After a lot of raucous to-and-fro about process, the La Plata County Democrats forwarded enough committed delegates to the 6th Judicial District Assembly to put both district attorney candidates, Christian Champagne and Ben Lammons, on the June primary ballot.
The 6th Judicial District Assembly took place Saturday afternoon, with 48 delegates from La Plata County, six from Archuleta County and two representing San Juan County, so what happened at the Democrats’ County Assembly Saturday morning decided the afternoon vote. The final vote was 36 for Champagne, 19 for Lammons. The magic number – 30 percent of the delegates – was 17 to make the ballot, said Jean Walter, chairwoman of the La Plata County Democrats, who was assisting at the afternoon assembly.
The situation became complicated after the caucuses on March 1. “We were victims of our own success,” Walter said at the county assembly. “Nobody said, ‘Let’s have three times the number of people at the caucuses than we expected.’ No one said once the presidential delegates were selected, everyone would leave the room before selecting the district attorney delegates. Nobody said half the caucuses would not select DA delegates.”
Several people Saturday morning said all the Democrats in the county should get to select the Democratic candidate, not just the approximately 150 people in the room.
“I totally respect both these gentlemen, and I’m sorry they got caught in this quandary,” said former Durango Mayor Leigh Meigs, who works as an attorney and counselor. “We’re all about fairness, and I think it’s only right to put both forth 50/50.”
While that motion went down, the end result was the same.
Both assemblies heard from the candidates and several of their supporters. They had marshalled well-known Democrats to their camps.
“There’s so much more to the office than being a trial lawyer,” said Bonnie Schmidt Cabrera, a former prosecutor who spoke for Champagne, the current deputy district attorney. “It’s a specific set of skills and qualities. They’re the face of that office to the community and to the media, they handle personnel issues, set policies and manage a budget of $2.2 million. Christian Champagne is not going to have a learning curve.”
District Attorney Todd Risberg spoke about Champagne’s accomplishments at the afternoon assembly. He attempted to dissuade delegates at the 6th Judicial District Assembly from forwarding both candidates to the primary ballot, saying a primary can be destructive to a candidate’s reputation and finances in the general election. At this time, however, there is not a Republican candidate declared for the office, according to Colorado secretary of state records, so the primary is likely to be, for all intents and purposes, the election for district attorney.
Attorney Steven Boos spoke for Lammons, the Southern Ute tribal prosecutor, in both sessions.
“It’s a credit to the Democratic party to have two really good candidates here,” he said in the morning, but he was angered by what Risberg said about Lammons only working in the Southern Ute Tribal Court in the afternoon. “A couple of things that were said here made my blood boil. You can’t say you’re running a positive campaign and then trash the other candidate, as Christian Champagne did. And tribal courts are not bush league. They are run in exactly the same manner as state courts and handle the same serious crimes.”
They were not the only candidates on the La Plata County Democrats’ agenda Saturday morning.
Durango Mayor Dean Brookie read a letter from Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet asking for support, and the delegates were selected to go to the state convention for both the Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton campaigns. Sanders received 30 delegates and Clinton received 18.
Delegates spoke passionately about their choices before the vote.
“I encourage delegates to look at the votes she made instead of listening to all the attacks before deciding,” said Michal Rosenoer on behalf of Clinton. “The Republicans are destroying each other and will end up with Trump. I know a lot of people who have said if Bernie doesn’t win, they’re not voting. That’s dangerous and dumb – that’s how we end up with President Trump.”
Sanders had several supporters, including 18-year-old first-time voter Justin Johnson, who made an appeal for Sanders based on his stand for the environment. “I was an independent, and I changed to Democrat to be here and support Sanders,” said Root Routledge.
Paul Senecal thought the party would do well either way, but he had a suggestion.
“I think both are excellent, and I would vote for either,” he said. “We’re at a tip. Every four years, we trade off one male after another. We’ve never had a woman, and they think differently. I think we need that. History is knocking on our door. Will you answer?”
Barbara McLachlan, the Democratic candidate for the 59th Colorado House seat currently held by J. Paul Brown, who is running for re-election, got her chance to address the group.
“I don’t need to give a long speech. I just need to say I’m running against J. Paul,” she said. “He said I’m really liberal, and I’m a teacher, like that’s a bad thing. As I’ve been talking to people, I’ve realized there are often five sides to an issue, not one right and one wrong. For the most part, we just need more civil conversation to find what we have in common.”
La Plata County Commissioners Julie Westendorff and Gwen Lachelt were both unanimously forwarded to the Democratic primary ballot. While neither faces a primary race, two Republicans have challenged them. Kayla Patterson will take on Westendorff, and Lyle McKnight has filed an affidavit and committee to run against Lachelt. The Republican County Assembly, which will be held Monday night, will consider forwarding them to the GOP primary ballot.
The final order of business was approving resolutions to forward to the state convention in Loveland on April 16. While the assembly had run an hour late by that point, the group approved 15 items, including finding a way to overturn or negate the Citizens United v. FEC (Federal Election Commission) ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that allows unlimited spending by corporations and individuals in political expenditures; updating the 1872 mining law; getting rid of the caucus system in Colorado; requiring law enforcement officers to wear body cameras; and repealing the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.
Lachelt sent the Democrats off with a charge.
“We need you all to elect a Democrat to the White House and send Barbara McLachlan to the statehouse,” she said, “and to re-elect Bennet to the Senate and Westendorff and Lachelt to the county commission,” she said.
abutler@durangoherald.com
