Colorado Democrats celebrated last year’s wins and lamented losses while urging party members to keep it together ahead of next year’s election at the state party’s annual Jefferson Jackson Day fundraising dinner on Saturday in Denver.

The ballroom at the Marriott Denver Downtown had only cleared out hours earlier after a bruising election for state party leadership, when state chair Rick Palacio won election to a third, two-year term over challengers David Sabados and Vic Meyers.

Although some tensions remained, by the time the tables had been covered and flower arrangements set, a crowd numbering more than 1,000 gathered to bestow awards and hear a keynote address delivered by Minnesota Sen. Al Franken, the former late-night comedian turned lawmaker. But, in a change from previous years, things wrapped up relatively early, with the program coming to a close at 9:30 p.m., hours sooner than recent Jefferson Jackson dinners.

“In a wave election all across the country, where we lost the Senate majority, we were losing governor’s races everywhere, where the people of Maryland — about as dark a blue state as you can imagine — elected a Republican nobody had ever heard of, you reelected a Democrat, John Hickenlooper, as governor,” said U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, pointing to the silver lining in the 2014 election, when Bennet’s Democratic colleague, Mark Udall, went down to defeat and the party lost control of the state Senate.

Hickenlooper thanked the crowd for their support through what he called some of the toughest, longest days of his life during his campaign for reelection against challenger Bob Beauprez.

“We’re going to continue fighting, standing up for working families, the middle class,” he said, pledging to make sure Colorado isn’t only the fittest state but also the healthiest state and that anyone who wants a job can find one in the state.

“This state has endured more than its share of tragedies in the last four years — shootings, fires and floods — but every single time, we rallied around each other,” Hickenlooper said, sounding familiar notes from his campaign. He recalled touring flooded areas of the state by helicopter two years ago when, he said, “it looked like a huge chunk of the state was in pieces, and in a literal sense it was.” But amidst all the destruction and tragedy, he added, residents were coming together, helping each other.

“It’s a clear reminder that Coloradans are as generous as they are gritty, we care about our neighbors as much as we care about ourselves, and we are able to work together to accomplish great things,” Hickenlooper said, drawing sustained cheers from the crowd.

Then he turned his attention to next year’s election, when Bennet is seeking a second full term in what has been ranked one of the cycle’s tightest Senate races.

“We’re going to have one of the tough races in the country,” Hickenlooper said, calling Bennet “one of the great senators in the country.”

Hickenlooper also addressed lingering anger over the earlier election for state party chair.

“I know there was some division on this,” he said. “Trust me — if we don’t come together after our disagreements, we’re going to lose, we’re going to lose in 2016. We cannot let that happen.”

Introducing Franken, Bennet quipped that he’d been “staffing” the former Saturday Night Live comedian all evening, adding that on more than one occasion people had actually asked Bennet to step aside while they took a picture with the Minnesotan.

“Al Franken may be a celebrity, but he is not a celebrity politician,” Bennet said, contrasting the comedian and author with Washington denizens ready to break bones to clear a path to a television camera.

Franken brought down the house numerous times during his 30-minute speech, which included calls for action on climate change and a defense of the Democratic Party’s tradition of helping those who need it.

Franken began by recalling that he’d met Hickenlooper, who had just been elected mayor, when he visited Denver more than a decade ago.

“He had this brewpub, and they had all these craft beers. I thought, ‘What’s the deal with the craft beers? How is that a thing?’ Well, wouldn’t you know it, 11 years later craft beers are huge. And not only that, I’m a United States senator,” Franken said, drawing hearty laughter from the crowd. “I don’t know what happened to Hickenlooper. But I was in the bathroom coming out and saw a guy, looked like an older version of him. I probably should have done some research before I came to Colorado.”

He heaped praise on Bennet, with whom he shares a seat on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, calling him a “tremendous resource” on education policy for senators of all stripes.

“I don’t know how anyone could not like Michael,” Franken said. “He’s brilliant. He’s got a wry, self-effacing humor, like me. And he’s not just a great Democrat, he’s a great senator.” Noting that Bennet was a former school superintendent, he continued, “To the extent Republicans listen to anybody, they listen to Michael on education. Michael has a way about him that turns down the temperature, even on the most partisan issues,” he said.

