Top state Dems say Colorado will decide presidential election

Florida in 2000. Ohio in 2004. Colorado in 2008?

U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Denver) thinks so.

"We're there," Salazar said at a news conference Monday evening. "Colorado is ground-zero in terms of who's going to be the next president of the United States."

And Salazar's not alone. He joined Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb, former Denver Mayor and Clinton cabinet member Federico Pena, and Lt. Gov. Barbara O'Brien in stressing how important Colorado will be in the 2008 presidential race.

The press conference followed a top-level strategy session at the Governor's Mansion about voter identification and turnout efforts in Colorado for Barack Obama's presidential campaign.

The officials met with Obama state director Ray Rivera and U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Wheat Ridge), among others.

Ritter said issues discussed during the meeting included voter demographics and the need to factor in early voting in Colorado - mail-in ballots for the general election are mailed out during the first week of October.

"There has to be a real serious ground game," Ritter said. "And really a campaign that is full swing in September and early October, because of when people start voting."  

Webb, who was a national co-chair of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, pointedly said that Obama and Clinton supporters  during the strategy session were working harmoniously with each other on Obama's behalf.

"If there's one unified theme that's going on here today is that all of us are coming together," Webb said. "We don't want to see another third term of George Bush."

Perlmutter also later told the Associated Press that Democratic leaders agreed that John Kerry's presidential campaign made errors in the 2004 presidential race, such as not touching millions of dollars in campaign funds during the last days of the election.

"We're not going to do that again," Perlmutter told the AP.

Not surprisingly, the Democrats said they were confident that purple Colorado would turn blue in November.

"I think that we are actually looking at a sea change in this state," O'Brien said. "For the first time in my many years of politics, I see young people really inspired and really excited about a presidential candidate and about politics in America."

But Colorado Republican Party Chair Dick Wadhams, speaking with reporters outside the Governor's Mansion gates following the press conference, made a different prediction.

"John McCain will carry Colorado. Bob Schaffer will be the next senator from Colorado. And that's all there is to it," Wadhams said. "It's going to be hard-fought race, but we're going to win."

Wadhams said "energy was the number-one issue" of this election, and he said Democrats are on the wrong side of the issue from Colorado voters.

"Senator McCain and Bob Schaffer want increased domestic drilling. Barack Obama and Boulder liberal Udall do not," Wadhams said.

Both Wadhams and Democrats agreed McCain was wrong when he said last week that the seven-state Colorado River Compact should be "renegotiated."

"He was wrong on that," Wadhams said. "You can't bat 1.000."

Ritter said McCain’s "point of view on opening the Colorado River Compact is very dangerous and could be very harmful to one of the great legacies of our state.

"(For McCain to) say that again on the West Slope, it would be, I think, very helpful to Senator Obama," Ritter said.