( – promoted by Colorado Pols)
According to documents filed with the Colorado Secretary of State’s office on Thursday, December 29th, Brian Carroll will again be seeking election to Colorado’s 28th House District.
Carroll originally filed to run for HD28 in the midst of the reapportionment process and got significant press coverage as the first openly gay soldier to run for political office after the historic repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” which effectively ended in the summer of 2011.
However, his district already had an incumbent Democrat, Representative Andy Kerr, who quickly mobilized an impressive list of pro-LGBT rights individuals and organizations for a fundraiser.
After several days of pressure, Carroll withdrew his candidacy and accepted a position as interim Chair of the first Colorado Democratic Veterans and Military Council for the Colorado Democratic Party.
However, when the final district maps were approved in December, Rep. Andy Kerr (D), Rep Ken Summers (R), and Rep. Max Tyler (D), were all placed into HD23, and Republican HD23 candidate Amy Attwood was moved into HD28 and was now the sole candidate for that seat.
Shortly after, both Kerr and Summers announced that they will be running for the Senate in district 22, rather than take on Rep. Tyler.
All of this shuffling provided an opportunity for Carroll, who many considered to be an ideal candidate running at the wrong time, to reactivate his campaign for the State House.
District 28, while relatively balanced in voter registration, tends to lean Democratic in voting history.
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…this could be a good get at the right time.
Unfortunately, the “wrong time” thing wasn’t just about Kerr’s incumbency; Carroll also is pretty new to the district and doesn’t seem to have a lot of familiarity with local issues as far as I can tell. I hope he’s reaching out to leaders in the community to learn, and I hope he’s going to walk a LOT of precincts, starting right now.
than just being a gay veteran
A gay disabled vet? 🙂
I did include the “just kidding” smiley face!
emoticons and strange abbreviations often escape my notice or understanding
what the hell does IOKYAR mean anyway?
so as not to reveal myself as an old fogie. Well at least not a completely 100% clueless 100 year old fogie anyway. Nobody’s ever going to mistake me online for a young techie or hipster.
“what the hell” that gave it away . . . W-T-F is where it’s at these days.
Anyone running on equality in almost any district should save their time and energy.
Anyone running for office as “vote for me – I am a disabled veteran”, should save their time and energy.
A first question is “why are you running for office?. If your answer is “People will vote for me because I am X” – forget it.
If Brian or his manager want to talk give me a call.
I know Brian and he is a good guy. I will not easily forgive him for running against Kerr. Then taking a job as a buy off, and then getting back in. Please.
If he doesn’t get back in, the seat doesn’t have a dem candidate. Do you have someone better in mind? Or would you prefer to elect Amy Attwood?
I can think of about 3 or 4 people who have lived and worked in Lakewood for a number of years and would make excellent candidates. And I haven’t even opened up my rolodex. He’s going to have to do a lot more than have good intentions to just move into the district and expect everyone to fear Amy so much that they’ll thank him for riding in on his white horse to save the Colorado House from her. And here he is entering the race for the 2nd time and I still haven’t heard from any of the grassroots activists in the district saying that he has talked with them.
Running for the legislature is a tough decision. It is a temporary job and likely pays less than whatever job the person would be leaving to do it.
I don’t know Brian Carroll from a hole in the wall, but I wouldn’t hold the in-and-out during the confusion of redistricting against him.
I am more concerned about the advice he was receiving when he thought he was challenging Kerr. Hopefully, he has found better voices to listen to in the interim.
I will get over it but that was the problem. Dem’s don’t run against good Dem’s. If Brian is the only one running now I wish him well.
But it is just after the end of the year holidays and the districts were only finalized a couple weeks ago. I suspect that there are several people considering this open seat, especially since it leans Dem.
I, too, hope that he is getting better advice than he did the first go around. And I hope that one of those advisors is telling him “Call your fellow Dems in the district.”
I mean, you could step up and run for the seat. That makes much more sense than resenting someone else doing it.
Sheesh.
The nerve of the guy.
Carroll’s decision to take on Kerr, described by gay-rights activists as a “pro-equality hero,” has puzzled a number of Democrats, including Kerr.
“I asked him why he wanted to fire me and he said, ‘You’ll find out during the campaign,'” Kerr said.
Brian Carroll is a young, ambitious, idealistic principle-driven gay man. His initial run in HD28 was encouraged by an even more ambitious young gay man who needed a job as a campaign manager. They figured a run for the seat would get Brian name recognition and some attention for future runs, which judging by people’s fascination with him on Pols, has done exactly that. Andy Kerr’s job and record on gay rights was pretty much irrelevant to the entire scenario.
When Kerr’s campaign manager had a cow about a potential primary, he called many of us who know Brian asking us to beg him to leave the race, so precious campaign resources would not be wasted in a primary. We did. Brian easily backed down. Brian is a good Dem, and wants what’s best for everyone.
Brian is entering the race again after Kerr decided to run for higher office — this time with Kerr’s blessing (or so I am told). Anyone else who is interested in the seat is free to throw their hat in the ring. May the best man or woman win.
Good luck, Brian. Proud to have a CPL brother in the race.
1. I don’t blame Kerr’s manager for having a cow. If I were his manager, I would have done the same thing.
2. I don’t know Brian that well, and am looking forward to getting to know him better in the years to come. I admire him for his ambition, his courage and his personal politics. Is he the best candidate in the area? I have no idea.
To Denver Blues — when is any candidate obligated to talk to every single former or potential leader in the area before annoucing a run? Isn’t that what primaries are for (to decide who the best candidate will be from a pool of those who are interested)?
I said ANY. I haven’t heard from ANY of the grassroots Dems in the district (old or new) who have heard from him. The precinct leaders and captains. These people are not kingmakers. They are the ones who will be out there talking to their neighbors and knocking on doors for him or would help him get nominated. If he wants to get rid of the carpetbagger label, you’d think he would want to talk to some of those people.
Yes, you have no base if you leave out the party regulars in your area. Agree. ANY is very different from EVERY. I think we all know who advised him to run orginally, and that person is not well-connected with long-time party members, IMHO.
Carroll’s campaign manager wasn’t gay, though his fundraiser was (and posts on here all the time). And Carroll’s decision to run for the open seat after reapportionment was finalized didn’t have anything to do whether Kerr decided to run for higher office — the new maps put them in different House districts. But, as others have pointed out, there are other Dems who’ve run before who have a good chance of getting into this race, so Carroll might wind up with a primary in any case, just not against an incumbent Dem.
I thought his fundraising guy was the manager. Glad to hear you-know-who is sticking to fundraising. He is quite good at it, but I am not as impressed by his management style, and have told him that directly.
Hope things are going well for you, RedGreen! Happy New Year!
…Dems need to win this one. We have every advantage here even in the worst environment. If Brian Carroll isn’t the one to run, there has to be some ambitious up and coming Dem who would love to run for a seat like this.
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