Colorado Democrats Vote To Move Up Presidential Caucuses

Saturday, July 21st 2007, 2:37 pm

By: News On 6

DENVER (AP) _ Colorado Democrats voted Saturday to move up their presidential caucuses to February, a month earlier than planned, in hopes of gaining sway with presidential candidates.

The state's Democratic Party head, Pat Waak, said the move would win attention for Colorado's nine electoral votes, which candidates might otherwise choose to ignore.

``I've been told by presidential candidates that they aren't coming to states that are not in the early window. They don't have the resources,'' Waak told delegates to the party's central committee.

Most other states in the Rocky Mountain West decided to move up their caucuses or primaries after a plan to put together a Western primary fell apart, Waak said.

Democrats in Colorado have been growing in strength in recent elections. They also have high hopes for their role as host to their party's national convention in Denver next year.

``We feel that the pathway to the presidency is through the West,'' Elbra Wedgeworth, president of the Denver host committee for the Democratic convention, told state delegates.

The state Democratic Party also voted unanimously to hold its convention next year in Colorado Springs, the state's Republican heartland. ''Democrats are going to contest every county in this state,'' said Dan Slater, his party's site selection chairman.

Dick Wadhams, head of the state Republican Party, said he will mail out ballots to the 500 members of his central committee by the end of this month, asking whether they want to move up their caucuses, too. Wadhams said he favors it and he believes other party leaders will go along.

A new state law left it up to the major parties to decide whether to hold earlier caucuses in presidential election years. Some Republican lawmakers had worried that moving up the date would give candidates for state offices less time to rally their supporters and could force them to raise money during the Christmas holidays.