About 50 Democrats use humor, ingenuity to stump for honor as national delegate

You have 15 seconds to persuade several thousand Democrats to make you a delegate to your party's national convention. Quick, how do you do it?

You could target a very specific constituency, like Chaffee County's Louise Fish, who campaigned for the vote of every fellow "fat, strong, old woman."

You could tell a unique story, like 18-yearold Shannon Anthony, who said she ditched her Advanced Placement government class at Liberty High School to campaign for herself.

Or you could go for the less-used but still effective sympathy vote, like Peyton's Tacy Lewis.

"Vote for me because I feel sorry for myself," the red, white and blueclad woman told a crowd at Colorado Springs' Doubletree Hotel. "I had three Republican husbands, and I live in eastern El Paso County."

Such went the litany of stump speeches at Fri- day's 5th Congressional District Democratic convention, where about 50 people got a quarter of a minute each to try to make their dreams come true. Attendees then had to pick two Hillary Clinton delegates, two Barack Obama delegates and one Obama alternate to represent them at the August convention in Denver.

Voting took place early Friday evening, but the counting was expected to go late into the night. Delegates have been chosen from Colorado's six other congressional districts, and another 20 will be elected from a statewide pool at today's state Democratic Convention.

In an age of slick, expensive campaigning, this was the antithesis. Just two contestants hung fliers around the meeting room, and most limited their activities to handing out cards with their pictures and qualifications on them.

Clinton supporter Brooke Squires splurged on a small sandwich board that read: "Bush, get Laura's picture off Hillary's desk."

Lynn Young of Colorado Springs made a T-shirt to express her candidacy - but didn't make more to hand out.

Benjamin Snow, a wheelchair-bound 21-year-old from Woodland Park, handed out some fliers, but it was his mom who did the majority of glad-handing for him.

Jim Trione of Colorado Springs called it "almost impossible" to choose among competitors. Ben Taber, an 18-year-old Coronado High School senior, caught his eye, with Trione saying that he had "a lot of oomph."