Left Face
Join Adam Gillard and Dick Wilkinson while they talk politics and community engagement in Pikes Peak region.
Left Face
Building a Democratic Veterans Coalition: Colorado's Next Steps
The latest episode of Left Face unveils the exciting formation of the Colorado Democrat Veterans Council, a vital new initiative aimed at advancing veterans' causes through state legislation. Hosts Dick Wilkinson and Adam Gillard share how this council has established a strategic partnership with the thriving New Mexico Veterans Caucus, creating an opportunity to learn from their success and avoid common pitfalls.
What makes this initiative particularly significant is its potential impact on El Paso County's substantial veteran population, which comprises approximately 15% of residents. The hosts explore how the council plans to leverage Colorado's four-month legislative session to champion veteran-focused bills, drawing inspiration from New Mexico's model while adapting to Colorado's unique landscape.
The conversation takes a thoughtful turn toward national politics, examining potential Democratic presidential candidates for upcoming elections. Pete Buttigieg emerges as a standout figure in their discussion, praised for his genuine approach, military background, and moderate policy positions that resonate across generational lines. By contrast, the hosts express skepticism about candidates who rely more on political theater than authentic leadership.
Locally, the competitive race for Colorado's 5th Congressional District captures attention with Jessica Killen's remarkable fundraising success—$750,000 on day one, outpacing the incumbent. This development, coupled with the potential relocation of Space Command, signals a potentially historic opportunity to flip a traditionally Republican seat.
Throughout the episode, Dick and Adam reflect on the challenges of political fundraising, the importance of genuine representation, and how organized veteran groups can influence both local and state politics. Their passionate discussion offers listeners valuable insights into the intersection of military service, political advocacy, and community impact.
Ready to make a difference for veterans in Colorado? Reach out to join the Colorado Democrat Veterans Council and help shape legislation that truly serves those who've served our country.
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Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Left Face. This is the Pikes Peaks Region podcast, where we talk about veterans issues and politics at the national and local level. I am your co-host, dick Wilkinson, and I'm joined this morning with Adam Gillard. Good morning, adam.
Speaker 2:Hey Dick, how are you doing, buddy?
Speaker 1:I am having a great day. I'm glad we're able to get this episode knocked out. I am having a great day. I'm glad we're able to get this episode knocked out.
Speaker 2:I might have sounded a little strained when I was saying that, because I was actually trying to sit down and I didn't realize how much pain everything was in as I was sitting down. So I was like I can't talk and sit at the same time yeah, how's Florida?
Speaker 2:it is overbearingly hot right now. We've been down here for about a week and it's oppressive this heat and like humidity and the thunderstorms coming at night, but it's been a phenomenal time. You know me and the family just hanging out at Disney this week. Yeah, it's been a great time. But yeah, the heat is just crazy out here right now.
Speaker 1:Well, apologies to our listeners. We had a technical issue last week and, combining that with travel, we were not able to put out an episode last week. So this week we're going to catch up on some topics that carry over from our previous episode, and then just the standard what's going on with the craziness of the federal government these days?
Speaker 2:That is one thing that's been nice. I've been pretty unplugged from everything, so it's actually been nice to unwind and not get bombarded with things all the time Not get mentally ramped up three or four times a day. Exactly, exactly. Yeah, my biggest issue right now is if they're out of ice cream.
Speaker 1:I like it. That's a crisis. Yeah, I like it. That's. That's the kind of things we want to you know, if that's the worst thing, yeah right, that's a good.
Speaker 2:Right, that's what we should be focusing on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's awesome. Well, one issue that we spoke about in our last episode that aired was that we are working on a Colorado Democratic Party veterans group and that group has convened. It is called the Colorado Democrat Veterans Council. There we go. We couldn't get that right in the last time we tried to record this, but that's it that right in the last time we tried to record this, but that's it.
Speaker 2:It's silly like the naming convention sometimes becomes so difficult and it's just like man, you just try to be clear. But yeah, yeah, because we tried to be a caucus but, like under state party rules, it's a, it's a committee or whatever. Yeah, um, yeah, yeah, it's funny, but yeah, it's stood up and and we're gonna, you know, really focus on pushing some cool legislation and get things done. You have a lot of experience from your time down in New Mexico. What are some of the things that you look forward to getting done with this?
