June 07, 2012 07:23 PM UTC

Independent Candidate in CD-6

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• by: Colorado Pols

As 9News reports, a former Democrat named Kathy Polhemus apparently plans to run in CD-6 as an Independent candidate:

Kathy Polhemus, a retired non-profit executive who founded Dress for Success, intends to submit signatures to the Colorado Secretary of State Wednesday morning to secure a spot on the ballot.

State Representative Joe Miklosi is the Democrat in the race…

…Polhemus says she has been contacted by Miklosi supporters urging her not to enter the race.

“I don’t scare easy and I feel a call to service,” Polhemus said. Campaign finance filings indicate she has donated $37,000 to her own campaign. Polhemus told 9Wants To Know’s Kyle Clark that she is prepared to make an initial investment of $100,000 of her own money to get her candidacy off the ground.

There are a lot of pieces to this story that seem odd, chief among them the fact that a former non-profit executive would have $100,000 to donate to her own campaign. If Polhemus does make the ballot, she’ll do much more to help incumbent Republican Rep. Mike Coffman than anything else she accomplishes. Democrat Joe Miklosi is facing an uphill battle to unseat Coffman, and an Independent peeling off potential votes only makes that more of a challenge.