Book Review: The Blueprint, How the Democrats Won Colorado

While Republicans are catching up or holding their own in some states, they are still losing elections in places where they should be winning, like Virginia, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere.

As a full-time political operative back in the 1980s and early 90s, I remember Colorado being a reliable, even sleepy, Republican state. The GOP controlled the governorship, both US Senate seats, and five of the state’s then-seven congressional districts (they now have eight).

That was true up until 2004. Then something happened. Within four years, it had practically reversed. Beginning that year, Colorado Democrats began to reverse their fortunes. And in doing so, created a model that has been exported to dozens of other states, including Virginia. This was documented in the book “The Blueprint” by Adam Schrager, an Emmy Award-winning journalist from Wisconsin, and Rob Witwer, an attorney, former counsel to the Colorado GOP, a former Republican member of the Colorado House of Representatives, and a Denver attorney.

I hear you asking, “Why are you reviewing a nearly 16-year-old book?” Perhaps you’re asking, even as someone who is politically attuned and active, “Why should I care?” Because it remains as relevant as ever, and Republicans everywhere have, with a few exceptions, failed to heed its lessons, no more so than in Virginia in their disastrous 2025 election.

Did you read the book? Maybe if you did, and acted upon it, I wouldn’t need to write this. But here I am.

“They (authors Schrager and Witwer) show how a small group of wealthy liberal activists in Colorado has essentially replaced the traditional Democratic Party organization with a new one that can work around campaign finance laws. What’s more, they suggest that this new form of political party may be more efficient than the old one, as it’s decentralized and more strategic in allocating campaign resources.”

Seth Masket, professor of political science and Director, Center on American Politics, University of Denver

Today, while the GOP still hangs on to half the state’s House seats, with at least one of them in peril this year (the new 8th District), they’ve lost five consecutive gubernatorial races and don’t hold a single one of Colorado’s five statewide offices, and haven’t for a while. They lost control of the state House and Senate two decades ago and aren’t close to getting it back. Incumbent senior US Senator Michael Bennet (D) is heavily favored to slide into the Governor’s chair, replacing the term-limited Jared Polis.

Polis and three other wealthy, tech- and business-savvy progressives, two of whom, including Polis, are gay, are featured prominently in the book, along with a couple of other people I know and respect, including the late Rob Stein.

Stein and I, in the 1990s, with Rob Fersh, helped launch the predecessor of what is now called the Convergence Center for Policy Resolution with a focus on bridging partisan divides to find solutions on challenging issues and seemingly intractable problems. Stein, the former Clinton Administration official who passed away in 2022, earning a lengthy obit in the New York Times written by George Soros fanboy Ken Vogel, would soon depart our organization with other thoughts in mind. That included, in 2005, launching the smartly constructed and very successful Democracy Alliance, best described by Google Gemini AI:

The Democracy Alliance (DA), founded by Democratic strategist Rob Stein in 2005, is a private, invitation-only network of progressive donors, labor unions, and foundations designed to build a permanent, well-funded infrastructure for the left. Often described as a “liberal donor club,” it functions as a, middleman, directing, hundreds of millions of dollars toward vetted organizations focused on policy reform, media monitoring, and voter mobilization.

George Soros is one of the multi-million-dollar founding contributors of the Democracy Alliance. And the Democracy Alliance is still alive and well, among many other entities it serves as the umbrella organization for.

The Blueprint describes how Stein was taken by the Democrats’ success in Colorado and parlayed that into a legendary PowerPoint presentation entitled “The Conservative Message Machine Money Matrix,” having been impressed by the once-formidable Heritage Foundation and the conservative community’s then-well-funded political infrastructure.

Stein looked to trump (no pun intended) the conservative “machine” that led to GOP successes during the Clinton and Bush eras. He brought his PowerPoint to the 2008 National Democratic Convention in Denver and pointed to the Colorado Democratic model of success as the way forward.

He largely succeeded.

“Had we been here four years ago,” Schrager and Witwer quote Stein, “there would have been virtually no credible capabilities that we could talk about that in any way, shape, or form could be seen as fairly competitive with the enormous machinery that the Right as built.

