The race for Colorado Democratic Party chair is nearing the home stretch as county parties wrap up reorganization meetings and contenders for the leadership position lob charges at one another.

State chair Rick Palacio, who is seeking a third, two-year term leading the party, came under increased fire this week from his challengers — Denver-based campaign consultant and Colorado Young Democrats officer David Sabados and Trinidad rancher Vic Meyers, who ran for Congress in the 4th District last year — for losses suffered by Democrats in recent elections and how the party treats counties outside the state’s population centers. But Palacio counters that his experience and the state party’s performance in what everyone agrees was a “tough year” are reasons to keep him at the helm.

The contest will be decided by the party’s state central committee in an election on Feb. 28 in Denver.

“I am proud to be a Democrat,” Meyers said at a reorganization meeting of Denver Democrats on Sunday — counties have been picking officers and bonus members to the state central committee, based on the party’s performance in the last two elections, over the past two weeks — and then asked the crowd to repeat the chant.

“Don’t you wish we had done that over the last two years? Imagine if we had,” he continued. If Democrats had been “shouting that from the rooftops,” statewide candidates might have won — including U.S. Sen. Mark Udall, who was defeated by Republican U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner — and the party might not have lost control of the state Senate for the first time in a decade, he said.

“We currently run on a system where we count on trickle-down voting,” Meyers said, where candidates rely on votes for the top of the ticket to carry candidates down the ballot. “It doesn’t work in economics, it doesn’t work in voting,” he said, adding, “We need to build our party from the ground up. Our counties are the backbone of the state, the state isn’t the backbone of the counties.” He vowed to “pull all the counties in the state back into the fold, because, frankly, there’s a lot of them that have been left out in the cold.”

Taking the stage next, Palacio told the Denver Democrats that achieving “an economy that is built for all — not just a select few, but for all” requires keeping the party strong.

He reeled off a list of what he termed “impressive numbers,” saying that Colorado Democrats recruited 11,000 volunteers who put in 41,000 shifts, knocked on 2 million doors, sent out 3 million pieces of mail and made 4 million telephone calls.

“The Democratic Party is strong, contrary to what some people may say,” Palacio continued. “We had a significant loss in Sen. Udall’s race. It wasn’t lost because we didn’t do our job, it was lost because we lost — and the campaign lost — the persuasion argument, which is a terrible thing for us all to admit. But that doesn’t mean that we’re down and out, that doesn’t mean that we need to start over. That means that we need to double down on the hard work that each of us know how to do, because 2016 is a huge year, and we need your help.”

Saying “it’s time to put some Colorado common sense back in the Colorado Democratic Party,” a combative-sounding Sabados acknowledged the numbers cited by Palacio but questioned their impact.

“We met our goals — no, we exceeded our goals,” he said. “We knocked on doors, we made phone calls, while our state party was asleep at the wheel. And that’s why it’s time for a change in leadership.”

While Denver Democrats won most of their in-county elections, Sabados said, “We also took too many losses — every statewide election except the governor, botched recall elections, the majority in the state Senate, nearly the majority in the state House.” Referring to state Sen. Tim Neville, R-Littleton, whose district includes a chunk of southwest Denver, he continued, “Last November, a Republican senator won a seat in Denver! My friends, the barbarians are at the gates. After that record, our state party chair decided to give himself a pay raise. I think it’s time for a change in leadership.”

The mention of Palacio’s pay raise drew a few howls and jeers from the crowd. It’s been a contentious issue since Sabados entered the race last month, saying he was compelled to run when he learned late last year that the chair was making $100,000, a jump from the $75,000 that had been set by a party committee in 2011 when Palacio first took office.

Calling the charges “unfortunate misinformation,” Palacio pushed back in a letter to state central committee members that disputed the premise of his detractors.

Noting that Democrats started paying the chair a salary early in the term of his predecessor, Pat Waak, who served three terms as state chair, Palacio called it a move that was made to “step up our game and create a more professionally functioning state party.”

Palacio wrote, “Contrary to what some are saying I did not ‘give myself’ any pay raises. All compensation issues for staff, including myself, were discussed annually by the state party officers and approved by a majority vote. In addition, each year I have served as chair, the State Executive Committee has overwhelmingly approved every budget. To avoid the spread of misinformation like this in the future, I have proposed an amendment to break out the state party chair’s salary as a separate line item in the budget, and require the Executive Committee to approve any increases during a budget year.”

