How Important Is 2008?

Yesterday the U. S. Supreme Court upheld the Colorado Congressional districts drawn by a judge after the State Legislature was unable to redistrict before the 2002 elections. Had there been a clear Republican majority in 2002, it's doubtful that we would have sent as many Democratic representatives to the U. S. Congress or to the State House as we have. The Republicans again tried to gerrymander the state in 2003, the resulting map was thrown out in subsequent court trials leading up to the Supreme Court's decision, finally putting the matter to rest in 2007.

There are those who believe that 2008 will be a slam-dunk. I'd love to think so but in 2006 we didn't get Matt Bryant elected despite the national anti-Republican trend. We can't afford to lose any opportunity to equate Republicans at all levels with George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Ann Coulter, to equate their rule with lust for power and incompetence in its exercise, to point out that it was twelve years of Republican budgets that led to Walter Reed and the inability to respond to natural disasters. They wanted a Government that could be drowned in a bath tub. Instead, it drowned in New Orleans.

In three years we will be once again redrawing Colorado's political map. It is imperative that a Democratic majority do so. That is the importance of 2008, to build on our majority and to paint the State blue.