The Bluing of a Red State?

Here are some recent poll numbers from a Denver Post Online Straw Poll as of 4:37 PM MST
n=3578.

[Note: Keep updated with timely news at Virtual Vantage Points, and follow "SuperTuesday"on Twitter.]
[Please keep these three points in mind about the Colorado caucuses:
1. The only Coloradoans who have voted yet are overseas.
2. Colorado has a closed-caucus, meaning that only registered party members (of at least two months prior to Feb 5th) may vote in the caucus.
3. Colorado's Democratic delegates will be proportionally allocated. All of Colorado's Republican delegates will go to a single candidate (winner-take-all).]

Who is your pick for president?

Barack Obama
1110 Votes, or 31.02 %

Hillary Clinton
935 Votes, or 26.13 %

Mitt Romney
779 Votes, or 21.77 %

John McCain
365 Votes, or 10.20 %

None of the above
274 Votes, or 7.657 %

Not caucusing
115 Votes, or 3.214 %

The Calm Before the Storm? (or vice versa?)

It does not appear as though a fast-moving winter storm that rolled through Colorado's front range last night will have any sort of significant impact on voter turnout for this evening's presidential caucuses, at least here in CO. The state is expected to continue churning toward the upper midwest, potentially bringing However, this storm is just the latest of several for communities across the four-corners region. In Chama, New Mexico where 33 inches has fallen since Saturday, Gov. Bill Richardson has called in National Guard support to help clear the snow-blocked roadways and assist stranded residents with collapsed roofs.

Above the city of Fort Collins, we only got about 5-6 inches of the dry, fluffy powder, but parts of the Denver foothills were hit with up to 9 inches. The storm is still expected to bring some snow and heavy winds to parts of Colorado's eastern plains, generally considered a conservative Republican stronghold.

Turnout is expected to be high across most parts of the state. Colorado is one of several states that moved up its party primary elections to increase voter turnout and attract more candidate attention. Republican and Democratic officials are both predicting record-turnouts for tonight's caucus. Yet, I must wait.

And as tough as it is for me to do so, I basically need to sit on my hands until about 6pm (MST) when I will head about two miles down the road to my tiny little caucusing location in Masonville, CO (pictured above). The official proceedings at my local precinct will not start until 7pm (though the micropolitics are scheduled to commence around 6-ish when my neighbors are stopping by for a beer before we head up the road).

Keep updated with timely news at Virtual Vantage Points, and follow "SuperTuesday"on Twitter.


Denver Post
Rocky Mountain News
Photo: Tim Hurst

Happy Birthday to Green Options Media

As busy as I was with all of the caucusing and primaries going on today, it nearly slipped my mind that my friends at Green Options have just turned one year old today. So, go pay them a visit and read any of the birthday retrospectives written by some of GO's best.

Hardly newbies to the green blogosphere, the founders of Green Options have built their 'flagship' sustainablog, which was written and managed by Jeff McIntire-Strasburg since 2003 before he opened it up to a broader collection of voices in 2007. GO assembled a solid group of experts, pundits and writers (including yours truly) to launch several green blogs including ones on green building, green entrepreneurship, environmental news and activism, green cars and renewable fuels, and green crafts, just to name a few. There are several more websites that are in the design phase and I would hate to spoil the surprise as to what they are about, but you will be seeing them very soon.

Once again, I want to thank the GO community for letting me contribute to their new green blog playground, and I wish them nothing but continued success.

Giga Tuesday: Live-Blogging the Live-Bloggers

This weekend I was contacted by David Wescott at It's Not a Lecture to participate in a project he and others are working on for Giga Tuesday. Essentially, David and others will be 'live-blogging the live-bloggers' at all day long and well into the night at Virtual Vantage Points. In addition to the team of analysts and blog-monitors he is working with at Virtual Vantage Points, Wescott also recommends that you follow along "SuperTuesday"on Twitter.

Instead of merely following the ubiquitous and mundane exit polls and incomplete returns, Wescott et al are taking punditry to a whole new level. Wescott writes:

"I'm going to look at how communities you wouldn't necessarily think of as inherently political discuss the primary and if they use their blogs or networks to get more involved. I'm particularly interested in the environmental community, which I haven't heard much about in the debates or from mainstream media. I'll be looking at them over the course of the evening and passing along any nuggets of wisdom I find. I'm also going to compare and contrast the discussions from political bloggers in different states, to see if national issues are truly the driving topics or if there are state-based issues playing a leading role."

Cool, huh? Wescott plans on focusing on the environmental community and their take on today's election returns.

The party has already begun at Virtual Vantage Points and at SuperTuesday on Twitter, so be sure to stop in for this first-of-its-kind event. And if you can vote today. Please vote and tell your friends to vote (be sure to thank a pollworker).If you are still undecided and need some last minute help, Jason Phillip has put together some very useful links at Sustainablog that will help you green your vote.

Thanks. And be sure to check back throughout the day for updates at ecopolitology, Virtual Vantage Points and at SuperTuesday on Twitter.

Greening-the-Vote Scorecard from EnviroWonk

For those of you wanting to put some green into your voting calculus for tomorrow's largest-ever day of caucuses and primaries (aka: Giga Tuesday), a couple of new crib-sheets appeared around the green blogsophere. Envirowonk, the new spinoff blog from the stalwart EcoGeek, was just launched last week and, so far it has been putting together some good, insightful posts. Additionally, The Good Human has put together the enviro platforms for Obama and Clinton. Read up. And if you can vote tomorrow, DO IT AND TELL YOUR FRIENDS TO DO IT!

Obama and Clinton Get Wonky w/o Any Ecopolicy

Last night's Democratic debate was certainly for the wonkish at heart. I found both of the candidates were rather sharp with the enunciation of their platforms, citing numbers, facts, figures, etc. They were not sharp, however, with the enunciation of their environmental policies. Their wasn't a single question asked of the two candidates about energy and/or environmental policy in throughout the whole thing. How could this be, especially in the all-things-eco Los Angeles, California? This is another in a series of debates sponsored by the coalition, Americans for Balanced Energy Choices. And of all the questions asked in the four debates, not a single one has addressed the politics of climate change. Last night, Mrs. Clinton briefly uttered the words "climate change", but only while paying tribute to John Edwards and thanking him for the issues he had fought for during his campaign.
Noteworthy quips from the debate:

“It did take a Clinton to clean up after the first Bush, and I think it will take a Clinton to clean up after the second.” -Clinton

“I was friends with Hillary Clinton before, I will be friends after” -Obama

“We HAVE a president who basically ran as the ‘CEO-MBA President’ and I am not too happy with the results.” -Clinton

“You can tell just by looking at us - you can tell we are not more of the same.” - [I'll let you imagine who said this one]