The plan.
Most campaigns spend your money on ads about the candidate. This one spends it finding what Denver got wrong, proving it, and running to fix it, then shows you the receipt.
The race
Sarah Parady stepped down from her At-Large seat on Denver City Council on August 5, 2026. That triggers a special election on November 3. One seat, whoever gets the most votes wins, no runoff. The winner serves the rest of the term.
Special elections are decided by the people who show up.
The money
This campaign runs on Denver's Fair Elections Fund: public matching money that exists so regular people can run without calling rich people for a year. The rules that come with it are strict, and we follow all of them:
- People only. No corporate money, no PACs. Donations come from human beings.
- $415 is the legal maximum for any one person, because this campaign takes Denver's Fair Elections Fund and its stricter limits.
- Small gifts get multiplied. The Fund matches small-dollar donations from Denverites, so fifty dollars can become five hundred dollars of work.
- Everything is reported. To the Clerk by law, and on our receipts page by choice.
Then we go one step past the rules: every outbound dollar also goes on the public receipts page, itemized, the week we spend it. The quarterly filing catches up later.
How the 2023 campaigns spent the Fund, every dollar itemized: Your $3.43.
What we spend it on
A Denver organizer, a Denver editor, records requests, and the evidence behind every claim on this site. Neighbors send notes at Your block. We file them with the city and run the clock in public. This is the biggest line in the budget.
Paid Denver professionals at events anyone can walk into, benefits navigators first. Saturday crews with the supplies on us.
Compliance and web hosting. The law requires a treasurer. Ours is a volunteer. No ads, no mailers, no political consultants.
What I'd do with the seat
- Renters and property tax
- Small businesses and rent
- Empty storefronts
- Recycling and the fee
- AI watching us
- The tax on heat
- Visitors chipping in
- Homelessness we don't see
- Data centers
- Working here, living here
A council member elected in this special election holds four powers from day one: a vote on every contract of $500,000 or more, a vote on every confirmation, a microphone, and a calendar. I've made four pledges that spend those powers. They live at the pledges page.
When I ask for your vote
The work comes first. I'll ask for your vote one time, in October, after you've seen what we did with the money. Right now I can show you what the rule does. On council I can ask them on the record, propose the fix, and vote. If you like the work, vote for me. If you don't, vote for someone else. The work happens either way.
Everyone says run government like a business. Nobody says run it like someone who works here. I've worked in this city 24 years and never had a job with health insurance, a retirement plan, or a 401k.
