''State Dems oust leader''

"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. Miles complains that Gates placed fundraising over political conviction and urged donors not to give to his campaign." -from the story today in the Denver Post that downplays any connection to Howard Dean's call for a grassroots Democratic movement: "Gates' apparent ouster comes less than a month after former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean won the national Democratic chairmanship, promising to return the party's power structure back to its liberal roots. Dean's message caught on in North Carolina and Arkansas, where state Democrats recently elected insurgent newcomers as chairmen instead of more establishment candidates. In Colorado, many say Waak's victory stemmed less from a liberal Democratic trend nationally than from a rift in the state party since the 2004 U.S. Senate race." None of the "many" are identified.