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The election cycle is plugging along at what feels like a rapid pace. State convention and assemblies are already only a month away. The Republican state convention will be taking place on Saturday May 31st, 2008 starting at 7:00 am for credentialing followed by the 9:00 am assembly. It is being held at the Broomfield Events Center in Broomfield Colorado. Click here for more information on the GOP. The Democratic state convention will begin with a day of events on Friday May 16th starting at 8:30 am. Saturday credentialing begins at 7:00 am with the convention convening at 10:00 am at the World Arena in Colorado Springs. To see the Democratic itinerary click here.

So, you want to be a delegate?
In order to be eligible to place your name into nomination at the upcoming Colorado State Conventions and Assemblies in May, and serve as a delegate or alternate delegate from Colorado to the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul Minnesota on September 1st-4th, 2008 or as a delegate from Colorado to the Democratic National Convention here in Denver on August 25th -28th 2008, you must meet the following eligibility requirements:
(Depending on the convention you wish to attend) you must be a registered Republican or Democratic elector;

• you must be a resident of the precinct for thirty days prior to the precinct caucuses (i.e. resident of the precinct on or before Monday, January 7, 2008 or December 23, 2007);
• you must be affiliated with the Republican or Democratic Party for at least two months prior to the precinct caucuses, or attained the age of eighteen years or become a naturalized citizen during the two months immediately preceding the precinct caucus (i.e. affiliated with the Republican or Democratic Party on or before Wednesday, December 5, 2007);
• you must be a delegate or alternate delegate to the Colorado Republican or Democratic State Assembly/Convention, and must not have moved from the county from which you were elected since the time of election;
• you must file a properly completed nomination form and statement of intent to run with the Chairman of the State Central Committee which must be received at State Party Headquarters no later than the close of business 10 days prior to the State Assembly/Convention or in 10 days prior to the Congressional District Assembly; and
• in addition, candidates for national delegate are strongly encouraged, but are not required, to identify honestly and in good faith the presidential candidate they are supporting, and the ballot for national delegates shall include the presidential preference of each candidate.

Get ready, before you know it the Primary and General Elections will be here and many new faces will take office across Colorado and in the White House. Enjoy the 2008 process!

Big plans are being finalized for both parties regarding National Conventions. Minneapolis-St. Paul Minnesota will be home from September 1st-4th for the Republicans and Denver, Colorado will be hosting the Democrats on August 25th-28th.

Right now it is estimated that both cities will see a massive increase of people during these days. The Republican Party is expecting 45,000 delegates, alternate delegates, party officials, volunteers, members of the media and guests to swarm Minneapolis-St. Paul. Denver is expected to see 35,000 people directly tied into the Democratic Party wandering streets, filling the Pepsi Center, and attending conferences throughout the city.

The Republican Convention Co-Chairs Jo Ann Davidson, chairwoman of the Committee on Arrangement's (COA) and Maria Cino, COA president and CEO have been working to set the stage for the roughly 2,380 delegates and 2,230 alternate delegates come September. The convention will be the final step in nominating the Republican Party's Presidential and Vice Presidential candidate for the November 2008 election. In addition, the delegates will be participating in various convention settings and participating on committees like the resolutions "Platform Committee", credentials committee or the rules committee. Both conventions are taking on a "green" approach. The Republican Party demonstrating this by adding flex-fuel and hybrid vehicles to the fleet of vehicles used, they have developed a paperless system to recruit and register the volunteers (approximately 8,000 of them), and they are focusing on using the internet as opposed to physical travel. The event is even being held at the Xcel Energy center and staff is working on ways to reduce the impact of electricity in regards to this convention. To research more information on the GOP convention please click here.
The Democrats will meet one week earlier to select the highly anticipated and challenged Democratic nomination for President and Vice President as well as participate in the different committee processes. Democratic Convention chair Nancy Pelosi, has unveiled an environmental challenge to the delegates. Delegates are attempting to create the most environmentally-sustainable convention in history. A prize will be awarded to the delegation with the most members offsetting their carbon production. Along with the challenge to the delegates, many areas of the processes have been placed online to save the paper needed for printing. The DNC is also maintaining an entire fleet of fuel-efficient and alternative fuel vehicles. A recycling effort has been placed to divert 85% of waste from the landfill. Click here to view more on the Denver DNC. Service days have also been implemented into the DNC in order to serve the host community.

With the Presidential election approaching, these cities are preparing. Go to your Party's website to find out how to get involved.

For the past 4 days the Republican National Committee Chairperson's have been meeting and discussing national issues and concerns. One of the major topics this year was the discussion on changing the rules for the 2012 Presidential Nomination process. During the conference, there were 4 possible options proposed to "fix" the outcome of this year's early primary calendar violators. (Click here to read in detail the different plans proposed) New Hampshire, South Carolina, Michigan, Florida and Wyoming all received a punishment for violating party rules and were stripped of half of their delegates to the National Convention for holding their primaries prematurely. On the Democratic side, Florida and Michigan were denied all delegates to the National Convention here in Denver as a punishment for the same early primary violation.

The RNC Rules Committee approved a new plan in a 20-12 vote. The entire Republican National Committee will consider the proposal in Minnesota at the August convention. The plan is called the "Ohio" Plan. It sets up a calendar based on regions of small-populated states and U.S. territories with similar allocations of electors that would be allowed to hold their primaries first during an election year.

The order in states would be rotated every four years but the smaller states would always be first. Iowa and New Hampshire would start the whole process off February 1st followed by South Carolina and Nevada. This was determined to hopefully lead a greater geographical diversity to the early-voting states.

The next group of 20 small states would then begin their nominating contests during the third full week in February. The smaller states/territories will be followed by the first group of medium-large states beginning sometime in the first full week of March. The next group would consist of the larger states convening at the end of March, and finally the process would end with the largest states waiting until April.

This plan was developed by Ohio GOP Chairman Robert Bennett. He said it was important for a new plan to be proposed before things turn into a national primary taking out retail politics and the personal aspect of the primary process. Currenty there is no new proposal on the Democratic side. However, it is early and I'm sure there will be discussion in the future.