Week 25: Giving Voters an Option Besides D or R

Dear Colorado Voter,

Greg Lopez and Shimon Blau hit the headlines this week when they both qualified for the November ballot as unaffiliated candidates. They are giving voters another choice in the gubernatorial and U.S. House CD-1 (Denver) contests, respectively – two contests that were not looking very competitive.

Greg Lopez briefly served in the U.S. House in 2024 replacing Ken Buck. Lopez is expected to draw votes mostly from Republicans, but I doubt he'll prevent the Republican from getting 10% of the vote; if he did, the Republican Party would become a minor party – Talk about upsetting the political apple cart!

Bob Chew and I are also giving voters an option besides D or R in the U.S. Senate and Secretary of State races, respectively, but we have yet to hit the headlines.

Chew and I should be on every candidate list, but, without a D or R by our name, the media either haven't done their homework to find out who is on the November ballot or they are purposely ignoring us. We have more money on hand than our Republican opponents. In fact, as of July 27 (the most recent reporting period), I have more money on hand than Greg Lopez!

The media discuss minor-party candidates after a close contest, when the minor-party candidate is often called a spoiler. Think of the 2022 U.S. House CD-8 contest when the D beat the R by 1,632 votes and the Libertarian got 9,280 votes; many people thought the Libertarian votes would have gone to the R if the Libertarian candidate had not run.

I think that my R opponent will get 30% max of the votes, my Libertarian and American Constitution Party opponents will get about 2.5% together, and it'll be a contest between me and the D. I've heard some Democrats fret that my presence in the contest will hand the election to the R. Ain't gonna happen!

Fundraising Update: Thanks to the 81 new donors and the 38 other donors who enabled me to meet my two fundraising goals by August 1! As of July 27, the D had $31,284 on hand, I had $21,929 and the R had $4,867. Setting a fundraising goal was a good idea! Many supporters are happy to donate but are apparently just waiting to be asked. I like a goal of new donors rather than a large monetary goal.

With enthusiasm and purpose,

Celeste