Denver Democrats honored party stalwarts and vowed to redouble efforts to turn out the vote — just days before mail ballots were set to go out — at the party’s sixth annual Edward M. Kennedy Dinner on Saturday night at the downtown Marriott.

With major races for the U.S. Senate, governorship and control of the state Senate up for grabs, officials again and again reminded party workers that they hold the direction of the state in their hands if they’re able to run up the totals and persuade voters to keep checking boxes down the ticket.

“All of us know that Democrats in Colorado win when Denver voters go out and vote,” said U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette. “It’s as simple as that.”

After telling the crowd of roughly 250 that she and her husband, attorney Lino Lipinsky, had recently celebrated their 30th anniversary — they squeezed in a ceremony between the primary and general election when she was volunteering on her first campaign — the dean of Colorado’s congressional delegation said that the 2014 election is shaping up to be the tightest in memory, an observation bolstered by public polling.

“In all of my 30-plus years as a Denver Democrat, I have never seen it as unbelievably close,” DeGette said, adding that it’s a national headwind facing Colorado Democrats, who have won every top-of-the-ticket race in the state since 2006.

But it’s also the first time the state is mailing ballots to every registered voter, she added. “This benefits us. This is what we do as Democrats — we do (get out the vote), we do field. We find all of our people and we turn those ballots in,” she said.

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock began his remarks by talking about the elephant in the room, so to speak.

“If you would read the tea leaves, we kind of have the air sucked out of us,” he said, referencing the Denver Post’s endorsement of Republican U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner over Democratic incumbent U.S. Sen. Mark Udall. “Let me say clearly that the Post endorsed my opponent twice in my race and never endorsed (former three-term Denver Mayor) Wellington Webb, as far as I know.” (DeGette made a similar point, noting that the Post endorsed her Republican opponent when she first won her seat in Congress.)

“But here’s the reality,” Hancock continued. “The closeness of these races — the U.S. Senate race, (former House Speaker Andrew) Romanoff’s race in District 6, even the secretary of state’s race and the attorney general’s race — the closeness of these races plays right into the hands of the Democratic Party, because we know ground games, we know hand-to-hand combat.”

Calling the neck-and-neck race to the finish on Election Day, barely three weeks in the future, the stuff of a Hollywood movie, Hancock said it was the kind of tight situation where Democrats show their mettle.

“This is a set-up for a come-back,” he said. “This is where Democrats win. I’m not at all — I hope you’re not at all — discouraged by what we’re seeing. I hope it inspires the true Democrat in you to stand up and say, this is where we win our races.”

Nearly every table at the dinner featured elected Democrats, including former U.S. Rep. Betsy Markey — a candidate this year for state treasurer — Denver City Councilwoman Susan Shepherd, Denver Public Schools director Michael Johnson, RTD directors Tom Tobiassen and Claudia Folska, Senate President Morgan Carroll, state Sens. Irene Aguilar, Lucia Guzman, Jeanne Nicholson, Pat Steadman, Michael Johnston, House Speaker Mark Ferrandino, state Reps. Angela Williams, Beth McCann, Crisanta Duran, Dan Pabon, Jeanne Labuda, Lois Court, Paul Rosenthal, and CU Regents Michael Carrigan and Joe Neguse, the Democratic nominee for secretary of state.

The term-limited Ferrandino sounded a sanguine note as he reflected on his waning days wielding the gavel.

“You know you’re term-limited in the Legislature when the governor introduces you as the former speaker,” he said. “Still the speaker,” Ferrandino said with a grin. “You know you’re term-limited in the Legislature when the person that’s replacing you gets the Rising Star award. And you know you’re term-limited in the Legislature when you’re given five minutes to speak and the sitting and continuing Senate president is given 20 minutes, and it’s your home county.”

Declaring that “these elections have huge consequences,” he pointed out that his parents had traveled from New York and sat in the House chamber when he was sworn in as speaker, that they were there when he entered into a civil union with his partner on the House balcony, and that they’ll be there when he gets married to his partner, Greg Wertsch.

In her keynote address, Carroll noted that this year’s election marks a decade since Democrats shocked state politicos by taking the majorities in both chambers of the Legislature and warned that Democrats are in danger of losing the one-vote majority the party holds in the Senate.

“Whether or not we emerge victorious with opportunities to keep moving this state forward or whether we lose all the progress we have made depends on what we do between now and Election Day,” she said.

“It makes a difference,” Carroll said, ticking off a lengthy list of Democratic legislative accomplishments, including civil unions, a rebounding economy and a substantial reduction in the number of uninsured Coloradans. The Senate, she continued, is one vote away from criminalizing abortion and subjecting women who have miscarriages to investigations, part of a litany she sounded of Republican proposals that have been introduced in recent years. Also included in the list: privatizing public lands and “selling them off to the highest bidder for oil and gas development,” repealing environmental regulations, privatizing state prisons, turning Colorado into a right-to-work state, repealing any criminal background checks on gun purchases and gutting consumer protection rules.

“Our work has just begun,” Carroll said, emphasizing that the work Denver Democrats do turning out the vote “makes a difference — you make a difference.”

Denver Democrats handed out awards to four of their own: Williams was named Democrat of the Year, House District 8 captain Aaron Goldhamer was named Volunteer of the Year, House District 2 nominee Alec Garnett got the Rising Star award, and House District 1 captain Margaret Atencio won the Lifetime Achievement award.

Accepting her award — named after Dale Tooley, the long-time district attorney — Williams said that the party’s values were paramount.

“It’s not just an award but a charge to continue the mantle and promoting the most important Democratic values — fighting for equality, fighting for compassion, fighting for justice and fighting for our community,” she said. “We help those who are underserved and the disadvantaged… We fight for equal rights and we fight for civil rights,” she said, drawing cheers a moment later when she praised that week’s Supreme Court decisions that paved the way for clerks to start issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in Colorado.

Atencio, called “the indefatigable, the knower of all things Democratic Party” by Denver Democratic Chairman Ed Hall, was handed her award by the man the award is named after, Frank Sullivan.

“I need to be a squeaky wheel. Always,” Atencio said. “People tell you, don’t make waves, but they forget, the moon makes waves.”Goldhamer, noting that his award was named for one-time state Rep. Selma Locke — whose storied biography included fleeing the Nazis, fighting for democracy in Israel and pioneering work in women’s health in Colorado — said that Locke worked for “the core Democratic values: social justice, fairness, empowering the average person and standing up for those who need help.”

Gazing at the crowd, he said, “We have a room full of heroes tonight… We do face down the forces of bigotry, sexism and prejudice. We are in a battle of ideas against the small-minded, the selfish and the moneyed interests who oppose social progress. But through your heroic volunteerism, on Nov. 4, we are going to celebrate the election and reelection of Democrats up and down the ballot.”

— Ernest@coloradostatesman.com

See the October 17 print edition for full photo coverage.