Pat Waak on the DNC and this year's novel campaign

July 28, 1:23 PMDenver People ExaminerErnie Tucker

Previous Next

Comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Denver People Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Pat Waak, Colorado Dem chair

     Colorado Democratic Party chair Pat Waak isn’t likely to go around chanting “We’re number 3! We’re number 3!” But with all the hype surrounding the upcoming Democratic National Convention here, it sometimes seems as if this supposedly purple state is bright blue. Yet Waak, in her second term as head of the party, is a political veteran who can count.  And right now – 100 days from the November general election -- the number of registered Democrats here, some 900,000, lags behind Independents and registered Republicans. No problem.
    “Our voter registration drive is going well,” Waak observes. “I’m hopeful we’ll get to 1 million by the election.”
    So far, the party bosses seem pleased. Waak says Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean called her after the 2006 elections. “He liked what’s happening here,” she says, following the election of Gov. Bill Ritter, Ed Perlmutter to a Congressional seat along with other Democratic inroads.
    Landing the DNC was also a major boost, she believes.
    “It does energize Democrats in the state,” she says. The resolution of the nomination battle between Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton also eased her position as an undeclared superdelegate. Waak had joked that she was hearing from people she didn’t know who urged her to declare for one or the other despite her stance of neutrality.
    Now things are moving rapidly. Despite a recent article suggesting that the Obama organization could be hurting statewide efforts in Colorado by running its own campaign, Waak says that’s not the case.
    “We are working together. I am going over to look at my office today. Both Brendan McGuire, the Forward Colorado (coordinated campaign director for the state Democrats), and I will be spending part of each day in the same headquarters with the [Obama] Campaign for Change.”
    Additionally, she notes that last week, they had “a joint meeting with all the Congressional and Senate campaigns. It is a new type of campaign.”
    Juggling change seems natural to the Erie resident, a registered nurse who also holds a doctorate in the ministry, and  volunteered with the Peace Corps in Brazil. She spent 17 years with the National Audubon Society, heading the Population and Habitat campaign.
    Her own political career has the same telltale signs. As early as 1976, she was Deputy Campaign Manager for Sargent Shriver’s presidential bid. In the state leadership race, she was first elected in 2005 when she narrowly defeated incumbent party chair Chris Gates. The next time, Waak was re-elected unanimously to a second two year term in March 2007. As she declared at that time “With the Democratic National Convention coming in 2008, and a crucial Senate campaign just over the horizon, it is exciting to be a Colorado Democrat. With this in mind, let us redouble our efforts at recruiting, organizing and strengthening our outreach, so that everyone can be a part of this excitement.”
    As successful as her tenure has appeared, Waak is coy about saying whether she’ll run again for a third term in 2009. For now, Waak is focused on November’s efforts.   
    “It is going to have a reach far beyond anything we have ever done,” she says.