December 2009
NEWS ARTICLES
December
Monthly Meeting
December 16, 2009 by Jack Ott
The Denver
Chapter of the Coalition for a Conservative Majority held its monthly meeting last night,
December 15, 2009 at Colorado Christian University. Eleven members heard Guest Speaker
MATT ARNOLD, Director of Clear the Bench Colorado,
discuss the reasoning and plans for that organization in the 2010 election. Matt pointed
out the unique opportunity that will exist next year to change the political makeup and
direction of the Colorado Supreme Court, which he stated had made crucial judicial
decisions that allowed state government to get around current spending and taxation laws
that are delineated in the Colorado Constitution.
JACK OTT reported
on the establishment and progress of Operation
Avalanche, the effort to bring conservative organization throughout the State of Colorado
together to work toward the common goal of having conservative candidates elected to state
and federal offices in the 2010 election. He described the initial meeting that was held
in Colorado Springs last month, the drafting of a set of documents called the Gettysburg
Charter and the Gettysburg Accords, which spell out the working agreement between the
groups, and the establishment of an internet-based calendar on which all groups would post
their upcoming events and activities. The URL for the calendar named the “Liberty
Calendar”, is http://www.libertyevents.org. Consensus was reached among those in attendance
that CCM – Denver would support Operation
Avalanche, and that its activities would form the basis for the Chapter’s
activities in 2010.
JACK OTT reminded
members that elections for Chapter officers would take place at the January meeting, and
that nominations could be forwarded to him by e-mail (jackott2@comcast.net) before the meeting. If no
nominations are received before the January meeting, they will be called for at the
meeting. The positions involved include President, Vice-President, Secretary, and
Treasurer. Descriptions of each position’s responsibilities can be seen at our
website in Section 3 of the Chapter’s
By-Laws .
At the conclusion
of the regular meeting, the annual “white elephant” Christmas gift exchange took
place to everyone’s enjoyment and good humor. The meeting adjourned at approximately
9:10PM.
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Pulling Together
The Birth of Operation Avalanche
December
3, 2009 by Jack Ott
On Tuesday,
December 1, a meeting was held at the Mason Jar Restaurant in Colorado Springs. It was
sponsored by our sister organization, CCM-Colorado Springs, and its purpose was to begin
the process of uniting all of the conservative grassroots organizations in Colorado into a
coalition whose purpose would be to make Colorado once again a “red” state in
2010. The overall effort was dubbed “Operation Avalanche”.
The meeting was
attended by about 53 people representing perhaps 18 organizations from as far away as Fort
Collins and Steamboat Springs, and those groups that were not represented will be
contacted and asked to join. Attending the meeting were a few old friends of CCM-Denver,
including Crista Huff (last month’s guest speaker), Matt Arnold of Clear the Bench in Colorado (our speaker at this
month’s meeting on the 15th) and State Senator Ted Harvey. The Colorado Springs
Chapter’s Communications Team of Michelle Morin and Clem Borkowski conducted the
meeting.
A major portion
of the meeting was devoted to individual introductions of each attendee. Clem and Michelle
then distributed two handouts for eventual approval, the first of which was a statement of
core values and principles, and the second was a “buy-in” consent agreement that
coalition members will eventually sign after some further wordsmithing. They then went on
to describe an online system already well underway where member groups will be able to
exchange information and plans, a calendar of events on which each organization will post
its planned activities, and a news section to keep everyone aware of accomplishments.
The
coalition’s activities will focus on the Republican Precinct Caucuses that are
scheduled for March. The goal will be to get conservative group members into leadership
positions in key precincts where conservative candidates are running for the State
Legislature. Chris Holbert and Crista Huff will be
travelling around the state conducting caucus training with their "Introduction to
Colorado Politics" presentation. A telephone conference bridge has been
established to provide real-time coordination between groups.
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