Happy New Year Everyone,

I hope you enjoyed the holiday season and that you are enthused about the New Year.  I am optimistic about 2010 and excited to begin the year one step closer to meaningful healthcare reform.  I was pleased to see health insurance reform bills pass both the House and Senate and I would like to thank the members of Colorado’s Congressional Delegation who supported this legislation for their hard work and sacrifice during the 2009 legislative session. I look forward to seeing the two bills reconciled in the New Year.

The DNC is beginning to ramp up for an eventful year in 2010 and I have a number of updates to share with you since the last DNC meeting in September: 

• Governor Tim Kaine, Chairman of the DNC, made a number of appointments at the last meeting that were confirmed by a majority vote of the body.  I would like to congratulate Blanca O’Leary and Sharon Gomez-Bonner for being appointed to Colorado’s DNC delegation. 

• Governor Kaine also made appointments to all of the standing committees.  I was honored to be appointed to the Resolutions Committee along with State Party Chair Pat Waak and new member Blanca O’Leary. 

• In the month of November, I was nominated by the DNC to join a goodwill delegation to Taiwan to learn about their culture, government structure and policy issues.  I joined nine other DNC members from across the country to visit senior government officials for six days as a guest of Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  I have a full summary of this experience on my blog.  If you are interested in learning more the Goodwill Delegation to Taiwan, click here.

• The next DNC Meeting will be February 4^th – 6^th in Washington, D.C.  It appears that we will have a full agenda.  The Change Commission will be delivering its preliminary recommendations to the Rules Committee to reform our primary and caucus system and the use of “super delegates.”  The Change Commission is a thirty-seven member task force appointed by Governor Kaine to examine; 1) changing the window of time when primaries and caucuses may be held, 2) reducing the number of super delegates and 3) improving the caucus system. The commission is co-chaired by Congressman James E. Clyburn of South Carolina and Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri (and includes Colorado DNC Member Debbie Marquez).   

• The Resolutions Committee will be considering a resolution calling for Organizing For America (OFA) to work more closely with the Democratic Party at the state level to support local issues deemed critical by the respective states.

• The DNC has instituted an Incumbent Retention Program to help insure victory in 2010; this will be discussed at the February meeting.  We need to fight very hard to protect our Democratic majorities in Congress during the mid-term elections.  Please take some time to support our elected officials in at-risk districts.  Congresswoman Markey and Congressman Perlmutter fall into this category.  (I also encourage you to support Governor Ritter in his upcoming re-election bid.)

Last, I wanted to encourage each one of you to participate in the upcoming Census.  Tell your friends and neighbors that it will be mailed to their homes by April 1st. ( If you have questions about the 2010 Census or would like to see a copy of the Census survey that will be coming to your home click here.)  It is safe and should be filled out by everyone living in the U.S. – regardless or your citizenship or legal status.  There is no risk for backlash or reprisal based on your participation. An accurate Census count is critical to receiving millions of dollars in federal funds that will be steered towards services like Headstart, infrastructure projects and critical social services.  The Census count also impacts our representation in Congress based on updated population data, and it will drive redistricting of our Congressional and State Legislature Districts.  Seniors, children, minorities, people with disabilities, the homeless, undocumented residents and the GLBT community are historically under counted in the Census.  Please do your part to ensure a complete count of your community.

Anthony E. Graves

Democratic National Committeeman

Serving Colorado