Speaker 1:Well, to that end, I got in touch with the chair of the caucus in New Mexico. His name is Frank Smith. I had a good conversation with him. He just recently took over from Dr Claudia, and now I'm going to forget her last name even though I'm rising her. I worked with her for a few years, but she was running it for a few years there and then she's moved on or stepped down and Frank Smith has taken over. He agreed to meet with us. He agreed to share notes on what has worked well, lessons learned, and bring in their really active volunteers that have been kind of like the department leads or the committee leads within the caucus and that will give us the chance to kind of springboard our efforts.
Speaker 1:So I looked this morning this was something I had not educated myself on yet.
Speaker 1:The New Mexico legislature meets only, you know, in like January or February, and they have short, very short sessions.
Speaker 1:So I said well, you know they've got a rhythm of how they get legislative priorities set up for the veterans group down there. So what's the counterpart here in Colorado? Well, our state legislature meets for four months, starting in January every year, which is twice as long as the longest session. They have a 60-day session in New Mexico and a 30-day session in New Mexico. They do those alternating years and so they don't have a lot of time in session down there, but Colorado does. It has four months of session and then committees all year long. So the good news is that we can align our efforts at the end of the calendar year so that the same things that they're going to work on in New Mexico we can try and promote those here in Colorado. So that alignment is great and I think it gets us a chance to work basically side saddle, hand in hand on this next legislative cycle to stand up our own group. So I'm looking forward to that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and the potential for us to have long lasting impacts with this in the community of Colorado Springs, el Paso County, is 15 percent vets every day, and that's not counting spouses and family members, things like that.
Speaker 2:Percent vets, yeah, every day that, and that's not counting spouses and family members, things like that.
Speaker 2:So, being able to have a committee in the democratic party that specifically focuses on this, and a lot of people you know kind of you know whine and complain about the uh, having to be a democrat to be a part of these things, but at the end of the day, like it's the system that we live in and it's stuff that has to be done like, like we, you know we have to be Democrats to be able to actually get things done in this sense, um, actually, you know the legislative aspect, so it's uh, it's going to be a great group. I'm excited for it. Some legislators are already on it too. Um, but, yeah, having a focus on veteran issues is going to be huge for our community. Uh, I think your connections down in New Mexico are going to be huge too, because we don't need to reinvent the wheel. You know, we know things that they've they've been successful with that they've passed and, yeah, we're going to move forward and do some pretty cool things.
Speaker 1:So I I have some. I'm glad you mentioned what you just did about needing to be a registered Democrat to join the group. So that is actually something that Frank from New Mexico talked to me about that the caucus in New Mexico recognized that veterans as a population we're going to focus specifically on the behavior and voting trends of veterans and they said there's so many people that register in New Mexico as declined to state, meaning not affiliated or independent right and we have the same option here in Colorado and they said they recognized that the person's actual political views may align with one party or the other, but they still register as a declined state. So they wanted to open up the opportunity for decline to state people to join the caucus. They just cannot be voting members, but they can participate, they can volunteer, they can, you know, attend and do basically everything that everyone else does.
Speaker 1:But when there needs to be a vote that requires the body to vote those folks have, they just have to sit out and otherwise, if they want to engage, if they want to be participative in, let's say, they want to go to the legislature and speak on behalf of a bill and they're a veteran, why would they not want. You know why? Would we not want more people to participate? Right, yeah, and so they. They change their caucus bylaws to allow decline to states to join the group, and that is in conflict with the state's bylaws. And there's a little bit of internal wrangling going on down there right now to see how that's going to shake out.
Speaker 2:So I think that's a pretty fair compromise just having them not be able to drive the group but but still be able to participate, get other members and feel like they're doing something, cause, yeah, el Paso County, I think we're like 51 or 52% independent voters, sure, uh, so. So yeah, there's a huge demographic that, uh, we missed by. You know, not outlawing, but you know just.
Speaker 1:Well, look at like the veterans lunch that we that we attend here in Colorado Springs, right, I'm sure that some of the folks that have attended that lunch, and especially the people who hear about it through word of mouth and just drop in, are not registered Democrats, right, and sometimes they're just coming through to see what the group is about or what kind of you know things are we working on, and they want to either stick around or they're saying, hey, that's not for me working on, and they, they want to either stick around or they're saying, hey, that's not for me. And so that's one of those sort of edge cases where we get to interact with people that are not, like, diehard Democrats, and I think it makes sense that if they showed up at to an event like that a protest, a party meeting and said, hey, I kind of like what you guys are working on, I don't, I don't know why we would want to turn them away.
