Gunnison Rep. Curry files petition with State

Still hopes to be on the ballot but not afraid of being a write-in

Make no mistake, Kathleen Curry is running for the Colorado House of Representatives. The three-term representative to District 61 dropped her affiliation with the Democratic party last December and is running independent of either major political party.

The unaffiliated representative from Gunnison this week submitted a petition to the Colorado Secretary of State to get on the November ballot. Curry joined a lawsuit in federal district court earlier this year trying to overturn a state law that requires more than a year of unaffiliated status before the election to get on the ballot, and she switched party affiliation just six months ago.
If she wins in court, Curry will need 400 signatures to petition her way onto the ballot. Her supporters are confident they have gathered at least that many valid signatures. If she loses in court, she promises to run as a write-in candidate.
“If the petition process doesn’t work out I want to emphasize that I will be moving forward with a successful write-in campaign for the seat,” Curry said. “But my supporters are planning to deliver the petitions to the Secretary of State early this week. We anticipate that the Secretary will find that we have more than the number of signatures needed to petition on to the ballot. I am very appreciative of the time that the volunteers put into this effort. The petitions are being filed in the event that the court finds the current registration requirement for unaffiliated candidates to be unconstitutional.”
Steve Ogden is a volunteer with the campaign and he said just over 750 signatures were turned in to the Secretary of State’s office on Wednesday. “We intended to submit the petition last Thursday, but the Secretary of State was swamped with the major party petition deadlines and appreciated us delaying our submission till this week,” he said. “Four hundred is the minimum number of valid names needed and the Secretary of State estimates that usually 30 percent or so are rejected. We feel comfortable having what we have.”
Roger Wilson of Garfield County will run for the seat as a Democrat. Luke Korkowski, a Mt. Crested Butte attorney, is running as a Republican.