As I have done for the previous three years, my 4th of July started  with a  broadcast of the Greeley Stampede Independence Day Parade.    I do with this each year with  George Gray from AM Colorado on 1310 KFKA.   A couple of things struck me…

Did anyone notice that former Greeley Mayor Tom Selders was walking with the Weld County Democrats wearing a Mark Udall t-shirt?   Apparently Selders switched his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat about a month ago acknowledging what the rest of us already knew "” that Selders always has been a Dem.    I 'm sure it 's liberating to come out of the political closet!   He picked a great day to go public "” Independence Day.   However, maybe his prior lack of honesty about his politics is just another reason why he lost the election to current Mayor Ed Clark.

Also,  how did  Congressman and Boulder liberal Mark Udall (D-2nd CD) get his own  entry in the parade?   Udall doesn’t even represent this area.    The Democrat candidate for  US Senate had an entry very early in the parade which guaranteed him TV time along with a seven paragraph puff  piece that was read  by  Channel 9  as it broadcast the parade.   The script on Udall read like a campaign ad except it didn’t say “vote for Mark Udall.”

And where was Republican candidate for US Senate Bob Schaffer?  According to two sources, the 4th Congressional District Representative to the State Board of Education and Vice Chair of the Board was not on the Stampede Parade Committee’s “select group of elected candidates”  invited to have their own entry in the parade.   Even after Schaffer asked to have his own entry, the Stampede said no.   The committee did indicate it would talk with Schaffer after the parade (and after all Udall’s free publicity).     So the elected official that represents this area did not get his own parade entry while the elected official who doesn’t represent this area did.   Hmmm….

Finally, I don’t like that the Stampede refuses to let anyone carry political signs.   It’s insane that on the 4th of July, in the largest parade in Colorado, politicians and participants can’t share political messages such as “vote for me.”   Please can someone encourage the Stampede Committee to read the Declaration of Independence and remember why we celebrate Independence Day.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 7th, 2008 at 9:01 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.