Wednesday, February 14, 2007 - Emily Calhoun, J.D., Professor, CU Law. Professor Calhoun will be addressing habeas corpus changes and related issues.

December 13, 2006 - Boulder County legislators come talk about the upcoming legislative session

November 8, 2006 - Panel analyzing the election results. Promises to be entertaining and enlightening. Panelists include Pat Waak, Chair of the Colorado Democratic Party and Bill Chaloupka, Professor and Chair, Political Science Dept., Colorado State University.

October 11, 2006 - Candidates’ forum and Annual DWBC Fundraiser. Come hear and meet Democratic candidates for statewide and county office.

September 13, 2006 - A detailed and lively discussion of the many statewide ballot issues with State Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald, House Majority Leader Alice Madden, Jeff Thormodsgaard of Coloradans for Fairness and Equality Action Fund and Mark Cavanaugh of the Bighorn Policy Center

No meetings in July or August

June 14, 2006 - Former Senator Gary Hart will discuss ideas from his new book, God and Caesar in America: An Essay on Religion and Politics.

May 17, 2006 (Note: THIRD Wednesday of the month) - Legislative wrap-up from our Boulder County legislators and DWBC’s annual business meeting

April 5, 2006 (Note: FIRST Wednesday of the month) - Bill Ritter, CO gubernatorial candidate and Barbara O’Brien, Lieutenant Governor. Also, Attorney General candidates Fern O’Brien and Robert Leland Johnson. Finally, Bill Winter, candidate in the 6th Congressional District, running against Tom Tancredo

March 8, 2006 - “Global Warming” presented by Susan Solomon, a leading atmospheric scientist at the NOAA Aeronomy Laboratory

Short presentations from candidates for the Boulder County Clerk & Recorder’s race: Linda Salas and Hillary Hall. For Colorado House District 13: Claire Levy and Jim Rettew are seeking the Democratic nomination to succeed Tom Plant who is term-limited

February 8, 2006 - U.S. House of Representatives 4th Congressional District: candidate Angie Paccione; 7th Congressional District: candidates Peggy Lamm, Ed Perlmutter, and Herb Rubenstein (all seeking the Democratic nomination). Angie didn’t make it. She was tied up in the legislature. (Summary of Meeting)

January 11, 2006 - The Future of CU, featuring Cindy Carlisle, CU Regent and long-time member of DWBC; Phil Distefano, Chancellor of CU; and Mike Bohn, Athletic Director of CU. Also, possibly Hank Brown, President of CU (depending on whether he can return from Denver in time)

December 14, 2005 - Boulder County legislators discuss the upcoming state legislative session.

November 9, 2005 - Speaker of the House Andrew Romanoff speaks about the passage of Referendum C.October 12, 2005 - Candidates for Boulder City Council and Boulder Valley School District Board.

September 14, 2005 - Ballot issues including Referenda C & D and the County issues (e.g., term limits and a local TABOR override). State Representative Tom Plant and Sheriff Joe Pelle speak.

June 8, 2005 - Boulder County legislators present a 2005 legislative session update (Summary of Meeting)
May 11, 2005 - Women in Politics, featuring Pat Waak, Chair of the Colorado Democratic Party, and Heather Lurie of the Rocky Mountain Riveters and the White House Project. Annual Membership Meeting. (Summary of Meeting)

April 13, 2005 - Adrian Miller of the Bell Policy Center speaks on TABOR Reform (Summary of Meeting)

March 9, 2005 - Education Forum with focus on charter schools, Jared Polis, Vice Chair, State Board of Education; Julie Phillips, President, Boulder Valley Board of Education; and Sandi Searls, President, St. Vrain Valley Board of Education

February 9, 2005 - Dan Baum, staff writer for The New Yorker, discusses the military and the war in Iraq, along with an opportunity to hear the candidates for the Boulder City Council special election. Listen to a similar talk by Dan.

January 12, 2005 - Congressman Mark Udall, The Hon. Dorothy Rupert, Commissioners Paul Danish and Ron Stewart (Summary of Meeting & Entries in the Congressional Record for Commissioner Paul Danish and Commissioner Ron Stewart)

Announcements

Britta Singer, Chair of the DWBC, set the tone for the meeting by saying that she loves the seven of Boulder County legislators present to speak to us.

She urged everyone to look at our new web page at DW-BC.org.

Britta announced that the Boulder Valley School District will have four openings and members should consider persons to run for the seats.

Speakers

The seven invited speakers thanked the BWDC for the important role the group played in the recent election in supporting Democratic candidates and providing campaign funds. They all agreed that working in a state legislature controlled by Democrats has been a great experience especially in contrast to past years when Democratic bill almost always were doomed. All of the seven also urged everyone in the audience to work to pass the Economic Recovery measures C and D.

Representative Tom Plant, who is vice-chair of the Joint Budget Committee, focused his remarks on the budget agreement which he said succeeded because of the work of the Democratic leadership. The Republican leaders in both houses opposed the effort. He contrasted what happened under the previous Republican leadership with what happened this year under Democratic leadership. The budget for the program to help people with developmental disabilities was cut 50% under the Republicans and restored under the Democrats. When the Republicans cut 50% of the funding to aid people waiting to obtain Medicaid, the press and the public ignored it. This year the money was put back. Under the Republicans, Colorado was the only state to cut aid for legal services to victims of domestic violence. This year the funding was restored. Democrats also put more money into the mental health budget.

