Attorney General Phil Weiser is slated to be named Democrat of the Year by the Colorado Democratic Party at its Obama Gala on April 1, the party announced this week.

Weiser is among a slew of honorees the party plans to recognize at the annual fundraising dinner in Denver, held after the state party conducts its reorganization meeting earlier the same day.

The party has plenty to celebrate after sweeping wins at the polls in November gave Democrats complete control of state government for the third consecutive cycle, with majorities in both chambers of the legislature at levels unseen for nearly 100 years. Democrats also won six of the nine federal offices on the ballot, including Colorado’s new congressional seat.

The dinner returns to a downtown Denver hotel ballroom – at the Sheraton Hotel – for the first time since 2019, after two virtual incarnations due to pandemic restrictions in 2020 and 2021 and last year’s scaled-down, outdoor soiree at the Denver Botanic Gardens. Tickets start at $195, with the price for tables of 10 topping out at $10,000.

The party plans to announce the dinner’s keynote speaker sometime in February.

Weiser won reelection to a second four-year term in November and topped an online poll conducted earlier this year for the most of the party’s awards.

Among the state party’s previous Democrats of the Year are last year’s winner Secretary of State Jena Griswold, as well as Gov. Jared Polis, U.S. Reps. Jason Crow and Joe Neguse, former state Rep. Joe Salazar and then-Routt County Democratic Party Chair Catherine Carson.

The party’s Rising Star Award will go to Adam Frisch, the Aspen Democrat who came within just over 500 votes of unseating Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert in an unexpectedly close race in the GOP-leaning 3rd Congressional District.

Frisch, who ran as a conservative Democrat often at odds with the party line, has said he’s considering another bid for the seat.

Recent Rising Star winners include last year’s winner state Rep. Monica Duran, D-Wheat Ridge; state Reps. Iman Jodeh, D-Aurora, and David Ortiz, D-Centennial in 2021; Denver Public Schools board member Tay Anderson in 2020; and Griswold in 2019. Neguse won the award twice, first when he was a University of Colorado regent and again after an unsuccessful run for secretary of state.

Former U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, the Arvada Democrat who retired from Congress after serving eight terms, will receive the Democrats’ Lifetime Achievement award this year, the party said.

His predecessor honorees include former U.S. Sen. and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, the current U.S. ambassador to Mexico; former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb; and former state Sens. Polly Baca, D-Thornton, and Irene Aguilar, D-Denver.

Other honorees at this year’s Obama dinner include Volunteer of the Year Skip Madsen; Outreach Award winner Sol Sandoval, who finished a close second to Frisch in the 3rd CD primary; and Rural Outreach Award winners state Reps. Elizabeth Velasco of Glenwood Springs and Kevin Kuns of Montrose, both freshman lawmakers.

This year’s Murphy Roberts Young Volunteers of the Year awards – named for the late brother of state Sen. Dylan Roberts and a stalwart party volunteer before his death at age 22 in 2016 – go to Teal Lehto, Spencer Wilcox and Bhavya Thimmannagari.

A new award at this year’s dinner is the Marguerite Salazar Community Service Award, named for the former Colorado insurance commissioner and director of the state’s Department of Regulatory Agencies, who died last fall.

The inaugural award goes to two recipients: its namesake – who also served as the Region VIII administrator for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in the Obama administration and ran New Mexico’s Regulation and Licensing Department until her retirement in 2020 – and Denver Councilwoman Robin Kneich.

Outgoing Colorado Democratic Party Chair Morgan Carroll, who announced last month that she isn’t seeking a fourth term running the state party, plans to bestow the Chair’s Award on Montezuma County Democratic Party Chair Mary Dodd, longtime state party volunteer Pat Rottschaefer and Colorado Black Roundtable founder John Bailey.

Colorado Republicans used to hold a fundraising dinner the night before their state party’s reorganization meeting but decoupled the events a few years back, scheduling their Centennial Dinner in the fall in odd-numbered years to coincide with a state central committee meeting. This year, state GOP chair Kristi Burton Brown says that’s slated for September.