State Dems oust leader - Chris Gates buh bye [View All]

Months after their historic wins in November, Colorado Democrats have ousted party chairman Chris Gates in an upset organized by activists angered by his handling of Mike Miles' failed bid for the U.S. Senate.

Pat Waak - a nonprofit director from Erie who is little-known in statewide political circles - narrowly edged out Gates in a final vote of 187 to 184 during Saturday's meeting of the Democratic State Central Committee.

Gates is challenging the outcome because he said ballot counters threw out on a technicality seven votes cast for him by members not in attendance Saturday. Party staffers were unclear Saturday night about what specifically was wrong with those ballots.

"There was a misunderstanding on the part of the staff about how the proxies were to be handled. I owe it to the people who voted for me to see that all of their votes count," said Gates, who plans to pursue his challenge within the party but not in court.

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~33999~2747528,00.html