In politics, it’s important to find candidates you feel you can trust, right?
Did you get Gunner Gunstanson’s robo-call this weekend? He says Karen Harrison has taken money from former U.S. Senator Bill Armstrong, the president of Colorado Christian University. Well, actually, he didn’t say that. What he did say was that his opponent (Harrison) “a member of the city’s planning commission, accepted her largest donation, a cool thousand bucks, from the president of Colorado Christian University?” It didn’t take long to check Harrison’s finance records (found here, FYI it is a PDF so you will need to download it) to decipher Gunner was speaking of Armstrong.
So why is this significant? Because Armstrong and CCU have a pending case in front of the Planning Commission.
Kinda smells, doesn’t it?
There’s more.
On Harrison’s website she lists one of her “mission statements” as, “Protect and increase our greenbelt, open space and parkland in Lakewood. Identify new parcels of land that could be used as small local parks or greenbelt. Explore the opportunity of more community gardens and other self-sustaining programs.”
This doesn’t pass the smell test either, as Harrison is is backed by the very people — Mayor Bob Murphy, Council member Diana Wilson, etc. — who voted to spend your your tax dollars and mine to the tune of almost $100,000 all in an effort to hand over an 11-acre parcel of park land to the JeffCo School District. To be fair, JeffCo claims ownership, but only after the city of Lakewood maintained it as a park for MORE THAN 30 years.
Harrison is also backed by the same people who voted to “level the playing field” with their new campaign finance reform, which passed a couple of weeks ago. I’m told that Harrison recently was asked if she would recuse herself when CCU’s case came up, either before the Planning Commission or Council, should she be elected. I’m told she gave a “very lame” answer, according to the person who told me, that indicated she would not recuse herself.
So, if you haven’t yet voted — remember, this is a mail-in election and ballots are due back by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 5 — consider this: Do you want someone who has openly taken a fairly large sum of money, who has acknowledged she won’t recuse herself when it comes to this donor, making decisions that affect your daily life?
I sure as hell don’t. Please join me in proudly casting a vote for Gunner, who has shown he has the wherewithall to stand up to people such as Sen. Armstrong and Mayor Murphy.