Springs likely to run blue in 2008

DENVER - Democrats, who generated mostly snickers five years ago in Colorado Springs, will be generating a lot of money for the town in 2008.

A site-selection committee for the state party unanimously agreed Wednesday that Democrats hold the party’s 2008 state convention in Colorado Springs. The party’s executive committee still must ratify the recommendation next month, but several sources said that’s merely a formality.

The May convention will be a two-day affair at several hotels and the World Arena, culminating in the expected nomination of Congressman Mark Udall as the party’s U.S. Senate nominee. It is a separate event from the weeklong Democratic National Convention that will be held next summer in Denver.

Still, the state convention is expected to attract 6,500 peo- ple, most of whom will come from outside the area, staying at city hotels and eating in local restaurants.

No figures were available late Wednesday on the exact economic impact, but Mayor Lionel Rivera, who wrote a letter to support the bid, said Republican state conventions that have been here have typically filled all the hotel rooms in the southwest part of town.

“We’re going to play everywhere, including the reddest parts of the state,” Dan Slater, chairman of the selection committee, told Democratic leaders at The Warehouse restaurant. “This county is in play.”

His optimism — as well as the idea of a state Democratic convention in El Paso County — would have seemed laughable in mid-2002, when no Democrats held local office and Libertarians put more candidates onto the ballot here. State Rep. Mike Merrifield, a Colorado Springs Democrat elected in the fall of that year, said he would have been “shocked” by such an announcement at that time.

But local Democrats put together an enticing package this year, showing that hotels and the convention could be within walking distance of each other. They also emphasized the importance of El Paso County Democratic votes to winning statewide races.

“Pretty clearly, the state party recognizes the tectonic shift that’s occurring in El Paso County,” said state Sen. John Morse, D-Colorado Springs.

State Republicans also considered holding the 2008 convention in Colorado Springs, as they did in 2006, but are going instead with Broomfield, GOP state party chairman Dick Wadhams said.

Gazette staff writer Anthony Lane contributed to this report.