Pat Waak

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Following a Saturday rally with the Republican presidential ticket, state Democratic officials said GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin would help turn out the Republican base in Colorado but turn off moderates wary of her conservative views on abortion and other issues. Colorado Democratic Party Chair Pat Waak said the addition of Palin to the GOP ticket would help Republicans in Colorado to motivate a voter base that had been ambivalent about McCain. But that base is "shrinking" in Colorado, she said, and said that Palin "does not help (McCain) with unaffiliateds and Democrats."

The early reaction in Colorado to GOP presidential hopeful John McCain's selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate has been impromptu excitement by Republicans and dismissal by Democrats as a bad choice that won't affect the presidential race in the state.

Palin was universally lauded by Colorado conservatives, though for different reasons - the lack of an early common theme was likely because McCain's selection of Palin came as a surprise to most.

Colorado Democratic Party Chair Pat Waak said Republican presidential hopeful John McCain's selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate won't really mean much to the presidential race in Colorado.

"Really, I don't think it's going to earn him any points," Waak told PolitickerCO.com Friday morning. "You know, we've got a better ticket -- and that's the most important point."

While a new poll released Monday shows John McCain leading Barack Obama in Colorado, state Democratic Party Chair Pat Waak said she’s wary of polls undermeasuring Obama’s popularity.

“I’ve seen his polling, and one day it shows him ahead by five to nine points (and) the next day they’re even,” Waak said. “And I keep asking about all of those young people that I see out and around this state – hundreds of them have been working on the campaign. I don’t think they’re getting polled because they’re walking around with cell phones.

“And you can model all you want to, but I don’t think you’re getting a real clear view of what’s going on,” she said.

Colorado Democratic Party Chair Pat Waak said Saturday that the Democratic National Convention will showcase and sell her party to Colorado's significant bloc of unaffiliated voters.

"I think that once this convention is over, (Obama) will have a big bounce from that," Waak said.

"There are unaffiliated voters who volunteered to help with this convention, and there are probably a lot who signed up for those tickets to get into Invesco Field," she said. "So I think this is a chance for us to highlight who Barack Obama is, what this ticket is, and most importantly, all the polling I've [been] shown is that he's running way, way ahead among unaffiliated voters - ahead of McCain.

"And so we just want them to be excited about this election and involved in this election right into a fall," she said.

Much has been made of the continuing tension between supporters of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama – but you wouldn’t know it by looking at the Colorado delegation to the Democratic National Convention.

“There’s really no tension here in the Colorado delegation,” said DNC delegate Jessica Clark, a Clinton supporter from Parker. “We love each other – it’s all good.”

Colorado Democratic Party Chair Pat Waak concurred, saying that at today’s delegation breakfast, she “didn’t hear any buzzing one way or the other.”

“I have not heard any tension,” Waak said. “Mostly people are just really excited to be here, and when the time comes they’ll get to vote the way they want to. And then it’s our job to unite the party.”

Colorado Democratic Party Chair Pat Waak praised soon-to-be Democratic vice-presidential nominee Joe Biden on Saturday as "a great working-class guy that's going to come out and campaign and campaign hard in Colorado."

"Senator Salazar and I were actually talking about this last night at Red Rocks -- that he's got this foreign policy background, but more importantly, Joe Biden is just a great guy who connects with people," Waak told PolitickerCO.com on the first day of the Democratic National Convention.

Matt Farrauto, a former executive director of the Democratic Party of New Mexico, was named the Colorado Democratic Party's new communications director on Saturday.

Farrauto succeeds Lauren Rose, who's leaving to attend grad school at the Univ. of Texas.

Farrauto's resume includes working for former U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley's presidential campaign in 2000, U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), and candidates in  Vermont, Connecticut, Ohio, Iowa, Missouri.

With traditionally Republican Colorado now in contention, the ever-increasing Latino population may prove decisive in the 2008 election cycle, with both parties striving to add Hispanic votes to their column.

Recent waves of immigration have made Hispanic-Americans the state's fastest-growing demographic as well as its largest -- and most politically powerful -- minority group.

Colorado Democratic Party Chairwoman Pat Waak also expects Hispanic voters to vote on "pocketbook issues."

"Hispanic voters are not that much different from other voters," Waak said, adding: "Those bread-and-butter issues that concern the average voter are down-the-line represented by us this year."

Colorado Republican Party Chairman Dick Wadhams, while agreeing that Hispanics differ little from other voters, believes that the Republicans better represent the interests of most Latinos - particularly U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer, whose campaign Wadhams heads.

"[Latino voters] are concerned about national security, they're concerned about energy prices, and they're concerned about taxes. Many Hispanics are small business owners, and want lower taxes on small businesses," Wadhams said.

You know its Friday because you get the latest comments, emails and threats from Wally's World. In this supersized edition of Feedback, we talk about polls and endorsements. But we promise that because of the use chemical sweeteners in this column, it won't affect your weight loss plan. So read all you want! It's the weekend.