Controversial treasurer in Adams County, Lisa Culpepper, fails to make ballot

Embattled Adams County Treasurer Lisa Culpepper has been stymied in her effort to reclaim her seat in November, failing to get enough votes from delegates at the county’s Democratic assembly over the weekend to make the fall ballot.

“The county’s final,” said Adams County Democrats Chair Lori Goldstein, noting that it is too late for Culpepper to collect signatures to get on the ballot.

Instead, Alex Villagran will appear as the Democratic candidate for treasurer on the June 28 primary ballot. Goldstein said Villagran received 77.8% of the delegates’ votes on Saturday to 22.2% for Culpepper, who was sued by the Adams County commissioners last fall on claims that she had not properly managed the county’s finances.

In January, the county’s finance director warned that because of a lack of communication between Culpepper’s office and other county departments, an annual audit may not get completed on time, resulting in the possible withholding of millions of dollars in county property tax proceeds by the state.

The commissioners want a judge to hand management of her department over to a receiver. The lawsuit has not yet been adjudicated.

Culpepper, through her attorney, told The Denver Post on Tuesday that she is “considering her options both electorally and legally.”

“The Treasurer believes that the meritless legal claims brought by the Adams County Board of County Commissioners and trumpeted at the Assembly last Saturday were the principal — if not exclusive — cause of the result,” wrote attorney J. Kirk McGill in an email. “In what appears to be the first time in Colorado history, elected officials have abused the legal system to influence (if not alter) the outcome of an election.”

Goldstein said her role as chair of the Adams County Democrats is to remain neutral in political contests, but added, “people who were interested in this office should have been contacting delegates and asking for their support.”

Earlier this month, Culpepper filed notice that she intends to sue Adams County for engaging in a “criminal enterprise” with the aim to “damage her reputation and cause her reelection bid to fail.”

Culpepper first took office in 2019 and her term ends in January 2023.

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