Cheyenne to host Nellie Tayloe Ross Banquet, CO House Speaker Terrance Carroll to deliver Keynote Address

Cheyenne to host Nellie Tayloe Ross Banquet

Colorado House Speaker Terrance Carroll to deliver Keynote Address

CHEYENNE – Nearly 200 Democrats from across the state will gather in Cheyenne on Saturday, Feb. 27, for the 2010 Nellie Tayloe Ross Banquet, the state party’s annual Celebration of Diversity in Politics and Government.

This year’s keynote speaker will be Colorado State House Speaker Terrance Carroll, a dynamic speaker who is both an ordained minister and an attorney from Denver. He is the first African-American to hold the position of Speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives.

Among the other event highlights will be the announcement of the Nellie Tayloe Ross Award for outstanding contributions to the state and the Democratic Party.

The dinner follows a 1 p.m. meeting of the Wyoming Democratic Party Central Committee at the Plains Hotel at the corner of Lincolnway and Central Avenue. No-host cocktails begin at 6 p.m., followed by the dinner at 7 p.m., also at the Plains.

Tickets are still available for the dinner. They are $75 per person. People can reserve tickets by calling 800-729-3367, or by visiting http://www.wyomingdemocrats.com/. A very limited number will also be available at the door.

The annual event honors Nellie Tayloe Ross, who was elected to fill her husband's unexpired term as governor following his death in 1924. Campaigning in a "dignified and honest manner," Ross' straightforward approach helped her win against the Republican nominee, who was caught up in a special interest scandal. The state party's dinner honors that example and our shared Democratic values. In her first speech as governor, Ross reflected those values calling for "government assistance for poor farmers, banking reform, and laws protecting children, women workers, and miners."

About Colorado State House Speaker Terrance D. Carroll

Terrance Carroll represents far northeastern Denver in the Colorado House. Speaker Carroll is an attorney with Greenberg Traurig, LLP. He is also an ordained minister in the American Baptist Churches USA, and he is a graduate of the Summer Leadership Institute at Harvard University Divinity Schools Center for the Study of Values in Public Life and John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Speaker Carroll has spoken extensively on the role of faith in public discourse, education reform, criminal justice reform, immigration, and voting rights. Speaker Carroll has spoken before such diverse groups as the Anti-Defamation League, Denver Rotary Club, the Colorado Libertarian Party Convention, Colorado State Judicial Conference, and the Colorado District Attorneys Council.

In 2006, he was named a Marshall Memorial Fellow by the German Marshall Fund of the United States, a public policy institute dedicated to promoting greater understanding between the United States and Europe.

Speaker Carroll has served as a member of the Colorado Secretary of States Blue Ribbon Election Panel, which conducted a comprehensive review of Colorados election law. Speaker Carroll is a member of the Colorado Lawyers Committees Election Law Task Force; an executive council member of the Minoru Yasui Inns of Court; and on the Board of the Colorado Lawyer Chapter of the American Constitution Society.

Speaker Carroll graduated with honors from Morehouse College in Atlanta with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science. He received a Master of Divinity degree from the Iliff School of Theology in Denver. He also has a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Denver College of Law.