Then, after describing Bennet’s role in crafting comprehensive immigration legislation — passed by the Senate, it awaits action in the House — Franken said, “By the way, speaking of things that I wish were different, man, do I miss Mark Udall.” As the crowd applauded, he added, “I know that that was a tough loss for all of you who worked so hard on Mark’s behalf. Believe me, it was a loss for the entire Senate and the entire country. On all the issues where Mark took the lead carrying forward Colorado’s commitment to the environment, standing up for civil liberties, we can’t replace his voice, but we can follow his example.”

Noting that he was just 6 years old when the Soviet Union launched the Sputnik satellite, Franken recalled that President John F. Kennedy rallied the nation “to do something about it,” vowing to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade and investing widely in education and technology.

“We didn’t just win the race to the moon, we got all sort of innovations, like transistors and hard plastics and GPS and the economic benefits that come along with those new technologies,” he said. “Now, we’re faced with a challenge that’s just as critical.”

Citing evidence that climate change is already wreaking havoc with the weather — rising sea levels, devastating storm surges, persistent droughts and intensifying wildfires — Franken noted that insurance companies are warning that it’s threatening the economy and the Department of Defense is warning that it threatens national security.

“Now, a lot of Republicans say, ‘Well, I’m not a scientist,’ although most of them aren’t doctors either, but that doesn’t stop them from making decisions about women’s health,” Franken said to cheers. “But you know who is a scientist? Scientists. And 97 percent of climate scientists agree that man-made climate change is real and is threatening our planet. Folks, this is another Sputnik moment, and we need another Apollo project. But instead, we’re doing just the opposite of that.”

U.S. investment in new energy technology has been cut in half in the last 30 years, he said, putting the country behind many other countries and risking the possibility of missing out on a $5 trillion global market.

In a lengthy set-up to a joke at the expense of recent Republican presidents — and an announced candidate in the next presidential election — Franken maintained that the last two, President George H.W. Bush and his son President George W. Bush had overseen zero job growth during their terms in office, when measured from six months after they were sworn in until six months after they departed. (He contrasted the Bushes’ record with strong job growth — using the same metric — under Democratic Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.)

“Now, if only Bushes had been president,” Franken said over howls of laughter, since the beginning of the Republic, there would not have been a single job created in the entire history of the United States.

After telling how Democratic policies helped his family gain a solid foothold in the middle class, Franken closed by quoting his predecessor, the late Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone: “‘We all do better when we all do better,’” he said. “Think about that. It’s so simple, it’s so true, it’s so profound. It’s a haiku — if I knew what a haiku was, which I don’t,” he added to laughter and cheers.

U.S. Reps. Jared Polis — in a video, since he was attending a family wedding – and Diana DeGette introduced their colleague, Ed Perlmutter, who was named Democrat of the Year. Polis called Perlmutter “a team player” and added, “More than you ever know, he has contributed to the success of Democrats up and down the ballot.”

DeGette poked fun at Perlmutter’s obsession with his Fitbit, a device that tracks steps and praised him as “the most wonderful father in the entire world.”

Perlmutter reported that his wife, Nancy, was recovering swiftly from surgery last fall, drawing cheers and applause, and thanked his family and staff — “I work with the best people possible,” he said — before delivering brief remarks.

“I want Democrats to win,” Perlmutter said. “When we win, we change and shape the future. Because we believe in freedom and in opportunity and in justice for all, especially for the hard-working people in the middle, we make that future a lot better than the other guys.” Then he concluded by doing his trademark cartwheel across the stage.

Lt. Gov. Joe Garcia presented the Rising Star award to former CU Regent Joe Neguse, who lost a race for secretary of state last year.

Neguse, who received the same award five years ago, quipped that he will never be as hip as Garcia but then turned serious. At the state assembly, Neguse said, he had stood with his father and asked whether, when he was fleeing war-torn Eritrea 30 years ago, if he could ever have imagined that his son would be the nominee for a statewide office in his adopted land.

“I am so deeply proud, deeply proud to be a member of a party that fights for people like my parents, that fights for the middle class, that fights for the poor, that fights for the downtrodden, that fights for people who are trying to get a leg up,” Neguse said.

Saying he is proud to be a Democrat because it’s the party that boosts opportunity for families like Neguse’s, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock presented the volunteers of the year awards to Weld County’s Rochelle Galindo and Pitkin County’s Mick Ireland.

— Ernest@coloradostatesman.com

See full photo coverage in the March 6, 2015 print edition.