Speaker 1:I can't see that there would be subversion or anything like that.
Speaker 2:So well and that's why, you know, I have kind of a couple of veins that I work in.
Speaker 2:Uh, you know, the stuff with the Democrat party, the progressive vets uh, I consider it to be more open to, you know, everybody that wants to come join, have a conversation and talk, um, and then talk, and then even Indivisible is the same way.
Speaker 2:We're trying to get vets to join Indivisible, because there's Republicans in there that have some really good ideas in personal legislation. I just talked to a guy. His specialty is military force on civilian populations, like American civilians, and so I took him into Crank's office and he handed over a paper and ideas and suggestions for strengthening the Insurrection Act that's up for. I'm not sure where it is in the Senate or the House right now, but there's folks out there that have an Insurrection Act for 2025 that limits the power of the presidency and when they can deploy it, but we have those experts in our community that we just need to bring out, and so, you know, this guy is a lifelong Republican but, you know, came and we were able to get his words to the representative, you know. So, yeah, everybody needs to use their voice as much as possible right now.
Speaker 1:Yep Agreed. Yeah, that's a great example. So we'll see. You know, I know that's not something we're going to pick up and run with right now on the in the committee or the council, because you know, we just need to get established for now. One thing that I was encouraged to hear is that they have down in New Mexico something like 470 registered members in the caucus. Now that's awesome. Something like 470 registered members in the caucus now that's awesome. Yeah, that's a man. I mean we had maybe 150 in the first year or two there and you know 50 of those were active and 100 are just kind of signed up and show up every now and then kind of thing.
Speaker 2:So to have 400 people that are signed up and paying attention to what you're doing. That's huge people that are signed up and paying attention to what you're doing. Yeah, I'm not sure what the rules for standing up the group were, but for in Colorado you need to have like 25. So you can start off as a pretty small group and you have to see that kind of growth. And you know, five years that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1:So that that just tells us that bigger state, bigger veteran population, we should be able to pull those interested folks. You know it's one of those. If you build it, they will come. The situation like this is if you build it, the right people will come. The motivated people show up right and once they hear about the effort, once they hear that it's got some momentum, then you know I think we'll get there. We'll get to 100 people quick.
Speaker 2:So yeah, yeah, yeah, yes. And as long as you keep showing results, people will keep coming back, you know, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean that's gotta be a part of the popularity of the group down in New Mexico is that. You know it. It works right Like direct community facing efforts that people see in their tax bill and in their you know um medical support and in the you know VA programs, like that stuff is, it's obvious, to the population there. So I think that you know that drives recruitment, like you say, better than anything else is, is showing results. And if you say, hey, you can help with this, people want to and, and that you know that's the local level, that state and county stuff and that's that man, that's just the value, the feedback, the personal reward you know is tangible and so and not just speaking about myself, but the folks that want to help they really get to see the results of their efforts. And it's not the same as like door knocking for a candidate is great, especially, you know, on around the presidential cycles, people like to go out and do that kind of stuff, but you don't always get to, you don't feel as directly connected to the result.
Speaker 2:Right. So yeah, yeah, yeah. It is cool looking in your community and being able to point to something and say I did that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, hey, you hear about. I saw, you know you paid less taxes last year, right, like your property tax went down. You know that, right, yeah, yeah, democrats did that for you. What?
Speaker 2:The.
Speaker 1:Democrats lowered taxes. Yeah, we felt like you deserved it. It happens, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's one thing like I get so frustrated with the Biden administration, like and I don't even know how to break through this for them but like they did such a terrible job of telling us all the good things that they did. If you look at like their like hit list of like things that they accomplished, especially in the first two years, like it could have changed generations and now it's kind of all been. But yeah, they, they didn't do a good job of highlighting their wins like that.
Speaker 1:Well, thanks for bringing that up. Let's transition off of that to Kamala and the you know announcement that she's not going to run for governor. And now she's sort of she's writing a book about the campaign and it's supposed to be a little bit of an expose. She's going out and talking to people but she says she's not running for president right now. So what's your take on the whole thing?
Speaker 2:So one thing that I just kind of want to shoot off on in a second is like there's like more information coming about like, or more what is it Investigations into? Like elections, uh, fraud and stuff like that from last year, sure, um, I haven't really dove into it yet because I just don't want to be like a mega person crying for the next four years that the election was stolen, you know so I'm really just waiting for like hard evidence, but it sounds like some uh big things might be coming out in the next week or so, and that's always one of those pushes that people say you know but.