“I think the state party chair should be paid, and I don’t have an objection to that. I have an objection to the process that was used,” state party secretary Carolyn Boller told The Colorado Statesman this week. She said she wasn’t present at any meetings of the party’s officers — she’s one of five, including the chair, 1st and 2nd vice chairs and the treasurer — where salaries were set and didn’t learn the chair’s salary had been increased until long after the fact.

Former Arapahoe County chair John Buckley — he ended his term on Tuesday after declining to seek another and was replaced by Patricia Shaver — told The Statesman that the way the chair’s salary has been handled is “unacceptable.”

“I don’t think anyone disputes that the chair position ought to be compensated and compensated well, but the lack of transparency has been very disappointing,” said Buckley, who is supporting Sabados in the chair race. “For an organization that is dependent on donors, it needs to have a level of transparency to garner confidence from the donors.”Sabados and Meyers have both said they agree the chair should be paid, although both have also called for a more open process.

Mitch Wright, who chairs the 6th Congressional District for the party and is supporting Sabados, told The Statesman he believes the way Palacio has handled the salary issue is “very questionable.” He added that Palacio’s amendment to break out the chair’s salary in the budget was similar to a rules change Wright has proposed in recent years but that was blocked from consideration by a rules committee in one case and tabled for lack of a quorum in another.

A group of Democratic chairs from 10 Western Slope counties disputed Palacio’s critics in a letter endorsing the incumbent, blasting Sabados for a “divisive and negative” campaign, including what they term the “straw man” attack over the chair’s salary.

Not only has the chair’s salary “been a part of the overall budget that has been overwhelmingly approved by the Colorado Democratic Party Executive Committee,” the county officers wrote, but Palacio’s salary ranks as the “second lowest in the country, for full-time, paid state party chairs.”The letter — signed by the chairs of Archuleta, Eagle, Garfield, Gunnison, Mesa, Montezuma, Montrose, Ouray, Pitkin and San Miguel counties, and Democratic National Committee member Blanca O’Leary, a former Pitkin County chair — further ripped Sabados.

“Democrats across our state are angry because consultants were put in charge of campaigns; yet some are advocating that we put a consultant in charge of our party,” the chairs wrote. “This candidate for chair is not just any consultant, but a consultant who’s built a career attacking Democrats in primary campaigns and who lacks experience in taking on our real opponents: Republicans who are trying to take our beloved state and our country in the wrong direction.”

They also countered arguments made by Sabados and Meyers that far-flung counties have been ignored by state Democrats, praising Palacio for his “outreach and attention.”It’s a point echoed by Catherine Carson, who was re-elected chair of the Routt County Democrats this week.

“It’s time for Democrats to do what we do best and continue to move the state forward,” she told The Statesman. “The state Democratic Party under Rick’s leadership has always been very supportive of us, they’ve always been there for us.” She went on to praise Palacio for enabling remote counties to participate remotely in state party business.

Former Boulder County vice chair Laura Spicer, who won a bonus-member seat on the state central committee at last week’s reorganization, said she’s supporting Meyers because he’s “in tune with the counties.” She lamented that the Udall campaign seemed to be run by out-of-state operatives who didn’t grasp what was happening on the ground and added, “I’m looking for a chair that faces Colorado, not Washington.”

Noting that Meyers won most of the straw polls conducted at the county’s house district elections for bonus members, she said, “The reason I like Vic is he’s run for a national-level office, he has rural experience and he’s worked within Boulder County. He seems to have an awareness of the 64-county strategy, and that’s been missing. I’d like to see more of that.”

Mary Robertson, a co-vice chair of the Eagle County Democrats, said she’s supporting Sabados, calling him “inspirational,” with the potential to “bring the next generation of Democrats into the party.”

“It would be good to have some new blood in the party,” she added. “David’s really concerned about the people that aren’t spoken for and don’t feel they have any voice.”

A number of the state party’s initiatives — groups devoted to particular constituencies — are sponsoring a forum for the chair candidates at 2 p.m. on Feb. 22 at the SEIU office at 2525 W. Alameda Ave. in Denver. Sponsors include the Young Democrats, the Latino Initiative, the Democrats with Disabilities, the Rural Initiative, and the Labor Initiative.

— Ernest@coloradostatesman.com

See the Feb. 13 print edition for full photo coverage.