Northern Colorado Gazette

by Jack Minor –

Going into its first election as a major party, the Weld County American Constitution party will be holding its caucuses at 7:00 p.m. Tuesday evening at the Platteville Baptist Church.

In 2010, the American Constitution Party garnered just over 36 percent of the total votes cast in the gubernatorial election, making it a major political party under Colorado law. In order to qualify for this status a party must receive at least 10 percent of the votes in a gubernatorial election. Once it achieves this status, it maintains the designation until the next gubernatorial election.

Prior to this designation the ACP was organized primarily at the state level. Doug Aden, chairman of the Weld County Executive Committee for the ACP, said Tuesday’s caucus meeting will be held solely for the purpose of choosing delegates for the state and national level. At this time the Weld County ACP does not have any candidates that have expressed interest in running for local or county offices.

Aden said while there are benefits to being a major party, there are significant challenges as well, especially for the first time through the process.

“We want to do everything as official as we possibly can. While we are classified as a major party, we don’t have all the machinery in place like the GOP or Democratic parties,” he said. “There are counties with precincts that will not have any representation because there is not anybody there.”

Aden said the ACP has approximately 250 members in Weld County and they made an attempt to reach out to all of them.

Despite the challenges the ACP is facing with being a major party, there are benefits as well. In partisan elections, major party candidates are placed at the top of the ballot. Additionally, the State and counties are responsible for the cost of major party primary elections.

Platteville Baptist Church is located at 311 Salisbury in Platteville.

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