Senator Joan Fitz-Gerald, the first woman to be President of the Colorado Senate, had just returned from dedicating a portion of I 25 near Pueblo which is called the John F. Kennedy Memorial Highway. She contrasted the work of President Kennedy with our current situation. President Kennedy respected science and worked to get young people involved. He was concerned about the third world and organized the Peace Corps. Now we have government which is trying to destroy the social protections put in place by Franklin Roosevelt. In Colorado we have had waiting lists instead of safety nets for the vulnerable people in our state. We face the loss of essential parts of our community such as our public university and decent transportation. The adoption of Referendum C is essential

Senator Brandon Shaffer, the newly elected Senator from District 17, praised the work of Senator Fitz-Gerald in running the Senate and especially in her role in negotiating the compromise with the Governor that allowed the Economic Recovery measure to go forward with bipartisan support. He said that he found more bipartisanship in the Senate than he had expected.

Senator Ron Tupa, wearing a t-shirt reading “The Governor vetoed my bill and all I got was this lousy t-shirt”, spoke about how the Governor has vetoed bills despite broad bipartisan support for them or even the support of the Republican Attorney General. He reiterated what others had said that the vetoes followed no predictable course. In total, the Governor has vetoed about 10% of the legislation passed this session.

Representative Alice Madden, the House Majority Leader, said that the vetoes in the health care area were the hardest to accept. She deplored the veto of the prescription drug bill which would have given many Coloradoans affordable medications. She spoke about the importance of starting work now for the next election if we are to keep the Democratic majority in the legislature. The Republicans are already working take back the majority.

Representative Jack Pommer said that Democrats in the state look to Boulder County to provide the extra votes needed to win passage of state initiatives and to elect a Democratic governor. In answer to a question, he stated that money is available for the campaign to assure passage pf referendum “C” and the campaign will start soon. He is encouraged by the fact that even the El Paso County Chamber of Commerce supports the Economic Recovery measure.

Representative Paul Weissmann remarked on how well the Democrats did in getting organized following the surprising success in the November election. Members had to get their bills ready in December and get organized for the start of business in January. He made the interesting point that the Governor was invisible in the legislative process until the last weeks of the session. Governor Owens did not work with legislators and then vetoed their bills without adequate explanations.

We honored Frances Wyrick, past president of DWBC and long-time board member, for her many years of service. Thank you, Frances!

MEMBERSHIP
We had 284 paid members at the beginning of the meeting, up from 182 at the same time the previous year.

FINANCES
We have $3,849.06 in the treasury and $4018.75 in the Small Donor Committee account. We contributed $500 each to County Commissioner candidate Ben Pearlman from our treasury and $7800 from our Small Donor Committee to $2000 each Dianne Primavera and Brandon Shaffer (the maximum allowed), $1500 each to the committees to elect majorities in the Colorado House and Senate, $50 each to Ron Tupa and Paul Weissmann, $100 each to Mary Keenan and Jennifer Mello (CU Regent-at-Large candidate), and $500 to the Boulder County Democratic Party.

ELECTIONS
We elected the following to serve for the 2005-2006: President, Britta Singer; Vice President, Lynn Guissinger; Secretary, Kathy Cook Treasurer; Anita Polner; and Nominating Committee for 2006, Janet Miller-Reynolds (Chair), Betty Hoye, and Marion Selbin.
PROGRAM: Women in Politics

Heather Lurie of the White House Project and Pat Waak, Chair of the Colorado Democratic Party

Heather Lurie told the audience that the White House Project has field offices in four states including Colorado. The Project sponsors the Women in Leadership Program which will offer a leadership training seminar for women interested in running for public office. The seminar will be held at the University of Denver on June 17 and 18.

Heather gave some disturbing figures to show how far women are from parity with men in public office. Although women are the majority of the US population, they comprise only 14% of the members of Congress. Eight women are currently governors and the US has had only twenty-four female governors in our total history. The United States is 60th in the world in the percentage of women in government. Colorado has the most women in the state legislature of any state and Joan Fitz-Gerald is one of only two women to be president of a state senate.

Pat Waak opened her remarks by adding that only nine women chair a state party.

The Colorado party is drafting a strategic plan for the next six years. Hillary Hall co-chairs the drafting committee. All counties are also drafting strategic plans to assure that Democrats continue to build on the momentum of 2005.

Pat believes that we must build on our core values which include support for individuals not special interests, right to jobs, health care and the environment. We need to carry this message to our neighbors. Evidence shows that people make political decisions on the basis of emotions and how their neighbors feel so we must reach out. In answer to a question about why we should not emphasis the environment, Pat said that people in the southeast and southwest parts of the state have reservations about the environment as a core value. Polls show that health care is the number one concern for people nationally and the economy is the number one concern for Coloradoans. A member asked what the polls show as the impetus to get independents to vote for Democrats? Pat answered that the party had not done polling on the issue but was trying to get candidates to share their poll findings on the subject. Polls are expensive and the party does not have the money for extensive polling.