Historic turnout at El Paso Democratic assembly

Kickass turnout will instill the fear of God into Republicans that don't already have it:

El Paso County Democrats have joked that they live in the belly of the beast, a light-hearted take on being liberal in one of the most conservative counties in the state.

So even they seemed surprised to see about 2,000 of their own at Saturday’s county assembly at Palmer High School, most of them firsttime delegates and alternates.

The political regulars relished the packed classrooms full of alternates, who sat in student desks waiting to hear if they would be called to fill vacancies — an unlikely occurrence with delegates in a standing-room-only auditorium.

Delegates chosen at the assembly will go on to represent El Paso County at the state and national Democratic conventions. Registration was pushed back an hour and a half to 10:30 a.m. to accommodate lines of people stretching a couple of hundred feet from the doors to the street corner.

“It would be vacant, and we’d be halfway through business (in a normal year),” said Karen Teja, a party regular who was helping serve bagels and coffee to shivering participants. This year, though, caucuses with normally just a few people ended up with dozens.

Rep. Michael Merrifield, D-Manitou Springs, joked in a speech that when he saw the crowd outside as he drove by he thought he must have confused the location. Later he drew cheers when he said, “We’re going to have to move our assemblies to the World Arena!”

The turnout was characterized as “historic” by local party chairman John Morris, and he was hopeful that the day might bring candidates to run in even normally unopposed local races.

He said more than 8,000 people showed up at caucuses on Super Tuesday on Feb. 5.