On his last day as chairman of the Jefferson County Republican Party, Don Ytterberg had a few things to say.

After welcoming several hundred members of the county GOP’s central committee – along with family, friends and a handful of Republican candidates – to the party’s biennial reorganization meeting on Feb. 4, at Green Mountain High School in Lakewood, Ytterberg spoke to the crowd about his time at the helm.

Noting that he’d chaired the county party for the past eight years – breaking for a while to step in as vice chairman of the state GOP, and again in 2014, when he ran for Congress against U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter – Ytterberg smiled a weary yet contented smile. His term as chairman, he pointed out, had almost precisely coincided with the Obama administration. The crowd murmured sympathetically, and there was a scattering of rueful chuckles.

“It is a treat,” he said, “to offer this next new incoming class of county officers a brand-new Republican president that they can work with in Colorado.”

And at that, the Republicans packed into the school auditorium let loose whoops and cheers, their applause filling the room.

Then he discussed where the county party had been and where he thought it might be heading as politicians and voters alike adjust to the recently inaugurated Trump administration.

The country was changing, Ytterberg said. He recalled attending Donald Trump’s campaign rally at the Jeffco Fairgrounds in late October, just over a week before the election.

“I went through that arena and, you know what, I didn’t recognize a lot of people,” Ytterberg said. “I was thrilled to death. I love you guys, but I may love them more, because they’re coming back to our side of the aisle.”

The influx of fresh faces at a Republican candidate’s rally was even more noteworthy, he said, because it took place in Jefferson County, a fabled political location, at least by some measures.

“You are in Jefferson County,” Ytterberg said. “This is one of 11 counties in the nation that is focused on by the mass media. I get calls from Sweden. I’m not sure why they care – maybe they’re trying to export socialism, I can’t figure it out. We have national and international coverage of our county elections – our county elections,” he marveled.

Then he pointed out that the county’s Republican district attorney, Pete Weir – his 1st Judicial District also covers Gilpin County – withstood something on the order of $1.5 million rained down upon the electorate by campaign committees tied to billionaire George Soros.

While Weir survived the unprecedented onslaught of negative campaigning, Ytterberg shook his head, because all the news was not good.

“We’ve got work to do, folks,” he said. “Jeffco has not dominated the election season for probably 10 years. We are being challenged by resources we have never seen before, and the Soros money playing in the DA race is only one indication.”

Shaking his head again, and with a frown, Ytterberg reminded the central committee that one of the most hard-fought races in the state had been waged in Jefferson County, and the Jefferson County Republican had lost. He was talking about the multi-million dollar state Senate contest in Arvada between the incumbent Republican, state Sen. Laura Woods, and her victorious challenger, former state Sen. Rachel Zenzinger.

“We saw that in the Senate race in the unfortunate loss of our dear friend Laura Woods, who I have never, ever in the time I’ve served here seen a better candidate. By September when we said, ‘What can we do for you, Laura?’ they said, ‘Our team has done so many things, we can’t figure out where to deploy more people or more dollars.’ They were doing it all. We went other directions, obviously, to try to support more candidates.”

Ytterberg was right that Jefferson County – still sometimes pegged a bellwether county for Colorado and covered by journalists from far away – can be the scene of some of the state’s hottest races but hasn’t been the key battleground in the state for a while, and that’s because Democrats have come to dominate its politics, at least in the most prominent statewide races.

It’s still close, but Jefferson County has voted for Democrats atop the ticket in the last five elections without exception. In 2008, Barack Obama won the county by 9 points over John McCain, and Mark Udall prevailed over Bob Schaffer in the Senate race by 10 points. In 2010, U.S. Senate candidate Michael Bennet beat Ken Buck by 3 points, and John Hickenlooper ran 9 points ahead of third-party candidate Tom Tancredo and swamped Republican gubernatorial nominee Dan Maes by a full 44 points. In 2012, Obama defeated Mitt Romney by 5 points. In 2014, although he lost statewide, Udall barely edged Cory Gardner in the Senate race in Jefferson County, coming in a fraction of a point ahead, while Hickenlooper beat Republican challenger Bob Beauprez by 6 points. And in the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump in Jeffco by almost 7 points, while Bennet defeated Republican Senate nominee Darryl Glenn by about the same margin.

