It was Precinct Caucus night throughout Colorado Tuesday night, March 16, 2010. Loyal Democrats in a very liberal North Boulder neighborhood turned out in fairly large numbers at Foothill Elementary School on Hawthorne Ave.

Ours meeting was Precinct 128, convening in a gymnasium bedecked with kids’ artwork. Democracy doesn’t get any more grass-roots than this.

A few of us got to make speeches supporting our candidates of choice in the Democratic Senatorial primary race.  
 

The caucus I attended voted 20-11 in favor of incumbent Sen. Michael Bennet over challenger Andrew Romanoff. I was surprised; this was the same Precinct that had gone for Dennis Kucinich over Al Gore in such a straw pole in 2004. Worries. Is my neighborhood getting more centrist?

As we broke up for the evening, Barry Satlow dropped in from the next room to report that his caucus had gone the other way, 14 for Romanoff to eight for Bennet.

When the straw vote about the contested Senatorial contest concluded, supporters of each candidate gathered in groups to select people to represent them at upcoming County and State Conventions. In our Precinct, we had to do some begging to come up with people willing to give up what may well be two very pretty spring days.

Toward midnight, Denver Post reporter Curtis Hubbard tweeted to the website ColoradoPols.com that Romanoff appeared to be outpolling Bennet statewide. Latest “if the election were held today” polls also had Romanoff leading Jane Norton, the apparent Republican nominee, by 4 percent while Bennet was in a dead heat with Norton, despite heavy spending on mailings and robocalls and a visit to Colorado on his behalf by President Obama himself.