February 05, 2010 02:32 AM UTC

Is President Obama breaking Colorado Dem party rules?

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• by: peacemonger

Just when you thought this Senate Race couldn’t get any wackier, a Romanoff zealot sent this to an email list of more than 475 people.

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President Obama’s visit to Colorado on February 17th has the appearance of violating our Colorado Democratic Party rules.

Here is the relevant rule:

C. Party Endorsements.

The use of the word “Democratic” shall not be used in any endorsement of any candidate or issue in an election without permission, in, writing, from the State Chair. The various statewide organizations using the party name shall not make a public endorsement of a candidate or issue in any election giving the impression that the Democratic Party is the endorsing organization.  The endorsement of a candidate(s) in a partisan or nonpartisan election by any official organization, i.e. County, Representative or Senate Central Committee, using the Democratic Party name shall not occur, including the endorsement of one Democratic candidate over another, except through the action of a Central Committee or in accordance with the official nomination and assembly procedures.

If an official Democratic organization provides party information to a Democratic candidate for election, this same information should be made available to other Democratic candidates in the same election.

Any organization that violates this section of the Rules shall be barred from further use of the party name in the name of their organization. Any person responsible for violations under this Section of the Rules shall be barred from holding any party office for a period of two years from the date of the violation.  

(Bolding of critical portions added.)

This is a very important rule as indicated by the significant punishment for violation.   Violations of this rule by past chairs has led to their replacement.   As a former county chair, I know that the county chairs work hard to maintain the even handed treatement of primary campaigns that is clearly required under this rule.

Our national Democratic Party and state Democratic Party leaders need to abide by the letter and spirit of this rule.

Okay, politicos, have at it.