February 18, 2022 12:12 PM UTC

Support This Guy for Congress; Also, Call the Police if You See Him

•  
• by: Colorado Pols

FRIDAY UPDATE: We suppose it’s fair to say that Joshua Jered Rodriguez’s message was received. As The Arvada Press reports, Rodriguez is in the hands of law enforcement and is now working on his campaign narrative from the Jefferson County Jail.

—–

The Arvada Press reports on an unusual candidacy for Congress in the new eighth congressional district involving a guy who police would actually really like to find:

A man who has previously ran for mayor in Arvada has declared his candidacy in the 2022 Congressional District 8 race despite facing an active arrest warrant stemming from multiple felony charges.

Joshua Jered Rodriguez, 37, launched a campaign website with a donations page and signed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission on Feb. 4 listing an Arvada address that Jefferson County property records show was sold to a different owner in 2021.

Rodriguez was charged with nine counts of identity theft, one count of forgery and one count of cybercrime (attempt) in Oct. of 2020 and two counts of attempting to influence a public servant in Dec. of 2020 after he attempted to set up multiple fraudulent GoFundMe pages in the name of Julia Vitanyi, the moderator of the popular Arvada Neighbors Facebook group.

Rodriguez did not attend his scheduled court appearance on May 5, 2021 and a warrant for his arrest was issued on May 10, 2021. His whereabouts are still unknown to law enforcement as of Feb. 15.

Arvada Police Department Public Information Officer Dave Snelling said that anyone with information on Rodriguez’s location should contact law enforcement authorities. [Pols emphasis]

Well, that’s a first. We’ve been writing about Colorado politics for a very long time, and we can’t recall another candidate for office who was literally wanted by the police. We’ve seen our fair share of criminals involved in the political scene — hell, there’s one running for Secretary of State RIGHT NOW — but never someone who was actively evading law enforcement at the same time they were launching a campaign.

Joshua Jered Rodriguez filed paperwork with the FEC as a candidate for CO-08 with the Unity Party, though his campaign is likely technically illegal in the first place because he lists his voting address as a house that he hasn’t lived at since 2021. Should he continue forward, Rodriguez might have to come up with a new way of campaigning “virtually.” House parties and door-to-door knocking aren’t great options for wanted (alleged) criminals.