

I do not know the situation of CO enough to judge on the particulars of the situation, but is there something to do to convince these moderate republicans that some of the more liberal ideas of the Democrats have values as well. May be Salazar can be a first step in this direction?

[rockymountaindem]

7. "May be Salazar can be a first step in this direction?"

That's what I'm sayin' :)

[beachmom]

8. Problems with the 2 party system

This highlights some of the problems with a 2 party system. I am a total lib on social issues, but on economic and foreign policy, I would say I am more centrist. You (Mass) want the party to move to the left, and I don't. I certainly don't want to move to the Republican party as they completely don't represent my values, yet the lefties in the Dem party don't jive with me either. I was more of an Independent before, but I feel like now one has to choose sides, but sometimes I don't feel particularly welcome in the Democratic Party because my views don't skew to the left enough. Not sure if there's a solution to this other than the usual tug-o-war between the different factions in the party.

[Mass]

9. I dont want the party to move to the left (well, I do, but I am realist)

Right now, too many people want it to move to the right out of political expediency. I remember what Kerry said just after the election. The positions are right. We just need to present them better.

I think that the party should state what it stands for and fights for that vigorously. I also think that the majority of the democrats is not in sync with sites like DU.

[TheDonkey]

10. Salazar is a good guy, and it's great to have him in the Senate

especially as opposed to Coors. I do agree he would have been a bigger threat if challenged by Miles. Colorado is just not a really liberal state sadly.

[LittleClarkie]

11. They'd rather tilt at windmills

and remain pure. I have little patience for lala land.

[Vektor]

12. I'm a MA born Liberal who sees your point precisely.

I do agree. Moderate, solid Dems will gain a lot of ground with many independents and moderate Repubs. It's true - extremism just won't win too many people over.

[TayTay]

13. It is important to fight against the smears that distort the positions

of candidates. As Mass stated, we have a lot of burned out buildings, boarded up blocks and cities that are in decay in MA. The MA Dem voters are not uniformly liberal, in fact most are 'working class' voters who probably have a lot in common with folks in CO, or TX or WY or anywhere else in the good ole USA. As a matter of fact, they are Kerry's real base in MA. (Yes, he gets the uber-liberal vote. But he pulls extremely well in the old working class cities like Worcester, Lowell, Fall River, Lawrence, New Bedford, Pittsfield and Springfield. Not a latte amongst the lot of 'em, honest. Well, not many at any rate.)

I think the idea is to be consistent and to not run away from what you believe. The Dems can attract working class America back to the Party. But they have to work at it and take each race seriously and take the voters in those races seriously and work to address their concerns. As you stated RMD, we have to size up the area we are in and plan the races accordingly. And stick to what we believe in.

[Pirate Smile]

14. I just read that he is being "encouraged" to run for Governor. Have you

heard anything about that?

"Salazar Urged to Run for Governor
"Less than a year since being elected to the U.S. Senate," Ken Salazar (D) said "he is being pushed to run for governor in 2006 even though he cannot 'foresee a circumstance at this point where I would decide to run,'" according to the Denver Post.

"Salazar is one of several Democrats creating a buzz since millionaire Rutt Bridges pulled out of the race last week, leaving former Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter the sole Democratic candidate."

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2005/08/17/salazar_urged_to_run_for_governor.html

While I'm sure he would be a good Gov, I would hate to lose any Democratic Senators.

Since he wouldn't be up for reelection would he get to appoint his successor to the Senate? Perhaps his brother? LOL