Comments on changing to Unaffiliated.
As you may have heard, I recently changed my party affiliation from Democrat to unaffiliated. I would like to take a minute to explain my thinking behind this move. I am looking forward to serving this coming session as the first unaffiliated member of the General Assembly. My goal is to focus my time and energy on the needs of the district and the state, not on party politics.
This was purely a personal decision based on my feeling that I don’t really fit into any political party. When I first ran in 2004 my goal was to put my experience in the natural resources field to work in the legislature on behalf of my constituents. For the most part I have been able to put that goal into action. But, I have found over the last five years, that
This was a hard decision for me, but the right one. It came down to personal integrity and honesty. I felt it wasn’t right to call myself a Democrat and then not really be on the same page philosophically. I also gave the timing of this decision alot of thought. It is better to set the record straight in time for others to react vs. to wait. I knew that next time I ran for office it would be as an independent and it was best to make that public.
This brings me to the question of next year’s election. I will be running for the seat. The way the laws work in Colorado, if you want to petition on to the ballot as an unaffiliated candidate you must register 17 months before the general election. On the other hand, party candidates have the ability to set their own dates within their party rules for registration requirements. This barrier to ballot access is currently the subject of a lawsuit in federal court, and if the plaintiffs are successful the state law will be found to be unconstitutional. In addition, the plaintiffs in the lawsuit requested last fall that I run a bill to change the registration requirement dates for unaffiliated candidates. When they made that request I did not know that I would be personally impacted if the bill were to be successful. This bill is still being drafted and has support in the legislature. Finally, if it is not possible to petition on to the ballot I will run as a write-in candidate. I intend to campaign hard and win the seat in either event.
State Representative Kathleen Curry
State Capitol
200 East Colfax Ave, Room 200
Denver, CO 80203
(303) 866-2945
kathleen.curry.house@state.co.us
Committee to Elect Kathleen Curry
PO Box 7130
Gunnison, CO 81230