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Democrats Ken Toltz, Kristopher Larsen jump into crowded 2nd Congressional District primary

By Ernest Luning 10/05/2017 | updated 8 years ago

Gun control activist and businessman Ken Toltz and Nederland Mayor Kristopher Larsen, an actual rocket scientist at the University of Colorado, announced this week they’re jumping into the crowded Democratic primary for the 2nd Congressional District seat held by Democrat Jared Polis, a candidate for governor.

They join a primary field that includes former CU Regent Joe Neguse – he stepped down earlier this summer as executive director of Colorado’s Department of Regulatory Agencies and lost a race for secretary of state in 2014 – along with former Boulder Democratic Party Chairman Mark Williams and Loveland resident Howard Dotson.

“It’s time to elect leaders who will bring evidence based decision making back to Congress, particularly when it comes to science-based issues like Climate Change,” Larsen wrote in a Facebook post announcing his campaign. “Come join me as I set out on this adventure.”

“If I were in Congress this morning, I’d be filing bills,” Toltz wrote in an email to supporters following the mass shooting in Las Vegas that left at least 58 dead and more than 500 injured.

“Bills on background checks. Bills to close gun show loopholes. Bills for firearm disclosure in public buildings, bills for trigger locks and gun safes in public places. Bills banning long guns within half a mile of public gatherings. If I were a member of Congress, I’d put so many bills in the hopper the clerk would need a bigger box.”

Both said they were considering runs in the heavily Democratic district soon after Polis launched his gubernatorial bid, and Toltz formed an exploratory committee in late August.

Libertarian Todd Mitchem and independent candidate Nicholas Thomas have filed to run for the seat, but Republicans have yet to field a candidate. The district, which includes Boulder, Larimer and Broomfield counties and mountain counties stretching up Interstate 70 to Vail,  has been represented by Democrats for more than four decades.

Toltz lost a congressional bid in 2000 when he ran against Republican incumbent Tom Tancredo in the deep red 6th Congressional District – a dozen years before that seat was redrawn into an evenly divided swing district. In the wake of the Columbine High School shootings, Toltz focused his campaign on preventing gun violence and later founded the Safe Campus Colorado organization.

Ernest Luning

Reporter

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