Meet the minor party candidates running for Colorado's Fourth Congressional District, which covers the Eastern Plains and some Front Range suburbs, including Highlands Ranch, Castle Rock, Parker and Loveland.
Frank Atwood — Approval Voting Party
Atwood is using his candidacy to raise public awareness about approval voting, which he summed up at a forum in June as “vote for one, vote for some, or vote for all but one.”
Atwood is something of a perennial candidate; since 2004 he has run for U.S. Senate, president, vice president and representative for the First Congressional District, in that case as a Libertarian. Earlier this year, he ran in the special vacancy election to fill the remainder of Rep. Ken Buck’s final term, gaining slightly less than two percent of the vote.
At a forum for that race, he made it clear that his only focus is on spreading the word about approval voting — and pitching it as a superior option to ranked-choice voting — and refused to answer most questions on other policy areas.
Hannah Goodman — Libertarian Party
Hannah Goodman is the Chairwoman of the Libertarian Party of Colorado. Goodman’s roots in eastern Colorado go back to the late 19th century. Her family has owned a fuel-hauling business that her husband now works for. Goodman is homeschooling her children and said that makes her particularly interested in issues around education.
Goodan was also a candidate in the special vacancy election earlier this year to fill the remainder of Rep. Ken Buck’s term. At a forum for that race, Goodman was asked whether, in a budget battle, she’d be willing to shut down the government if a spending plan didn’t meet her priorities, Goodman answered, “I’d preemptively shut down the federal government, regardless of any budgetary concerns, because it is such a monolithic behemoth.”
Goodman, at the same forum, said she would vote against public benefits programs, like SNAP, and also push to lower taxes. She garnered just over five percent of the vote in that race.
Paul Noel Fiorino, Unity Party
Fiorino has run for Colorado governor four separate times, as well as senator in 2016 and mayor of Denver three times. According to his website, he is a longtime member of the Denver arts community and champions affordable housing, including a recent law that gives local governments a better chance to buy affordable apartment buildings when they come on the market. Fiorino would like to see the policy expanded. The Unity Party’s main principles are, “people before party, freedom for the individual, everyone's voice matters and security for the society,” according to its website.