“But,” Stein continued, “there has never, in the history of progressivedom, been a clearer, more strategic, more focused, more disciplined, better financed group of institutions operating at the state and national level.”

He was talking about what Colorado progressives - specifically ProFlowers-founder-now-Governor Jared Polis, billionaire businesswoman Pat Stryker, “moderate” activist Rutt Bridges, and gay activist billionaire Tim Gill, the “Gang of Four” - built by applying their successful business approach with lots of money to replace the moribund and ineffective Colorado Democratic Party.

And it has been, perhaps, reaching its zenith not with Barack Obama’s election and reelection, but with scores of local school board and state legislative triumphs in smaller states, where strategic investments could go farther and be more successful. Eventually, success would trickle up to the federal level. It arguably reached its peak in 2020, after taking advantage of the Covid-19 pandemic to change election laws and procedures everywhere, where the progressive infrastructure was well prepared to do so.

To be fair, a few states have gone in the opposite direction. Florida comes to mind. And despite efforts to duplicate the progressive Colorado blueprint that allowed them to buck a GOP wave in the 2010 Obama midterm election, Texas remains reliably red so far, but fundamental things are afoot, and a contentious GOP primary for US Senate is a very bad omen and further evidence that Republicans have learned little from Colorado’s Democratic success.

Following Democratic successes in 2004 and 2006, a former Clinton Administration progressive activist took note. He had been pitching lefty millionaires and billionaires, including George Soros. We may have Stein to thank for Soros’ involvement in bankrolling progressive politics, including bankrolling non-prosecuting prosecutors in places like Philadelphia (Larry Krasner) and Fairfax County, Virginia (Steve Descano), among others.

From the book:

“As Stein knew, there was nothing terribly complicated about what Colorado progressives did. First, they built a robust network of nonprofit entities to replace the Colorado Democratic Party, which has been rendered obsolete by campaign-finance reform. Second, they raised historic amounts of money from large donors to fund these entities. Third, they recruited candidates with longstanding ties to their communities. Fourth, they developed a consistent, topical message about their strengths and the opposition’s weaknesses. Fifth, and most important, they put aside their policy differences to focus on the common goal of winning elections (emphasis added).”

With a few exceptions, Republicans suck on all five points, from recruiting candidates to connecting with swing voters on the issues they care about. In Virginia, now-former Gov. Glen Youngkin figured it out four years ago; the hapless Winsome Sears didn’t, and dragged the entire party down in defeat as a result.

The Blueprint goes on to describe, in excruciatingly painful detail, how a Gang of Four (Polis, Stryker, Bridges, and Gill) was able to leverage their considerable personal resources and business acumen to build a diverse array of progressive nonprofits and a powerful, well-funded ground game to defeat Republicans in statehouse races. As importantly, they were better at using issues than culturally-conservative-focused Republicans, whom they also divided over those same issues. While cultural issues are important, most middle-of-the-road voters are way more focused on practical issues like schools, crime, affordability, and infrastructure. Democrats addressed those issues; Republicans didn’t, or failed at trying.

The Gang of Four assembled the several horsemen of the apocalypse - big labor, teacher unions, enviros, trail lawyers, and environmentalists - which provided not just additional dollars but ground troops complement their extensive mail and digital media. Money was no problem.

Colorado Republicans did try to respond by building their own singular organization, the Trailhead Group, but it largely failed. The vast, diverse network of Democratic organizations kept tying up the Trailhead Group and their candidates through lawsuits, accusations, and elsewhere, keeping the GOP on the defensive. And the Democratic organizations were so diverse and numerous that the GOP had a hard time determining where to shoot back.

Having a left-leaning media in Colorado (and elsewhere) was a significant advantage, though the book spends little time on it.

The book rightly points out the lack of integrity in much of the advertising message directed at GOP candidates and incumbents. The story of former US Rep. Marilyn Musgrave is worth mentioning.

“For years, Colorado Democrats hoped to unseat Musgrave. She was out of touch, they argued, pushing conservative social issues while the nation fought a war on terrorism, struggled with increasing energy prices, and began to experience the pains of a slowing economy.

