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WHY AM I A DEMOCRAT IN EL PASO COUNTY?

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Contributed by: Dave Hughes on 5/15/2008

Why am I a Registered Democrat in El Paso County?

How could I, a career West Point military officer, a Colorado Springs native who grew up on ultra-conservative Wood Avenue's millionaire's row, in a County which hasn't elected a Democrat to any of its offices - from Commissioners to Coroner - for scores of years, actually register as a Democrat?

It's because I follow two political precepts - absolute power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. And I can't stand hypocrisy parading as principal.

Now during all my 27 years military service years ending with my retirement in 1973. I was not registered to vote either way. I mildly thought it wasn't a good idea for a military career professional to be politically aligned. But after I retired and looked around Colorado Springs, I saw just how extremely - some could say excessively - Republican the town was. I saw that Republicanism, parading always as 'conservatism' even when that was often a contradiction , was too dominant.

I saw that the main newspaper, the Gazette was so Libertarian far right it was in danger of falling off the edge of the square world.

I also saw that the local Democratic Party locally was very weak, having been originally decisively destroyed, believe it or not - clear back in 1904 when the rock ribbed Republican big business coal, gold mine, railroad, and mill owners elected Governor Peabody who then misused the Colorado National Guard, not only to break the will of the Democrat backed labor unions, but had no compunction in letting them kill workers and their families and their Democratic organizers during strikes for a living wage. All under the noble banner of upholding 'law and order.' I even have a collector's medal designed by Peabody that was pinned on Guardsmen that trumpets their bravely winning the labor 'wars' in Colorado City, Cripple Creek, Telluride, and Trinidad (Ludlow). I knew my Pikes Peak regional political history.

So I registered as a Democrat and set out to help the local party even up some of the odds by empowering it with the new personal computer technology. Lots of politics - registering, door knocking, mailings, analysis - comes from 'lists' of those registered. I knew that a microcomputer could process 'lists' far better than volunteers doing hand written or hunt and peck typewriter work. I also learned that if any candidate wanted the official El Paso County Clerk and Recorder's Voter's Registration list it would cost them $800 to $1,000 to just get one paper printout copy. A real deterrent to small budget candidacies.

So in my Machiavellian way I got the Democratic Party to buy a microcomputer - an early Kaypro MSDOS machine. The Democratic Ladies raised the money for just that. And they paid $50 for a computer tape from the Clerk and Recorder's large data machines, with all the registration records on it. Since the Party has legal standing before the state, the County could not ignore the request - even though they were suspicious of me and would not have sold me that tape individually.

Then it only cost a small sum to a Computer Service company on Academy Boulevard to mount the County Registration Tape on one of its larger machines and download, via a simple RS232 serial cable, the whole county registration as streaming data into the small computer disk and into an early database program called DbaseII. Which, after I set up the 'fixed length fields' just right produced, in 45 minutes a perfect replica of the 250,000 plus County voting records. Which was totally manipulatable. The Party was able to 'print out' for any candidate or his supporters at trivial cost, precinct and district lists, to order - by party, by precinct, by whatever. So the Democratic Party suddenly was 'empowered more' to support candidates and tailor mailings.

The first big payoff came when Rennie Fagan ran against a Republican in the westside House District 22. His walking and mailing lists were so targeted that it helped him be elected to the State Legislature for the first time in a very long time as a Democrat in El Paso County.

There was more. In the process I learned that, in spite of the Republican mantra of 'privatization' of government functions, and 'competitive bidding' - in fact the one-party County had not gone to bid for 15 years for its own 'computer services.' The owner of the company that operated the County computers was a big supporter of the Republican County officer holders and a donor to their campaigns. Then he played fast and loose and used the El Paso County computer programs to contract privately with other Colorado Counties, with no reimbursement back to the County. And he froze out qualified competitors by being named the sole 'technical advisor' to the Commissioners, even blocking the Purchasing Agent from questioning his decisions.

So I cranked up my 'Rogers Bar' Electronic Democracy computer Bulletin Board, put a section on it called the "County Computer Caper," invited the left leaning Sun newspaper - and the Dec vendors in town who were frozen out from bidding, to come on and state their case. It worked. The day I saw the alarmed County Manager standing at the podium before the Commissioners with a print out that dropped all the way to the floor of all the comments made on the BBS, I knew the political winds were shifting. I gave the competitors a voice. Forthwith the Company who had the lock on Republican administration favoritism, sold his company, an independent County Data Processing director was hired, and over time the County largely cleaned up its costly act.

I also monitored a corruption case because there were NO whistle blowers among either the elected officials or the County Staff all of whom were hired by the unelected Republican County 'Manager' who was in political bed with the Commissioners. That was when the County Pension Fund manager was indicted and went to jail, while the elected Country Treasurer who supervised him was getting personal loans from the same official. She had to resign. That wind of corruption could have been sniffed out years earlier had there been a Democrat Commissioner whistle blower, whom county employees could trust with tips. Absolute Power does indeed corrupt.

The biggest political hypocrisy locally has to do with the Military. In 1941 when Pearl Harbor happened, Colorado Springs went to Washington to get an Army base stationed in El Paso County. I will credit 80% of the local motivation for doing so to help 'Win the War' and only 20% just local self interest - profit from wartime expenditures. However, after the war, once Colorado Springs and its Republican Party got a taste of the Federal Dollar, it forever after has pursued Defense Department expenditures, even more vigorously than private business. It's motivated 90% for whatever it will do for local 'economic welfare' and no more than 10% for what it will do for 'national security'.

So much for the Republican hypocricy of keeping government out of business with tax money.

Well, I am not active with the Democrats any more. But they are still alive. I have backed ones such as Morse and Merrifield and unapologetically put their signs in my yard and contributed to their campaigns. I also vote for the best candidate, more like a registered independent. I see no reason to change. I would rather remain a Democratic burr under the local Republican saddle, than contribute to One Party local political rule.

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Submitted By: Douglas Rule

posted on 6/6/2008 @ 4:20:52 AM

Rated Story

I would hope that more people would not become complacent and join whatever political party they believe in. There are more than just two and definitely more than just one!

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Submitted By: Dave Hughes

posted on 5/20/2008 @ 8:05:05 PM

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Oh yeah, I could have added one other huge hypocritical political act by the all Republican County Commissioners when, in 2002, after the voters by a 2 to 1 margin defeated a County measure which would raise money for a new set of County Buildings. They turned right around and issued Certificates of Participation not requiring a vote to fund the $27 million 'Terry Harris Judicial Complex" Final irony. Democrat Mike Merrifield put in a Bill at the Statehouse which would have stopped that sneaky practice. The Republicans in the House defeated it!

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Dave Hughes

Colorado Springs , CO

Dave Hughes has posted 80 stories and 87 comments since joining on 3/1/2007. Dave Hughes 's average story rating is 4.9.

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