{"id":2927,"date":"2026-06-28T13:03:26","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T13:03:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=2927"},"modified":"2026-06-28T13:03:26","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T13:03:26","slug":"aurora-democratic-primaries-engulfed-in-claims-of-libelous-racists-attack-ads-by-outside-money-groups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=2927","title":{"rendered":"Aurora Democratic primaries engulfed in claims of libelous, racists attack ads by outside money groups"},"content":{"rendered":"
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AURORA<\/strong> | Harsh campaign attack ads targeting a handful of Democratic primary election races in Aurora have prompted allegations of racism and false information in the last few days leading up to the June election.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Multiple Democratic primary races in Aurora are seeing a flurry of advertisements and messages from independent expenditure committees, which expressly advocate for or against clearly identified political candidates.<\/p>\n

Two of the races most targeted include House District 41, between incumbent Rep. Jamie Jackson and challenger Aurora Public Schools board member Anne Keke. Also drawing unusual sums of outside money is the House District 42 race, where Sarah Woodson is challenging incumbent Rep. Mandy Lindsay.<\/p>\n

Mailers targeting Keke, Jackson, and Lindsay, sent out by outside money groups Colorado Labor Action, Fighting for a Better Aurora and Promoting Progressive Women, have drawn particularly sharp criticism from the candidates in question.<\/p>\n

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Much of the financial support for the anti-incumbent ads is linked to One Main Street, a controversial dark-money independent expenditure group in Colorado widely reported for funding Democratic candidates considered more pro-business than some progressive Democrats.<\/p>\n

Documents filed with the Colorado Secretary of State on behalf of the groups linked to One Main Street all cite Jimmy Dickson as an official agent and an address linked to an apartment complex in Durango. Dickson did not reply to repeated requests for comment.<\/p>\n

In a press release on Thursday, Keke\u2019s campaign accused Colorado Labor Action of using racist tropes in its campaign materials opposing Keke. Her campaign said the mailers in question used a photo of Keke taken from social media, surrounded by money and a darkened image, which the campaign says \u201charkens back to minstrel shows and the \u2018coon caricature.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In another mailer, an image of Keke provided by her campaign the image appears desaturated and darkened.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Keke, a Black immigrant from C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire, said the mailers are \u201cdog whistled racist tropes,\u201d adding that she asked for an apology.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead, that dark money group doubled down and sent a piece that is obviously and overtly racist,\u201d Keke said in a statement. \u201cI never thought that I would see this harmful racist caricature from the Jim Crow era used in Aurora in 2026, and I certainly did not expect to see it used by\u00a0<\/p>\n

an organization that purports to uphold Democratic values.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her incumbent opponent, Jackson, is also Black, a committee director for the Aurora NAACP and vice president of the Colorado Black Women for Political Action group.<\/p>\n

The opposing campaign and creators of the mailers rebutted Keke\u2019s claims, providing the Sentinel<\/em> with their own images of the mailers, saying they specifically ensured the image of Keke was not darkened.<\/p>\n

When asked by the Sentinel<\/em>, the independent expenditure committee credited with the mailers, Colorado Labor Action, directed questions to Superior Blue, a political advertising firm that designed the anti-Keke mailers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Superior Blue provided the Sentinel<\/em> with internal documents that gave explicit directions to ad designers not to change Keke\u2019s skin tone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Scott Remley, a partner with Superior Blue, told the Sentinel<\/em>: \u201cThese claims are unequivocally false. No edits were made to the image of Dr. Keke.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Remley said Keke \u201cis trying to distract voters from her record\u201d and \u201cfrom learning her campaign is propped by astroturfed corporate interests,\u201d referring to One Main Street groups, linked to large corporate business interests including oil and gas.<\/p>\n

Talking with the Sentinel<\/em> on Friday, Keke said what she believes is an altered picture crossed the line from normal political mudslinging into divisive territory.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is very disheartening and saddening,\u201d Keke said. \u201cI thought everything was about policy and about the work that we want to do, so to tread into what I literally call racism is disappointing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her campaign statement called on Colorado Labor Action to \u201cdenounce the mail piece\u201d and urged them to \u201cdo a better job of vetting and hiring vendors who know better than to use unacceptable racist imagery in their attacks.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other mailers point to Keke working for a pro-charter school group, the Colorado League of Charter Schools, as the director of grassroots advocacy, to claim that she supports conservative legislation and candidates.<\/p>\n

Keke disputes the claims on the mailer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Keke said she started working at the organization in February 2025, and her work has never included legislative advocacy. The proposed legislative bills that the mailer attempts to link Keke with were introduced in 2023 and 2024 legislative sessions, before Keke worked with the Colorado League of Charter Schools. Similarly, the mailer highlights the Colorado League of Charter Schools\u2019 support for a far-right Republican candidate for the state Board of Education in 2024, before she was there.<\/p>\n

