Former Colo. DNC Chairs Open Letter to Obama et al re-Senate Primaries.

Open Letter to President Barack Obama, Democratic National Committee Officers and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee:
3/05/2010

As former members of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), we had the honor of serving as staff or DNC members for a collective total of 38 years between 1971 and 2010. During our service on the DNC, no sitting Democratic President of the United States ever became involved in a Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate. When I (Polly) was Vice Chair of the National Democratic Party (1981-89), I pledged prior to my election that I would not be involved in any Democratic primary race, which was the norm for national Party Officers.

Former state Sen. and former Democratic National Committee Vice Chair Polly Baca, center, joined other former Democratic Party officials at a news conference outside state party headquarters Feb. 16 to ask President Barack Obama to stay out of the U.S. Senate primary between U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet and former state House Speaker Andrew Romanoff. Obama was set to appear at a series of fundraisers for Bennet in Denver that week. Baca, who has endorsed Romanoff, expressed “dismay and alarm” that the president and some party groups are backing Bennet. Julia Ann Hicks, past vice chair of the state party, left, and Dick Barkey, past Jefferson County party chairman, right, echoed Baca’s remarks.

We are alarmed that this long-standing tradition has been violated by the current National Democratic Party and our current President, whom we both supported for election. It is inappropriate and unacceptable for national Democratic Party officials and the President of the United States, who is the titular head of the Democratic Party, to engage in Democratic primaries. Colorado Democrats have the inalienable right and intelligence to select their own candidate for the highest political position in the state without interference from our Democratic leaders in D.C. who are supposed to be supportive of our local parties and candidates.

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Former Executive Director of the Colorado Democratic Party, Mr. Darryl Eskin, added that “When I was Executive Director, it was a firm principle that the State Democratic Party not endorse or support primary candidates participating in the party caucus process. It seems that big money still talks louder than the grassroots in the Democratic Party. If that doesn’t change, our current role as the preeminent party nationally and in Colorado will be short lived and the voters will toss us out like yesterday’s newspaper.”

Polly Baca and Ramona Martinez

Baca is a former Colorado state senator (1978-1986), former Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee (1981-1989), served as Special Assistant to the Chair of the Democratic National Committee (1971-1972) and served as a member of the DNC from 1973-1989. Martinez served as a member of the Democratic National Committee for 16 years (1996-2010, Chair and Vice Chair of the DNC Hispanic Caucus (2001-2009) and Secretary of the DNC Women’s Caucus.