A bunch of FCKers got together and fun ensued. On Saturday, November 8th, 2014, the Four Corners Kossacks met to have a beverage or two, lament our electoral losses, cheer our wins, get updates on races still ongoing, listen to past local election history, learn more about each other, and plot our future strategies.
The Meet-up began with a quintessential Durango scene. At 3:01pm, nzanne wandered back out to the street to see if anyone else was going to show up. As soon as she reached the sidewalk, she ran into red moon dog, a long time kossack & first time meet-up attendee. While they were exchanging pleasantries & looking for other FCKers, Thinking Fella, who had just parked his muddy truck in front of the brew pub, was not visible behind his truck. This was because directly behind his muddy truck a Volt had parked, and the Fella was being hailed by the driver--Gary Norton. While nzanne & red moon dog looked for them, Gary & Fella exchanged hello's in the street. Another minute later all four found each other, and discussed Durangotangs poor promptness abilities...or great skill at living on Durango Time.
Details below the orange vengeance plotting device.
After we had piled inside, in short order we were joined by Wally W., laid low & on crutches and Jeff H...and then still later, Matt S., Mike McLachlan's campaign manager wandered in from the golf course. We were all set.
We went around the table, and told how a kossack ends up with a user name such as 'red moon dog' (I'm not telling--come to Durango & we'll fill you in, along with giving you the secret FCKer password), or 'nzanne' when one has no discernible New Zealand accent... We talked about how & when we all found Dailykos, and then how it was that we came to be involved in local La Plata County politics. First Place Winner in Storytelling Wally White filled us in on how he went from a dude raising & trucking llamas around the country to two term County Commissioner. Suffice to say, land issues that impact you personally will light a fire under you, even if it smolders for a decade...
Then Matt filled us in on the ongoing ballot counting for CO House Rep in the 59th District. Mike McLachlan, who has not yet conceded, continues to pick up votes as ballots are 'cured' (things such as a voter who failed to sign their ballot is notified & they come in to the County Clerk's Office, sign their ballot, and the vote is then counted) and provisional ballots (such as an overseas military ballot is received & counted.) Overseas military personnel have an additional 10 (?) days for their ballot to be received by the Clerk. Normally, they are counted even being received after the election, but their vote matters little as the election is already decided. NOT IN THIS CASE. Provisional ballots are being used to determine if an official Recount will be performed--a reasonable chance this election! Mike was down by 292 votes at the close of the election on Tuesday night, and 171 vote difference is needed to trigger a recount this time. More votes from outlying areas were added, provisional ballots added, and ballots were cured...and now Mike is within less than 200 votes of a tie, and there are still ~400 votes to count/cure/receive. Mike could still win outright in theory but that is highly unlikely. But maybe--maybe-- there could be a recount. We lamented that the election was apparently going to be decided by a handful of votes, and swore that next election we will work harder still, and see to it that we win by hundreds or a thousand votes! MAN if we had had a few more folks calling, or knocked a few more doors, or, or, or...lamentations all around. And all over a few more votes gotten out. Grrr. Also, we learned that the numbers & ID's on voters were coming in--apparently, the under 30 crowd voted somewhere in the 17% range. Grrr. We discussed the candidates who won & why...as well as the candidate who lost & why (vowed it won't happen that way again!). We kicked around ideas on how to shake up our local Dem party, and who could be tapped as future candidates.
So, we recapped...then looked forward, while keeping an eye on the ongoing counting of ballots from last Tuesday. Our metaphorical plates were full!
Through all the talk, we did our best to sample the fine brews at the Carver Brewing CO., mostly enjoying Belgian style brews, the ones with alcohol contents 6% or higher. Although truth be told, some had some fine Rocky Mountain spring water, and another had distilled Kentucky (!@#%&#!!) water with additives (and Coke...) (No, wait--DIET Coke, I stand corrected). :D
Here's a fine crowd of kossacks--the mighty FCKers known as Four Corners Kossacks:
From left to right: Thinking Fella in mourning black; Matt S., McLachlan campaign manager fresh off the links; Kossacks red moon dog (turns out he isn't really a dog!); nzanne, Durango's own political Dynamo; and Gary Norton, Dkos diarist extraordinaire; termed-out former La Plata County Commissioner and long-time Dailykos lurker Wally White; and lurker & Fella's 'neighbor' in the middle of nowhere/shepherd of miniature donkeys, Jeff H. We worked Wally & Jeff pretty hard to join Dkos, and are expecting them to join very soon--RIGHT BOYS??
New friends, kossacks, fresh beer, local political history, future political plans--all of it was there. Hope next time you'll be there too!
This diary wouldn't be complete without a hat tip to our own Dailykos Diva, navajo. Without her prodding & assistance, the Four Corners Kossacks group wouldn't exist. And without her technical assistance, this diary & the picture contained herein would still be floating in the ether. Thank you, navajo!