The plan.
Most campaigns take your money and spend it on ads about the candidate. This one takes your money and spends it on your block, then shows you the receipt.
The race
Sarah Parady is stepping down from her At-Large seat on Denver City Council on August 5, 2026. That triggers a special election this November. 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 neighborhood 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.
What we spend it on
Neighbors tell us what their block needs at Your block. We pick what we can get done, hire Denver people to do it, and post the receipt. This is most of the budget.
Repair clinics, cleanup crews, paperwork help. Show up, get the thing fixed.
A photographer, a videographer, and this site, so the proof exists and anyone can check it.
A treasurer the law requires, a part-time coordinator, printing, and web hosting. No consultants and no TV ads.
When I ask for your vote
I'm not asking now. The work has to come first, or the whole thing is just another slogan. In October, when the receipts are up and you can judge the work, I'll ask once: if you like what we did with your money, vote for me so we can do it from inside City Hall. If you don't, vote for someone else. The work happened either way.
My day job stays out of it
I work in Denver events for a company my wife also works for. That company and this campaign do not touch. No shared money, no shared email lists, no shared vendors, no campaign events at its festivals. I name it when I'm asked, because it's a fact about me, and it appears nowhere in this campaign. The full exclusion list goes up on the receipts page when the committee registers, and our treasurer clears the gray areas with the Denver Clerk in writing before we spend.
Start with the note
That's the whole model. If it makes sense to you, start with the note.