Community organizer and HD28 Democratic candidate Brittany Pettersen is in for a rough day. This morning The Colorado Observer published a brutal piece deconstructing the neatly packaged image Pettersen has been pushing to voters — one that seemingly has little or no correlation with reality.

First, The Observer‘s Leslie Jorgensen and Brian Anderson reveal that a sue-happy Pettersen won’t pay her bills, forcing a court to hold a $20,000 lawsuit settlement in escrow.

In September 2007, Pettersen was being treated by J.A.M. Chiropractic Care, also known as Ascent Health Center, and she hired Denver attorney Clifford Beem to negotiate a personal injury settlement.

Now, Pettersen has filed several lawsuits.  Pettersen has refused to honor her agreement to pay 35 percent of the $20,000 settlement to Beem, and pay $9.223.60 to J.A.M. for treatments.

Because of the dispute, the settlement has been held in escrow since it was awarded in March 2010.

Pettersen claims that Beem’s cut is “unconscionable” and J.A.M. failed to inform her of medical care charges.  Beem and J.A.M.  filed individual countersuits in February this year, and both contend that Pettersen understood and was fully apprised of the charges.  The professionals also disputed Pettersen’s claim that they conspired to deceive her.

This year Pettersen also filed lawsuits against three individuals involved in a multi-car crash in February 2009, two cases have been dismissed for lack of merit, and against the driver of a car involved in a September 2010 accident. The latter case will be heard in July 2013 according to documents and the law office of Christopher M. Robbins.

So, let’s see: Pettersen wins a settlement, but won’t pay her lawyer who won the settlement nor the chiropractor who healed her. Then she files another round of lawsuits in another accident and two of those suits have already been dismissed for lack of merit. Do we smell a trend here?

That’s not even the most brutal aspect of the article. This is:

Her campaign brochure states, “Brittany Pettersen came from a broken home where both of her parents were in trouble with the law. She basically raised herself and her two brothers.”

It is true that her parents Stacy and Brent Pettersen struggled financially, encountered legal problems and endured a troubled marriage. During lean times, the family received help from a grandmother, Wanda L. Pettersen who sold at least one property in Longmont for a million dollars and set up a trust.

Brittany Pettersen’s parents sounded stunned when asked to comment about their daughter’s campaign brochure.

Stacy Pettersen, a hair stylist, said she didn’t know why her daughter would air past legal incidents. Brent Pettersen, a residential contractor, talked openly about the building industry, but asked about the campaign assertions, he thundered, “She’s not my daughter!”

Ummm…wow. We honestly don’t even know what to say. When’s the last time a candidate’s father disowned his daughter in a news article?

Read the full piece here.

A sue-happy community organizer who doesn’t pay her bills and trashes her parents in her campaign literature….now that’s a winning image!

Making matters worse for Pettersen is her Republican opponent, Amy Attwood, is a small business owning mom of two with a long history of leadership in her community. We’d say the voters in HD28 have a pretty clear choice. We’ll let you guess which one is the better option.