It’s Time To Catch Up Again

It's time to catch up again.

People generally think that as soon as the elections are over, we all have a chance to sit back,

put our feet up and relax after the crazy election cycle. But those of us who are deeply

entrenched in the political process know nothing could be further from the truth. Let me fill you

in on what we’ve been up to so far and what’s looming on the horizon.

As soon as the election was over we were faced with breaking down the office and putting

things back in storage. And then we did, in fact, take a break from politics.

In December we held what has now become our annual Christmas party which is actually a

thank you for all of our volunteers, contributors, and sponsors.

In January we met at the Avon Town Council for our first quarterly meeting of the year. Jeff

Hays, chair of the Colorado Republican Committee, was our guest speaker and he graciously

agreed to give us a re-cap of the 2018 elections.

I don’t need to remind any of you that it was a particularly brutal year for Republicans in

Colorado and there are many reasons for it. Jeff shared his assessments as a way of explanation

rather than excuses.

For those of you who have read “The Blueprint: How the Democrats Won Colorado”, you

already know that this election was a culmination of a plan put in place 14 years before by “the

gang of 4” of which Polis was a key founder, player, and financial sponsor. Of course it goes

without saying that when a guy - aka Jared Polis – can drop somewhere between $30-40mil of

his own money into a campaign, it’s hard to compete. Another problem was that we had no

national election meaning without a presidential or senate race, the down ballot races were

controlled by our top of the ticket which in this case meant the governor’s race. Once we lost it,

the rest was inevitable.

But that’s behind us and our focus now has to be going forward. With that in mind I went to

Denver for a Leadership Conference at the end of January with Ryan Call acting as the

moderator. You might remember Ryan as the previous chair of the Colorado Republican

Committee as well as it’s chief legal counsel. For the many new members in leadership roles,

there was an introduction to the structure of the Republican party starting with the RNC and all

the way down to the local county parties. It was interesting to be reminded of our role in the

big picture and the acknowledgement of what a really key role we play.

After that basic review, a consultant from Arkansas took over and that’s when the mood in the

room was elevated. A former public official, he now dedicates his time to training other state

parties on how they were able to turn some of Arkansas’ districts around so Republicans can

now get elected. I took 3 election cycles and a strictly adhered to plan in order to achieve

success but it worked and he’s now sharing those ideas.

Sponsored by the newly formed Independent Expenditure Committee (IEC), this program will

be presented through a series of forums around the state with Eagle County hosting one for the

surrounding counties as soon as the program is formulated. A video is also going to be made

available for our use.

Then on February 12 at the Ambulance District Classroom, the every odd numbered years

process of reorganizing the Republican party started at the county level with election of the

Executive Committee for Eagle County. I was elected to serve another 2 yr term as chair with

John Rosenfeld as 1 st vice chair, Bill Douglas as 2 nd vice chair, Max Schmidt 3 rd vice chair, Dan

Gumber 4th vice chair, Jennifer Woolley as secretary and Katherine Paisen Senn treasurer.

Typically District Captains are appointed at the reorganization meeting but the issue was tabled

pending changes to our bylaws allowing us a more efficient and inclusive process for filling

delegate and alternate positions at the state and district assemblies. We also distributed our

meeting and event schedule for the 2019 year and it is attached here. In preparation for the

April 18 quarterly meeting we would like to ask you to give some thought to the committees

that we should be forming to help move the party forward. Our members have many different

interests and qualifications and we’d like to put all of those assets to work during the 2020

elections.

With that process concluded, we now move to Englewood and the Centennial Dinner on March

29 where Grover Norquist will the featured speaker. I have met him and heard him several

times and he’s truly a brilliant political advocate and president of Americans for Tax reform.

Anyone interested can contact me for details.

Then it’s on to serious business on March 30 where State and District elections will be held as

well as discussion of and voting on any suggested changes to the State party bylaws. Officers of

the State party will be elected including the State Executive Committee in addition to officers of

the various Districts. In the case of Eagle County those include Congressional District 2,

Congressional District 3, Senate District 5, House District 26 and Judicial District 5. I’ll keep you,

posted with those results.

With all of that in place, we start working on the next elections in 2020. So, as you can see, the

process never ends. It’s an ongoing sequence of organizing the party at all levels, recruiting

candidates, running elections and starting over again.

I know I say it every election cycle, but this next election will surely be the most important of

our life time. It will require all hands on deck. Once again, we look forward to working with all

of you and hope we can count on your involvement and support.

Kaye Ferry