Speaker 2:But I'm really kind of like going to start looking into that stuff more, cause it's just, things are crazy. But with her she's setting up for quite the battle within her own state, even Cause, you know, newsom's probably going to run. But I don't think. I don't think she'll like like run, but I don't think she'll get out of the primary. There's a lot of people upset last time that there wasn't a primary and that they didn't get to choose who ran, and so, whether or not she's the most qualified or the best candidate, I think people just out of spite will be like no, they tried to shove her down our throes. I didn't like that and those out of spite say no.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's, there's definitely some of that, for sure. Um, I, everybody says, oh, I'm not running for some period of time, right? Um, I mean, she's acting like a candidate again. Anyway, she's got money, uh, in a war for sure, so she can pull the trigger whenever. I think she's watching the landscape, I think she's watching, for, you know, there's always those early people that try and strike out early on, yeah, build some momentum, and then they punch out before the you know, the bigger early primary stages, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And then sometimes you're a strong candidate that has a lot of money, shows up late, right, and they say, hey, we're going to push money, we're going to wait a few quarters. Let's somebody else you know go out there and make noise, give us a, basically a counterpoint to talk about, and then we jump into the race. Race, you know, one quarter out from the primaries. I don't see the kind of person that would do that, but I don't see her. Be it like, I said my own sentiment, I don't think she could win the primary.
Speaker 2:So yeah, yeah, well, your idea about them letting other candidates do the dirty work then, like they don't like to win the run races, they don't, they can't win. You know what I mean? If they don't think they can win, they don't run. Yeah, so having, like you said, candidates go out there and kind of throw some ideas out and test, you know, get some polling data and things like that, and then make a decision.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, yeah, it's gonna be a thick field because you know, you see, that senator from georgia that won that runoff, uh, a couple years ago, he's been making his rounds around Pete Mayor, pete's always on the news, newsom's always on the news. Yeah, so there are definitely folks trying to jockey and get that, you know, public appeal to them. It's just the whole thing. Just disgusts me really, when it comes down to, like, the money involved in it and like, yeah, the need to like, have the pomp and circumstance and kind of like, create moments to be seen and heard. Um, versus just having people go out there and lead and do their job. You know, they're going out there and having to be talking heads on tv, yeah yeah, you have to play the game.
Speaker 1:You have to play the game. Yeah, and newsom's playing the game big time, uh, and he has been he's probably the slimiest of all of them.
Speaker 2:Like I like when I hear him talk, I just I don't like it. I don't like how he talks.
Speaker 1:I agree, that's. I mean, I don't know much about him as far as what he's done in California, but just as a candidate, when I see him doing, when I do see him putting on the stunt what to try and get national level attention, I'm I've never once I been like I want to clap for that guy.
Speaker 2:It just hasn't happened yet, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's like he may be right, but he's kind of still an asshole.
Speaker 1:Sure. And then you know hey, you know, every now and then we talk about conspiracy stuff. Right, I didn't know this until maybe last year that he's Nancy Pelosi's like nephew. Oh, no way, yeah, he's. He's like blood related to her, he's not like marriage related.
Speaker 2:I think he's blood related to her Really Wow.
Speaker 1:So that's an interesting little twist there. Yeah, it makes sense that you know he would be part of the California political class if his aunt is Nancy Pelosi, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that would help you win your governorship, for sure, you know oh yeah, yeah, I'm sure he got some good donations early on in his career. That really gave him a couple wins big.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I mean, anybody wants to verify me and then go write a note on Blue Sky that I probably won't read. But you know, go for it.
Speaker 2:No, I say we just let that one go.
Speaker 1:We're going to put it out there and claim it as true and I mean I heard it once, so I believe. I mean it's obviously easy to figure out. I'm just not going to Google it in the middle of the episode.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, not worth the fact time. No, it's not.
Speaker 1:But anyways, it's just another factor in the like why he could.
Speaker 2:You know why he's got a strong base to run from and why he's the darling of the party and in a lot of ways, so yeah, so yeah, he's got a ton of money behind him?
Speaker 1:he does, and you know I've always been a fan of mayor pete um I. I just thought pete budaj is like, closer to our generation. Right of like viewpoint on what the government is for, viewpoint on war, viewpoint on the military uh, what service is about?
