Democratic Socialists Claim Local Victories in Colorado School Board Races

By: Sherrie Peif | Complete Colorado

FORT COLLINS – An unusual twist on candidate support appears to have paid off for the Fort Collins chapter of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) – an overtly extreme left-wing organization.

The socialism advocacy group officially “endorsed” just one candidate, Zoelle Lane in Fort Collins City Council District 5,  while “recommending” two dozen others in local races around northern Colorado the DSA said “represent our chapter’s best advice to voters,” including a pair of Republican school board candidates in Greeley.

Although their lone endorsement lost her bid for city council, the group’s recommendations were successful in 15 out of 22 other races, including clean sweeps on both the Greeley Evans School District 6 and Poudre Schools boards of education, and 2 out of 3 on the Thompson School Board. Results of the St. Vrain Valley School Board election were not available.

The organization explained its differentiating philosophy between an endorsement and a recommendation.

“Candidates and ballot measures that are recommended may not be endorsed if they did not go through our detailed endorsement process, if our chapter lacked the capacity to put together a full campaign in support of the endorsement, or if there was generally less enthusiasm around the candidate or measure,” the group’s website says. “Many times, we recommend candidates that our chapter believes are clearly less harmful or would be easier to work with, despite having disagreements with them on certain issues.”

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