Polis Late For A (Kind Of) Important Date

A funny thing happened to Jared Polis on the way to the Grand County Democratic Party Assembly on Tuesday.

Except the CD-2 candidate wasn't laughing.

He arrived about an hour late to the assembly in Granby only to find that the CD-2 delegate vote had already been taken. Polis had won zero delegates.

Polis arrived late to the 7 p.m. assembly, his spokesperson Dayna Hanson said, because a campaign staffer had mistakenly told him the assembly was in Grand Lake, about 30 minutes away from Granby.

In his absence, the assembly had waived holding a straw poll and had voted on the CD-2 race. Former state Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald received 29 votes, giving her 13.5 delegates; the remaining 4.5 delegates (9 votes worth) were undecided. Polis failed to make the 15 percent threshold, garnering four votes, or 11 percent.

Polis had sent no advance people to put up signs or give prepared speeches on his behalf. Before the delegate vote, only one attendee gave an impromptu speech in support of Polis, said Grand County Assembly delegate Catherine Ross who ran the assembly.

When Polis showed up, assembly leaders allowed him to give a short speech. Polis then tried to make a point of order from the audience that a straw poll be held but that request was denied, Hanson said.

All agreed that Polis' late arrival threw the meeting into turmoil.

"At that point the meeting that had been flowing pretty nicely was kind of disrupted at that point," Ross said. "Some people felt like he wasn't being treated fairly."

Matt Moseley, a spokesperson for Polis primary opponent Joan Fitz-Gerald, said Polis acted rudely to the assembly in making his demands.

"He was literally out of control," Moseley, who was at the meeting, said. "It was very, very disrespectful."

But both Ross - who supports Fitz-Gerald - and the Polis campaign disagreed with that characterization, though Ross said "obviously he was in a hard situation."

"Anybody who knows Jared knows that he is most positive individual you will ever meet, and he does not get ‘out of control,'" Hanson said.

Ross said the turmoil was unwarranted, especially considering Grand County only chooses 18 of the 872 CD-2 delegates.

"For me some of my frustration is we're getting throwed down in things that really aren't going to make any difference for (Polis) at the CD-2 assembly," Ross said.

Conducting a straw poll would have made little difference anyway, Ross said, as most people at the assembly had already made up their minds on who to support.

"Had we straw-polled and voted, there could have been a couple undecideds, but other than that, I don't think there would have been a lot of change," she said.

The Polis campaign is now trying to convince the Colorado Democratic Party to let the four Polis voters at the assembly switch to the undecided camp. State Democratic Party Chair Pat Waak said she referred Polis manager Wanda James to party political director Bill Compton.

Compton did not immediately return a phone message Friday.

Hanson said the whole episode was a "frustrating experience."

"It won't happen again," she said.