Colorado county clerk spent $4,000 on get-out-the-vote billboard with her name, face on it

Jefferson County Clerk Amanda Gonzalez’s office spent $7,200 on a get-out-the-vote campaign in the lead-up to the November election that included a billboard with an advertisement that prominently featured her picture and name.

Gonzalez’s office said the campaign, launched in mid-October, also included social media posts, community events and flyer distribution. The billboard alone cost $4,000.

The office said it found before launching the campaign that ads featuring Gonzalez, a Democrat, were high performing, citing a June report from the consulting firm Recap Communications. Gonzalez’s spokeswoman said those findings reinforced national guidance and research showing that local officials are the most trusted messengers for election information and ads featuring human faces are the most effective. 

The social media posts her office made also used likenesses of Jefferson County Commissioners Lesley Dahlkemper and Tracy Kraft-Tharp, both Democrats.

Commissioner Andy Kerr, another Democrat and the county’s third commissioner, was on the ballot running for reelection this year, and therefore did not participate. And for good reason.

It likely would have been illegal for Kerr to appear in the ads. A law the legislature passed in 2023 prohibits Colorado election officials from using state or federal money to pay for advertisements that prominently feature a person who is a declared candidate for federal, state or local office.

That provision in the law was added in response to ads fighting election misinformation run in 2022 by Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold’s office that prominently featured her as she was running for a second term. Her predecessor, Republican Wayne Williams, who was running at the time to be the Colorado Springs mayor, also appeared in the ad.

Gonzalez isn’t a declared candidate for any office, but she is rumored to be interested in running for secretary of state in 2026. 

Democratic state Sens. Steve Fenberg, Jeff Bridges and Jessie Danielson also are in the mix, as is Gonzalez’s predecessor, former Jefferson County Clerk George Stern, another Democrat. 

• “I have been honored to receive encouragement from colleagues, county clerks and many allies to run for secretary of state,” Danielson told The Sun this week. “I am strongly considering running because we need to protect our democracy from political extremists and special interests determined to undo our work.”
• Bridges and Fenberg confirmed their interest in the position when asked this week by The Sun. 
• Stern told Colorado Politics this week that “it’s more important than ever that we have people with election administration experience serving as secretaries of state throughout the country.”  

Gonzalez declined to talk about her interest in running for secretary of state. But in a written statement, she defended the billboard as part of her office’s get-out-the-vote efforts.

“It has always been my goal to ensure that every eligible voter is able to cast their vote and have it counted, because I believe our democracy is stronger when everyone participates,” Gonzalez said.

The office argued the campaign was aimed at helping boost early turnout, which saves the county money by mitigating logistical challenges that would have required additional staffing.

“By encouraging early voting, we saved taxpayer dollars and posted results faster,” Gonzalez said.

But the billboard featuring her image and name didn’t encourage early voting. It simply said: “By mail, by drop box, or in-person: Vote by November 5.”

Sarah McAfee, a spokeswoman for Gonzalez, said the Jefferson County Clerk and Recorder’s Office finds “that telling voters specifically to vote early can create questions about why … however, simply reminding them of the deadline spurs action to get it done.”

McAffee said early voting in Jefferson County helped elections officials there complete 98.5% of ballot counting on election night. Just 18% of mail ballots cast in the county this year were cast on election day, down from 40% in 2023, 28% in 2022 and 32% in 2021.

More than 350,000 ballots were cast in Jefferson County this year.