so it was up to the state Democratic party organization to fundraise and pay for any participation in the primary process, with caucuses being the least expensive option. Even caucuses cost the party over $50K in funds (the schools and facilities have a low cost, but you need one for every 2-6 precincts, and hold county conventions and they have a fixed cost of the janitorial and cleanup fee).
To be clear, the DNC does not provide or offer even one thin dime toward our primary process (in our case caucuses) and IN FACT, insists on getting any money raised above the $50K sent to the DNC, even if it's only a penny even though the CO Dems could use any funds we can get.
But there was a ballot initiative to bring back primary election (which passed by a good margin).
I haven't followed up to see how the state is going to pay for the primary next time in 2020 -- but I do know it was originally a fiscal Repuke Secretary of State that removed primaries from the state's election budget -- to save money and that NEITHER party liked that.
The Republican party didn't even hold a real caucus in Colorado last time. Repuke party insiders felt that there was overwhelming support for Ted Cruz (ugh) and the state party insiders wanted Trump to win the caucus, so they just didn't schedule a caucus and GAVE Trump the votes (double ugh) through a county convention process where the fix was in. To this day, most of our Republican acquaintances are still #neverTrump even though they're still Republicans for some unfathomable reason.
I can guarantee you before I even do my research, that the current Repuke SOS and Repuke held legislature seats are trying to find a way to get out of paying for the primary.
There is absolutely no way the State Dem party could follow the new law and pay for ballots and election in a real primary - - would need well over a million dollars, and I've heard some estimates of as high as $8 million. The DNC won't help us.
So I guess I wrote all that to provide background for this -- I really wish all the people who gripe so much about caucuses had the background knowledge state by state to understand how and why that is the process. It's easy to paint with a broad brush, but as local Dem here in the trenches, doing actual grunt work --- we LITERALLY pass fucking buckets asking for dollars and checks -- I get a little tired of those ideological diatribes against caucuses -- when the process here is really dictated by funds and infrastructure (or lack thereof, not tradition or ideology or a marriage to some preference of primary process or type of debate or democratic representation).
That is just how I feel, but thanks for reading.
edited to add expensive county conventions included in process.
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