Speaker 2:you know, like you want to talk about somebody that I do clap for when I hear him on tv.
Speaker 1:Man pete is always speaking my language, always you know it was.
Speaker 2:Isn't he like a major or something like that in the army?
Speaker 1:I thought he was served so yeah, uh, yeah, he definitely had um some reserve time. I think he had some active duty time at one point, but I'm not sure.
Speaker 2:So yeah, yeah, he definitely seems like somebody that would put in the work with you. You know not, not just yell at you to do the work, you know.
Speaker 1:For sure. And I mean, I just I don't know he's, I know it sounds, maybe it sounds crazy, but I see him as a moderate Democrat honestly. But I see him as a moderate Democrat honestly, right, yeah, yeah. And you say, how's that possible? Because you know, if anything in this we're just going to speak in external terms here the fact that he's a gay elected official will make him popular with the Democratic Party, just at face value, right, like, and that's fine, that's fine, right, that's what people talk about as far as inclusion and representation, and that's one way that it gets done. So I don't focus on that, because I just don't care about how he does, you know his intimate life.
Speaker 1:You know I care about what he says on TV and what he says in the town halls and like when he speaks about policy, that's what I pay attention to, right. And so when he speaks about policy, that's what I pay attention to, right. So when he speaks about that not his lifestyle but his policy ideas he sounds extremely moderate to me and that's, I think, always why he's appealed to me, because he's of my generation and he's a moderate guy. But he's got his head screwed on straight, like a lot of politicians don't. Probably the opposite of Newsom from the like, like not wanting to pull a stunt, right and not. You know, when he was the Secretary of Transportation there would have been a lot of opportunities for him to have a lot more camera time and he didn't do that. He did his job, you know.
Speaker 2:Right, so yeah, and with that infrastructure a ton of money got put into our roads and failing bridges and things like that. And one thing I was going to say is that when he because I think him and Newsom both come back really well when people push them, but I think his is a lot more genuine versus kind of just you know the buzzword bingo that Newsom- can throw sometimes, yeah, he's got his little slick sheet in his pocket and he's like, oh, that one, I think Pete.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's got his little slick sheet in his pocket and he's like, oh, that was, I think Pete has experience.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think he just pulls from his own experiences and speaks clearly and articulately. He's genuine.
Speaker 1:Like you said, he's genuine.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I will take that all day long.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I don't know man, I think he's a great candidate. I hope he stays in politics for the long haul, even if he never runs for president, so I want to see him. I think he's doing a good job in governing when he's at the opportunity. He's done it really well. So that's my take on it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, some people are just good leaders, and he's one of them.
Speaker 1:I often get my hackles up about what's considered the qualifications of someone to be president. How does someone basically what qualifies someone in my mind as a good candidate, and usually the people that win the primaries don't check very many blocks for me you know I don't like the experience that they're saying makes them relevant to be the president.
Speaker 1:I just don't see the value in that. Right, pete is not. Pete is the example of someone who I would go man, I don't to give me a list of things that I care about as a candidate and I don't know what he doesn't. He checks all the blocks, you know, and uh. So again, another reason but honestly that's why, that's why he might not ever win is because he's a well-rounded dude. You know he's not slimy and he's not slanted or biased or whatever.
Speaker 2:You know yeah, well, and that's the same thing that's held, like bernie sanders down is that he's just too honest and genuine, like he speaks his mind pretty, pretty clearly and he's been doing it since the 60s and they're like, no, you're gonna go sit over there yeah, you know that's a great example.
Speaker 1:uh, back when it was him versus hillary as much as I do not like Bernie Sanders for being a socialist, I would have called him much more qualified as a candidate than Hillary Clinton was, and that didn't matter. You know, yeah, that just didn't matter. Like you said, they told him to go color in the corner and yell about whatever he wanted to on his own time. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And kind of like to take it full circle. It kind of comes back to like when you register to be a democrat, like bernie only is a democrat when he like caucuses with them and like, yeah, like he knows how to use the system in his favor, you know to caucus with them and things like that, and then you just talk shit about him because he's pretty safe where he is, yeah, and so like it is kind of like not surprising that the dnc's like no, we're not going to support you because you just talk shit about us.