Astute observers wondered last fall whether Larimer County, to the north, might be a better bellwether for the state, since its results have more closely mirrored the total Colorado vote in the last several general elections. Unlike Jeffco, Larimer swung slightly toward Gardner in 2014, and its 2016 votes for Clinton and Bennet yielded almost precisely the same as their statewide margins.

But Republicans are facing a new and different world with the election of Donald Trump, Ytterberg maintained, and it would be up to party members to chart a course in it.

“You know what?” he said. “Populism may be hard for some rock-ribbed conservatives, and I understand, but have you enjoyed the last 14 days?” The crowd hollered and clapped. They had.

With a grim look, Ytterberg offered another warning.

“We are under attack,” he said. “The very things that we believe in are under attack.”

After pausing for a moment to let that sink in, he continued. “The reason we’re not winning elections isn’t because we don’t have better ideas. I promise you, we have better ideas – the things that we believe in are good for America, they’re good for our children, they’re good for our future. Those of us who grew up in this country, who have had the opportunity to build a business, find good jobs, a good education, we have to pass that on to the next generation.”

Instead, Ytterberg suggested, Republicans were too bashful, too modest.

“I believe that we are not winning elections because we, the people, are timid. It takes an awful lot of character to stand up in your circle of friends. Learn how to talk about the things we believe in in a way that makes sense to those who aren’t rock-ribbed conservatives. When you say limited government, do you know that that scares people? I mean that – it scares people. But if you say ‘the most effective government, the most efficient government, the least-cost government that delivers the services you expect as a voter,’ suddenly you have them on your team.”

The new Trump administration and its policies, its approach, would take some getting used to, Ytterberg said, but Republicans and conservatives had a jump on their political opponents.

Invoking a recent adage, he said, “The liberals took Trump literally but not seriously. The voter took Trump seriously but not literally. Think about it. Did you really think the president of Mexico was going to write an $11 billion check and send it up by FedEx?” The crowd laughed. “It may happen through NAFTA negotiation, it may happen through trade negotiation, but the very idea that the liberals are saying, ‘No, the president of Mexico isn’t going to send him an $11 billion check!’ is an example of literalism. But the symbolism wasn’t lost on any of us. We say, ‘Cool! Safe borders? Nice! Make jobs at home!'”

Then, wrapping up his valedictory address to county Republicans, Ytterberg smiled, lingering a bit as he neared his conclusion.

“Now, I’ve got to tell you there are some policy issues we will all have with this president – it’s only been two weeks,” he said. “But when was the last time you saw a chief executive get elected – and do exactly what he’d said for 15 straight days?” After the crowd cheered, he added, “I’m going to leave that with you. You can stew on that and you can yell at me later.”

Ytterberg was one of several large-county Republican chairs passing the torch to new leadership that day.

In Jeffco, Joe Webb was elected chair, Steve Dorman was elected vice chair and Diane Isler was elected secretary, all by acclamation. Similarly, in Arapahoe County, Rich Sokol is the new chair, taking over for Joy Hoffman, and Andy Peth was elected vice chair and Jay Ledbetter was elected secretary. Denver Republicans elected Jake Viano as chair after Sue Moore decided against seeking another term, and elected Alan Johnson, Kristina Cook and Jeff Krump as vice chairs, along with Brenda Harms as secretary. And in Broomfield, Sheryl Fernandez is the new chair, replacing her husband, Rick Fernandez, Sue Saad is the 1st vice chair, Jan Bilsborrow is 2nd vice chair, and Chuck Hastings is secretary.

Republicans – and Democrats – are meeting for county reorganizations throughout February ahead of both party’s state reorganizations – the morning of Saturday, March 11, at the Denver Marriott City Center for the Democrats, and the morning of Saturday, April 1, at Englewood High School for the Republicans.

Republicans also met Saturday, Feb. 4, for reorganizations in Arapahoe, Broomfield, Gunnison and Prowers counties. Among the larger counties, Adams, El Paso, Larimer, Mesa and Weld counties were scheduled to meet, after press time, on Saturday, Feb. 11.

– ernest@coloradostatesman.com