Everett Makes Ballot

The Colorado Secretary of State’s office has validated Senate District 22 Republican candidate Justin Everett‘s petition signatures, with an astonishingly high certification rate – 1,297 of 1,354 submitted signatures were accepted, or 95.8% (compared to about 80 percent for rival Kiki Traylor)! One big reason for that is Justin personally acquired more than half the signatures himself by going door-to-door to meet voters: truly grassroots! Here is an excerpt from his official announcement:

After speaking with voters in our district, it was clear that our message of immigration reform, improving the educational opportunities for our children and practicing true fiscal responsibility represents the opinions of our community. Now we’re in a position to truly win this race.

Only 1,208 of our opponent’s (Kiki Traylor) signatures were accepted out of her 1,500 submitted. That means she had over 5 times more signatures rejected than we did. We had almost 100 more valid signatures from good Republicans in our District. The difference was that we went to the voters in their homes, while her campaign waited for voters to come to her at the supermarkets. Our other opponent received a mere 116 votes at the assembly. We are the campaign with the grassroots support in our District.

After sitting Senator Norma Anderson resigned at the beginning of 2006 to allow her handpicked vacancy committee to anoint Kiki Traylor as a successor, Justin took the high road and bypassed the committee / caucus / assembly process. With today’s news, his plan for victory by connecting with the voters appears so far to be working.

The three-way race is now on for the Republican nomination in the safe Republican district in south Jeffco, and it’s sure to be interesting. Stay tuned.