Sanders scoops up Dem delegates at state assemblies in Loveland

Schwartz gets nod to challenge Tipton in CD3

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders over the weekend continued to pile up Democratic presidential delegates the way snow stacked up across Colorado, scooping up 25 more to 14 for former New York Sen. Hillary Clinton at three congressional district contests Friday and the state assembly Saturday in Loveland.

Bernie Sanders

At the three congressional district contests — including the Third Congressional District (CD3), which encompasses the western half of Eagle County — Sanders landed 10 more delegates to six for Clinton on Friday. Then on Saturday at the statewide assembly, Sanders picked up another 15 (nine at-large and six party leaders and elected officials, or PLEO’s), while Clinton landed another eight (five at-large and three PLEO’s).

Overall, Sanders got 62.6 percent of the vote to 36.9 for Clinton. Sanders, who won the state 59 percent to 40 percent on Super Tuesday (March 1), now has 41 delegates to 25 for Clinton.

“What’s happening is since we’re a caucus state and Bernie Sanders campaign is focusing a lot of energy on the caucus states, that’s driving people from across the state to support Bernie to go on to the higher assembly and make sure he gets the delegates to the DNC (Democratic National Convention) that he’s been earning the whole way,” said Joy Harrison, first vice chair of the Eagle County Democratic Party and a Clinton delegate for Congressional District 3, which held its assembly in Loveland Friday night. “They are working the system.”

Gail Schwartz

CD3 is comprised mostly of the state’s mountainous Western Slope and the city of Pueblo on the Front Range. It’s currently represented by Cortez Republican Scott Tipton, but Crested Butte resident and former state Sen. Gail Schwartz won the nomination over Eagle veterinarian Steve Sheldon for the Democratic nod to challenge Tipton. No other candidate won enough delegates (30 percent) to make it on the primary ballot to challenge Schwartz.

Harrison told The Colorado Statesman she thought that Schwartz’s name recognition in the sprawling district — a large chunk of which she represented for eight years in the state Senate — would make it tough for Sheldon to make his mark at the assembly.

Summit County Democratic Party chair Beverly Breakstone was a delegate to the 2nd Congressional District assembly earlier in the month in Fort Collins and was a Clinton delegate at Saturday’s statewide assembly in Loveland. She was campaigning to be a Clinton delegate to the July 25 DNC in Philadelphia.

Breakstone said Sanders supporters unsuccessfully tried to wrestle away the CD2 nomination from incumbent Boulder Democrat Jared Polis in Fort Collins because of Polis’s support for Clinton. CD2 includes Boulder and Fort Collins but also extends up into the mountains and includes the eastern half of Eagle County, including Vail. The western half of the county is in CD3.

Breakstone is concerned that the youth-vote passion for Sanders will die out if Clinton, as expected because of her large national lead (1,761 to 1,073), gets the nomination in Philadelphia. If Sanders backers don’t go to the polls, it will impact down-ticket candidates for congressional offices all the way down to county commissioner races, she said.

“Even if Bernie was to get elected, he can’t do anything unless we change the Congress,” said Breakstone, referring to Republican control of both chambers nationally. “So it’s just four more years of gridlock. I want these Bernie folks, should they not prevail, to understand that the gridlock won’t change unless they do vote.”

Breakstone also worries that the progressive policies of President Barack Obama will all be reversed if Republicans win back the White House.

“That would, to my mind, be so tragic because so much has been accomplished by the Obama administration despite this obstructionist Congress,” Breakstone said. “In a way, he’s just phenomenal what he’s been able to accomplish.”

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David O. Williams

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David O. Williams is the editor and co-founder of RealVail.com and has had his awarding-winning work (see About Us) published in more than 75 newspapers and magazines around the world, including 5280 Magazine, American Way Magazine (American Airlines), the Anchorage Daily News (Alaska), the Anchorage Daily Press (Alaska), Aspen Daily News, Aspen Journalism, the Aspen Times, Beaver Creek Magazine, the Boulder Daily Camera, the Casper Star Tribune (Wyoming), the Chicago Tribune, Colorado Central Magazine, the Colorado Independent (formerly Colorado Confidential), Colorado Newsline, Colorado Politics (formerly the Colorado Statesman), Colorado Public News, the Colorado Springs Gazette, the Colorado Springs Independent, the Colorado Statesman (now Colorado Politics), the Colorado Times Recorder, the Cortez Journal, the Craig Daily Press, the Curry Coastal Pilot (Oregon), the Daily Trail (Vail), the Del Norte Triplicate (California), the Denver Daily News, the Denver Gazette, the Denver Post, the Durango Herald, the Eagle Valley Enterprise, the Eastside Journal (Bellevue, Washington), ESPN.com, Explore Big Sky (Mont.), the Fort Morgan Times (Colorado), the Glenwood Springs Post-Independent, the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, the Greeley Tribune, the Huffington Post, the King County Journal (Seattle, Washington), the Kingman Daily Miner (Arizona), KUNC.org (northern Colorado), LA Weekly, the Las Vegas Sun, the Leadville Herald-Democrat, the London Daily Mirror, the Moab Times Independent (Utah), the Montgomery Journal (Maryland), the Montrose Daily Press, The New York Times, the Parent’s Handbook, Peaks Magazine (now Epic Life), People Magazine, Powder Magazine, the Pueblo Chieftain, PT Magazine, the Rio Blanco Herald Times (Colorado), Rocky Mountain Golf Magazine, the Rocky Mountain News, RouteFifty.com (formerly Government Executive State and Local), the Salt Lake Tribune, SKI Magazine, Ski Area Management, SKIING Magazine, the Sky-Hi News, the Steamboat Pilot & Today, the Sterling Journal Advocate (Colorado), the Summit Daily News, United Hemispheres (United Airlines), Vail/Beaver Creek Magazine, Vail en Español, Vail Health Magazine, Vail Valley Magazine, the Vail Daily, the Vail Trail, Westword (Denver), Writers on the Range and the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. Williams is also the founder, publisher and editor of RealVail.com and RockyMountainPost.com.

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