“At the heart of Democratic passion was Musgrave’s attempt to ban gay marriage through an amendment to the US Constitution. For Gill and Stryker in particular taking out Musgrave became a matter of personal interest.

“In 2004, The Roundtable funded 527 ads showing an actress in a pink suit perpetrating foul deeds. The ads were so aggressive that The New York Times gave one a ‘simpleton award’ for being an ‘intelligence-insulting attack ad.”

They didn’t stop there. One of the Democracy Alliance-connected groups, the Center for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW), released a report entitled ‘Beyond Delay: The 13 Most Corrupt Members of Congress.’ Among the eleven Republicans and two Democrats named by the report was Musgrave. . .”

The media picked up the report, even though a Greeley Tribune fact-check proved it false. No matter. Damage done. The Democracy Alliance-backed candidate and effort kept running with it. Progressives have long embraced the notion that the ends justify the means. I wonder where they got that from?

Never back down, never apologize. Very much a Saul Alinsky-inspired campaign. And it worked. And people wonder why Donald Trump has embraced the same approach.

What gets rewarded gets repeated.

I’m not sure Rob Stein, who was long involved in the civility movement and worked to reach across ideological and partisan lines on many issues, inspired that, but he never denounced or repudiated it. Shame. Power is an intoxicating aphrodisiac. Even for Rob Stein. I’m sorry he’s not here to defend himself. Maybe his friends who are readers here will. I invite them to do so.

Let’s wrap up with Virginia and its upcoming April 21 referendum on a new, extremely gerrymandered congressional map. History may repeat itself.

Virginia Democrats in 2025 ran on an “affordability” agenda, vaguely undefined, while GOP gubernatorial nominee Winsome Sears ran a horrible and lazy campaign focused on social issues. GOP voters mostly stayed home while swing voters joined Democrats to support the entire Democratic ticket. New Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger built her political career as a moderate, but if her first month is any indication, she’s anything but. She’s already put policies in place that are guaranteed to raise utility prices and may sign legislation to raise and broaden taxes.

She’s already signed off on legislation for an extreme gerrymander that anchors most of the state’s congressional districts to deep-blue, bureaucrat-rich DC suburbs. Northern Virginia would literally control the entire commonwealth, and rural voters, like me, would be completely disenfranchised.

Was that part of the Rob Stein playbook? Maybe not, but that’s how it has worked out.

Here’s the lesson for the GOP, especially in Virginia, and pay careful attention.

What initially prompted the Democratic takeover of Colorado was a Republican effort to reapportion congressional districts mid-term in a very arrogant way. Guess what Democrats in Virginia just did?

Will Virginia Republicans learn from their counterparts in Colorado? We’ll see. The signs are mixed. There are two organizations, not one, working to overturn the new Democratic maps: one led by former Attorney General and likely GOP gubernatorial nominee (2029) Jason Miyares, and another led by former US Sen. George Allen (R-VA) and former Democratic State Senator Chap Peterson (D-Falls Church). Meanwhile, Democracy-Alliance-inspired organizations are busy at work to pass the new maps.

The Miyares organization strikes me as the better vehicle. The Allen-Peterson one started with an ActBlue account for donations (a Democratic link) that didn’t work. Sen. Allen, whom I love, has clearly lost a step. I have no problem with multiple organizations being involved, but a coordinated effort focused on the ground game, fundraising, and a solid media campaign would be nice. I’m not optimistic, given the terrible track record of Virginia Republicans in recent elections.

There are 299 progressive grassroots organizations in Virginia, and a very well-organized entity pushing the new maps. Here’s evidence of their work:

And here:

And here:

Arrogant, power-mad Democrats in Virginia, just as with over-reaching Republicans in Colorado more than 20 years ago, have given the GOP a ripe opportunity to reorganize and build, accentuated with a crazy array of lunatic tax-raising and legislative pay-raising bills in Richmond.

Are they smart enough to learn from the Colorado experience? The jury is out, and it’s not promising.