Photo courtesy Sarah Kihm

Sarah Kihm, right, a 20-year-old CU Business Administration and Accounting student, poses with Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, center, at a recent rally. Kihm is one of six locals who are going to the Democratic National Convention as national delegates this summer.

Hard work really paid off for a handful of locals who will attend the August 25-28 Democratic National Convention as national delegates.

Delegates from the May 10 2nd Congressional District (CD) assembly and convention voted to send six delegates to the DNC in Denver. Four of the six are supporters of presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, two support Sen. Hillary Clinton, and the delegates were apportioned based on Saturday’s convention preference poll.

While the national delegate candidates didn’t have to raise millions of dollars and travel like Obama or Clinton, the process was highly competitive. Delegate candidates actively campaigned before and at Saturday’s 2nd CD event, and the DNC hopefuls passed out literature and gave brief speeches at the convention.

Sarah Kihm, a 20-year-old CU Business Administration and Accounting student, emerged as one of the national delegates. She is the CU-Boulder Campus Coordinator for the Obama campaign, and revealed a not-so-secret personal issue on her campaign flier – that she is an Obamaholic.

On Tuesday, she said she was extremely excited to have earned admission to the Pepsi Center floor in August, but also said she walked the walk that was necessary to get there.

“I worked really hard, and I continue to work hard for the campaign,” said Kihm. “It’s always been my opinion and belief that the people we elect as our national delegates should be those that have worked the hardest for the campaign.”

Selected snippets from her flier help illustrate her efforts.

She began volunteering for the campaign in June 2007, helped register 600 students as Democrats before the caucus deadline, and signed up over 1,600 students to caucus for Obama. She organized the Barack to School Rally, helped organize the Barack Rocks event at the Fox Theater, and helped bring the actor Forest Whitaker to CU to speak on behalf of Obama during caucus training.

It wasn’t just because of the students, but caucus turnout in 2008 shattered previous records in Boulder County and other Colorado counties. Turnout for a given candidate was important because caucuses selected delegates for county assemblies, then county assemblies chose delegates for CD and state assemblies, and delegates from the CD and state assemblies select national delegates.

Obama beat Clinton by about a three-to-one ratio in Boulder County caucuses, and roughly two-to-one across the state. The CU student caucus turnout for Obama led to sizable student representation at the county and district levels, and the new national delegate Kihm said she isn’t the only young Obamaholic out there – for a reason.

“Students realize that they need to grasp a hold of their future and take a part in shaping it, because no one else is going to do it for them,” said Kihm. “For me, it was that Obama cares about what I think, what I can do and what I have to say, so why not return the favor?”

Boulder resident and recent CU graduate Shawn Coleman also got the good news earlier this week. Coleman ran for Boulder City Council in 2005 and 2007, and said campaigning for national delegate wasn’t quite as intense as running for council – but said it was a “full-on” campaign nonetheless.

“You’re on the phone, talking to people, sending mailers and handing out fliers,” said Coleman. “I think in a way it was more exciting because of the amount of energy that people have towards the candidate himself.”

Coleman, like Kihm, said he was very excited for the opportunity, and he said he will take his responsibility to the 2nd CD Obama supporters very seriously in Denver.

“One of the things I campaigned on was the representative role of being a delegate, and I think if actual elected representatives took that role a little more seriously, our government would be better,” said Coleman. “No one can tell me to do anything but vote for Barack Obama except the residents of the 2nd CD, and I don’t suspect that they’ll be changing their minds anytime soon.”

A third national delegate, CU Hospital clinical pharmacist Jessica Wittmer of Boulder, said on her flier that she has put in at least 10-20 hours per week on the Obama campaign for the last 14 months. She also told the Daily that she had never really been involved in politics before, and said it’s “amazing” to her that she’ll be at the convention.

“I never in my life thought I’d be on the floor of the DNC – that show that I see on the TV,” said Wittmer. “It’s just really empowering to be part of the grassroots movement that Obama created, and I’m looking forward to it so much.”

But while Obama may have created a grassroots movement, Wittmer ran with it. She said she visited Obama’s Web site after he announced his candidacy, found a social networking site called “MyBarackObama.com,” and started a small Boulder group after not finding one on the site.

She said perhaps 30 people joined in the first month, and the group discussed ways of supporting Obama. Wittmer came up with an idea to set up a booth at the Boulder Creek Festival, and many people signed up to become active supporters.

Wittmer said support “snowballed,” and she “sort of got into a role” as the leader of a group that was eventually named Boulder Grassroots for Obama (BGO). She said she started learning more about precinct organization in Boulder County and Colorado, and said Obama’s margin of victory in the Boulder County caucus had a solid correlation to the spirited local activism.

And it appears as if the national delegate selection had a correlation to the activism of BGO. The group’s endorsement list included Coleman, Kihm and Wittmer – three of the four CD-2 Obama delegates.

The two 2nd CD Clinton delegates at the DNC will be Sacha Millstone of Boulder and Odell Barry of Denver, while Richard Gardner will be the fourth Obama delegate and Wendy Wilson will be an Obama alternate. The Colorado Democratic Party will choose more DNC delegates at the state assembly and convention this Friday and Saturday in Colorado Springs.

Also, former Colorado Sen. Terry Phillips, a Democrat from Louisville, won an election last Saturday to represent the 2nd CD as an Electoral College elector. He said his selection was an honor, but also said he would only get to cast an Electoral College vote in mid-December if the Democratic Party’s nominee wins the state’s popular election.