Spring Break
No part-time gig for Rep. Kefalas
Door-to-door visits surprise voters, residents
Brian Park
Issue date: 7/11/07 Section: News
|
Over the course of the summer the Democratic state representative for House District 52, which includes most of Old Town Fort Collins, is walking door-to-door and asking voters, residents, and whoever else he encounters what's on their mind.
"This energizes me," Kefalas said on a recent Friday afternoon, July 6. "I believe those of us who get elected have a responsibility to go out and connect with people."
Kefalas was a freshman this year in the Colorado legislature, which ended its session in May. Strolling through the neighborhoods he represents, he says, is a way for him to hear if people liked his performance, do not agree with his positions or at least know who he is.
Shannell Sedgwick, fresh in town after living in Orange County, Calif., for years, said so far she's impressed with what she's seen.
"I'm a very politically active, involved person," Sedgwick said, and she rattled off various issues on her political radar: immigration, uranium mining in Nunn, water issues on the Cache La Poudre River, abortion and the funding of a wildlife sanctuary in Keenesburg.
Not only was she surprised to find Kefalas knocking on her door, but also to find out he's a neighbor as well. The representative lives right near the corner of Sycamore and Whitcomb streets in Old Town.
"Oh, that's great," Sedgwick said as she left open the possibility that she might be interested in volunteering for Kefalas in the near future.
Count that knock on her door a success.
The Collegian escorted Kefalas on his tours on the afternoons of July 2 and 6. Both days the temperature hovered around the 90-degree mark, yet Kefalas still came prepared with his clipboard, targeted lists and pamphlets.
He is targeting Democrats who only vote in presidential elections, unaffiliated voters and Republican women who do not vote in primary elections.
Answering the door while still zipping up his pants, Robert Handy had just moved to town from Rifle, but he already had more than a couple issues weighing on his mind.
"I think urban sprawl needs to be addressed big time," Handy said. "I grew up in Boulder, and they did a good job at protecting their green spaces; Fort Collins needs to look at that."
Kefalas sat kneeling on the floor, nodding his head.
Handy then moved on to what he sees as the gentrification and raising of rents in Old Town - a sort of defacto discrimination that moves minorities and poorer communities outside of town.
Be the first to comment on this story