Speaker 1:We know you're not really part of the team. Yeah, yeah, and I mean, the higher up you go in the um apparatus that is the party right the more that fealty and loyalty is expected. I think you know to the point of you know being ostracized. If you're really at that level of like, hey, I want to run for president or I'm running for Senate or I need national level support so I can get this money together and you know they're going to put you through the ringer and you're not, you can't have too much daylight from whatever the national party and the platform and everything else that you know is out there. If you got some daylight on a couple of specific issues, yeah, you know you're going to have a hard time. So that's just. The party is built to push those specific issues and, yeah, bernie doesn't fit that paradigm at all.
Speaker 2:Well, and I think we're going to see this very locally, in the El Paso County CD5 race, we have a big candidate coming into it, jessica Killen, who's obviously raised $750,000 on day one. So she's got some big supporters and, and you know, the DNC is going to be pushing for her probably. So the four or five candidates that are sitting there right now looking at that big old paycheck, you know that she just pulled in. Uh, yeah, yeah, I think we're going to see it here locally where they're going to put their candidate who they want to run, which you know right now. I think is a good thing, because we've never had a legitimate candidate really like to put up the money like this. Yeah, Because right now she's outraced Crank, so she has more money than Crank right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So we actually have a chance to go after him. So I'm kind of for it right now, but it's still. It's just the system that it is, you know.
Speaker 1:It is And's still.
Speaker 1:It's just the system that it is.
Speaker 1:You know it is, and I mean that's what the that's what the national level party is for is to get out into the races where there is a chance to, you know, flip a seat and put those resources into that region.
Speaker 1:One thing that you know will that may happen and I would predict would happen, is the DCCC will get involved in this race and here's the little bit of like we'll call run over benefit is they'll come here and do quite a bit of campaign training to get people ready to support this candidate that they want to really get a big push behind. So when we talk about trying to get precinct leadership assigned, trying to get door knocking campaigns assigned, dccc kind of falls out of the sky and helps run a lot of that stuff. They train a lot of volunteers and they give you the tools and resources to do that. So I get the feeling that if this race gets hot and if there's this much money involved already that it probably will, then it's you know, it's very likely that next year during the calendar year, there'll be basically quarterly inputs from the DCCC to get stuff up and running and get people volunteering going. So it's a good thing from the local party perspective of getting a lot of resources that otherwise they're kind of hard to come by.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and if the executive order gets signed that moves Space Command back to Alabama, I think Crank's position becomes very, very in play. So I think that would be kind of the trigger.
Speaker 1:It's a great campaign talking point for like one cycle. Yeah, I mean it'll be wonderful in one cycle. I don't think it would carry much after that. But you're right, right Locally it'd be an excellent thing to push on. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because I mean it's like Doug Lambert kept it here, you didn't get out.
Speaker 1:Hey, that politics, right, you got to get a little dirty every now and then, right, so say some things just because, hey, it's true. You know, technically it's true, he didn't have any way to do anything about it, but it's true, technically it's true, he didn't have any way to do anything about it, but it's true.
Speaker 2:Yeah, to say that the candidates or politicians are like they're most vulnerable on that first reelection.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely yeah, because you don't have that deep pocket yet You've got not a lot of. You haven't really had any chance to make your name, unless you're like AOC and you got internet famous, you know, um. So, yeah, it's hard to get that, that traction, and you know it's two years, man, it's a never ending cycle once you get in it. And I don't know, uh, republican Democrat, independent Martian, I don't care. I feel sad for the people that, like, have to do phone calls all day long asking for money. Yeah, that's a hard part of the job, man, and like that's something that I just don't know how. If I ever do try to run back in that direction, I don't know how I'm going to, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. That was the first thing I realized was like I don't like asking people for money, especially when you're like you're asking for money for something that you haven't done yet. You're like if you give me this money, I can get elected and then maybe I can help you. Yeah, that's a tough ask for me.
Speaker 1:It's a heavy lift and it's a mode you have to switch into and I never quite got there, but I know how to do it, but I just it's hard. So yeah, well we are. We have to run the episode a little and I both have the commitments to get off to. So thanks for joining us this week. A little bit of a short episode, but we hope that you enjoyed it.
Speaker 1:Hopefully you're encouraged by the updates on the veterans initiatives here in Colorado and, of course, as the group grows. If you are a listener of this, you probably want to get involved and volunteer, so please reach out to us and we'll get you to tune in to the future meetings and find out a way for you to help.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, there's always something to do. You get to choose your level of participation at this point. So, yeah, that's excellent. Get a hold of us, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yep. All right, well, thanks for listening and we will catch you all again next week on Left Face. Bye.
