Democrats are spending big this year in Jefferson County to install more teachers’ union hacks on the local board of education.
Despite the immense financial support, one candidate on the union slate by the name of Mary Parker has curiously ran her campaign into almost $9,000 of debt.
Parker is a well-known perennial loser in Jefferson County, having run unsuccessfully for HD-22 in 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2020.
To be clear, a candidate carrying debt in a local race like this is somewhat unusual but not unheard of. However, filings from her last run for office suggest a pattern of incompetence when it comes to managing her campaign’s finances.
Campaign finance filings from her 2020 HD-22 loss against State House Rep. Colin Larson reveal a series of contributions, including some from her own family, that appear to unlawfully exceed the $400 statutory limit for individual contributors.
Among the more flagrant examples, Parker appears to have accepted double the statutory limit in aggregate contributions from three separate individuals, including one person who appears to be her relative.
$450 from Megan Parker
$800 from Steven Parker
$550 from Tami Parker
$575 from Jenny Guenther
$600 from Jason Guenther
$800 from Paul Franke
$580 from Dee Buckley
$800 from Kim McCreedy
$700 from Michael McCreedy
Mercifully for Parker, there is a 90 day limit in place for campaign finance complaints with respect to potentially unlawful contributions like these.
Given she got soundly beaten by Larson we imagine there wasn’t really an appetite at the time to go through the motions and pursue these complaints against her.
Bear in mind that Parker has been on the ballot for General Assembly going back to 2012, so it’s not as if she was some newcomer who could claim inexperience to excuse her ignorance of Colorado campaign finance rules.
But now that she’s on the ballot again for JeffCo school board it’s worth asking whether this person is competent and responsible enough to run for local dog catcher, much less have a say in the education of children in Jefferson County.