Keke said she feels like her work is being \u201cweaponized\u201d because of misconceptions about charter schools.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not involved in the political decisions (at the organization),\u201d she said. \u201cMy work is helping families understand how they can advocate for their kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keke said that if she is elected, she would support more campaign finance regulations and efforts to improve transparency in election spending. Jackson, her opponent, promised the same, if she wins the primary election and the vote in November.<\/p>\n

According to campaign finance reports, the independent expenditure committee Colorado Labor Action spent roughly $28,400 on mailers supporting Jackson between May 28 and June 10, as well as another almost $27,000 in June on mailers opposing Keke.<\/p>\n

Keke\u2019s opponent, incumbent Rep. Jamie Jackson, appointed to her seat two years ago by an Arapahoe County Democratic Party vacancy committee, has lodged similar complaints about independent expenditure groups opposing her campaign and supporting Keke\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Fighting for a Better Aurora, also linked to One Main Street, spent roughly $97,400 on advertisements supporting Keke and opposing Jackson between May 28 and June 10, according to state TRACER campaign expenditure records, in addition to almost $24,000 on mailers reported after that.<\/p>\n

Under Colorado law, candidate campaigns are barred from coordinating with independent expenditure committees. Jackson said that any questions regarding communications or mailers sent by Colorado Labor Action must be directed to that organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am focused on continuing to pass legislation to lower costs for families, expand access to healthcare, protect civil rights, strengthen protections for immigrant communities, support public education, and benefit working people,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cUnlike my opponent, I made the decision to refuse corporate dark money because I believe this seat belongs to the people \u2014 not outside interests trying to buy this election.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jackson said attack ads targeting her, circulated by PACs, were also laden with inaccuracies and misrepresent her former work with a subsidiary of the GEO Group, which owns private prisons and immigration detention centers across the nation. Jackson has repeatedly said publicly and she wrote in a Sentinel<\/em> op-ed that she worked in the re-entry division of GEO, Geo Cares Inc., which is wholly separate \u2014\u00a0 yet wholly owned by \u2014\u00a0 from the division that operates detention facilities. Jackson said she made the decision to leave the company five years ago when she found out about the extent of its correction operations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jackson\u2019s role at GEO Cares, under contract with the Colorado Department of Corrections,\u00a0 was to help people being released from state prison facilities to re-integrate into the workforce and into their local communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cMake no mistake about it. The deliberate misinformation in the attack mailers is intended to persuade voters into thinking that I Iack character and integrity by portraying me as morally compromised, unethical, complicit in wrongdoing, and indifferent to human dignity,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cNothing could be further from the truth. They can\u2019t attack my legislative record, so they choose to attack me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fighting for a Better Aurora, which is also affiliated with One Main Street Colorado, issued mailers accusing Jackson of working for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), but she did not.<\/p>\n

The Sentinel<\/em> has reached out to One Main Street Colorado for comment, but the group has not responded.<\/p>\n

Candidates on all sides of the attacks ads have raised questions about the legality of the claims made in the attack ads.<\/p>\n

While Colorado\u2019s campaign finance laws generally don\u2019t regulate the content of political advertisements, it is illegal to knowingly circulate \u201cfalse statements designed to affect the outcome of an election or relating to a candidate for public office,\u201d state election officials say.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlleged violations of these provisions are matters of law, and any complaint alleging a violation would need to be filed with the appropriate law enforcement authority for review,\u201d a spokesperson for the Secretary of State\u2019s Office said in an email.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Campaign finance laws require ads to include a disclaimer stating who paid for or authorized the communication, which these ads do.<\/p>\n

In House District 42, Promoting Progressive Women, an independent expenditure committee also associated with One Main Street Colorado has spent $45,600 in campaign mailers against Aurora Democrat Rep. Mandy Lindsay. Additionally, Promoting Progressive Women launched a website accusing Lindsay of \u201cmoney laundering.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Lindsay was linked to a state House committee investigation into allegations by a House committee\u00a0 of caucus-group expenditure and reimbursement policy breaches, she has not been accused of criminal activity. Money laundering is a state and federal felony based on covering up acquisition of funds created by criminal activity.<\/p>\n

The mailers have seized on an ethics complaint filed by Democratic Rep. Bob Marshall of Highlands Ranch, who alleges Lindsay improperly reimbursed herself from the Democratic caucus bank account for personal expenses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A House Ethics Committee found in May that Lindsay likely violated ethical guidelines by mismanaging Democratic House caucus funds. The committee hasn\u2019t determined if Lindsay, the caucus co-chair, is guilty and it didn\u2019t find any criminal behavior, according to caucus committee documents.<\/p>\n

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