August 11, 2010 04:02 AM UTC

Live, from the Heisenberg Effect Ballroom

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• by: Voyageur

In Historic Mile High Station, home of the Michael Bennet Campaign Party, this is Voyageur and his merry band of bloggers.  We’ll bump in and out from time to time this evening and invite fellow polsters to chime in, especially any of you at the HQ of other candidates, and continue our common enterprises growing reputation as where the rubber meets the road … err, where the electrons meet the screen … as we not only report the changing Colorado Political scene but contribute to the evolution of those changes.  

  Welcome to Heisenberg Effect blogging, where the act of observation changes the phenomenon being being observed.  Send me your questions, your comments, your teeming mugs of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, and let’s make this party Rock!

7:33 p.m. Party is starting to Rock.  It’s so noisy I can’t hear anything and the only results I know are from reading Pols.  But from time to time the TV shows numbeer and they are goood for Bennet — and the crowd cheers each of them.  

  Madco and Caroman are here tonight, not in blogging mode but real person mode.  It’s great being a retired journalist because I can sit here at the press table blogging — with a cold beer in my hand.  Sad to report, no PBR here, but Coors will do in a pinch.

  As the night wears on, no big speeches to report (sob) but this crowd is smelling a Bennet victory and loving it.

(News shows an 8 point Bennet lead with 244K votes in.  It’s all over but the shouting but you can be sure there is plenty of that ahead as this night rolls onward.  Crowd starting to chant “Bennet Bennet Bennet”   Makes be damn glad the Dems didn’t nominate Gershwader or whatever the heck his name was.  Don’t even THINK of chanting that!

7:51 P.M.

THE chant is now “Yes, we did!  Yes, we did!”

and in truth, they did just that.

8:04 pm   Andrew just called Michael Bennet, gave a gracious concession and said he would do anything he could to help Michael in the general election.  Kum Bay Ah, Dems, Kum Bay Yah!  

Wade Norris is right after all: Politics is mostly slinging shit one day, then kissing and making up the next.  With the exception of Sharon Hanson and probably Stryker2K, it looks like the other 799,998 Colorado Democrats are joining in common cause to keep Weld County bullshit in Weld County!

8:30pm  Word is that Sharon Hanson showed up dead drunk at Ken Buck headquarters, hiked her skirt, and did a table dance for Buck.  Crowd went wild cheering PUMA!  PUMA!

  This is not confirmed, however, we are checking with usually reliable sources at Square State.

8:31 p.m.  Mark Udall shows up, working the crowd to be cheers.  I can’t make out his words, but face it, you’ve all heard them.  Yeah Team, pull together, beat the foe,

  “Hum tune of “Men of Harlech”

 OK, Udall says he works with Michael every day, he hasn’t been a bystander, he’s been a leader.  He’ll stand up for Colorado.  

8:34 Now, we’re talking din!  Michael has arrived.

]  “Yes we did!  Yes we did!”

 Michael talks.  I can’t hear much except for the squals.

“Just a week ago, the washington insiders started counting us out of this.  …This election is the first time my name has been on a ballot, after traveling 20,000 times to all 64 counties, many ten or twenty times, I know one thing.

 Washington has a lot to learn from Colorado.

  It is full of politicians more concerned with political games than doing the hard work to turn this country around.

  The gap between Washington and what I hear int he town hall meetings accross the state has never been wider.  But there is good news…the country does not end at the Potomac River.  

   I wqant to thank those of you whose blood, sweat and tears won this election…knocking on doors, making phone calls, talking to your friends and neighgbors.  I love you more than I can say.

  Tonight is your victory.  I will work hard to prove myself worthy of your support.  The things that divided us in this campaign are so much smaller than the things that unite us.  Andrew has spent his career working for this state and I look forward to working together to build on the progress we have made.  We will work hard to win the swupport of Democrats, Republicans and independents working on real world solutions.  I look forward to working with John Hickenlooper as our next governor.

   Now, we need (in the Senate) a little less talk and a lot more action.  And it starts right here in Colorado.  I will admit I got just a little tired of seeing all those tv ads…how about you? “YES”

  7:48 pm

  We have the power to change this country, to create better schools, a betteer country…and to tell Washington its time to get to work.

  Coloradans know the stakes are too high in this election for political games.  This november, the choice could not be clearer.  Do we want to return to the failed Washington policies of the past decadesw (boos, NO)

 Do we yield to cynical politics (boos, no)

  Or will we remember our Colorado independence, roll up our sleeves, and get to work>”  clap clap

   I want to thank everyone whose blood sweat and tears for the last year and a half .. walking to knock on doors, making calls, talking to friends and neighbors, to our dedicated staff of volunteers who made this campaign, thank you.

  Big Cheers.

Well, there was more but you get the gist.  Nice outrach to AR supporters, independents and thinking Republicans.  I talked to Michael at the start of this campaign and urged him to run in the primary with his eye on November, to burn no bridges and build for the victory we need in November.  He has done that and with the gracious support of Andrew Romanoff, has taken a long step tonight toward putting this party back together to fight for the values it wants and needs in Washington.  This ends our live blog, good night and good hunting.