The Colorado Sun abruptly ended the political career of Democratic Senate Candidate Denise Burgess on Thursday.
The campaign was four days old.
The sudden death came just hours after reporter Jesse Paul submitted written questions about the candidate’s history of federal tax liens to the Burgess campaign.
Instead of responding to the 4 p.m. deadline, Burgess ended her campaign at 3 p.m.
What appeared as a gusty move for Burgess to jump into the race, even as the Democratic establishment was pushing out the competition in order to crown John Hickenlooper as the chosen one, was instead just a flash in the pan.
The Sun found at least four federal tax liens under Burgess’ name dating back to 1998 and totaling nearly $165,000, whose company managed part of the construction of the Westin and transportation plaza at Denver International Airport. That’s in addition to several liens filed against her construction management business, including for failure to pay employee payroll taxes.
At least one of those liens remains outstanding, her campaign acknowledged to The Sun on Wednesday. The most recent Internal Revenue Service lien leveled against her was for $67,957 in unpaid personal individual income taxes from the 2014 tax year, records show.
Did Burgess think that because she was a Democrat, the media wouldn’t bother to check out her background?
After all, Hickenlooper connived to skate around financial disclose this year for his campaign activities. And as governor, Hick only released summaries, not his full tax returns.
Here’s what Burgess had to say in ending her campaign:
“As of this afternoon, I decided to end my campaign for the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate. But, make no mistake about it, I am going to keep working to make sure that Democrats win back the Senate seat and that Democrats all across the state are elected next November.”
Keep working, that’s the spirit, Burgess! Only this time, make sure you pay your taxes.