Primary Election Date: 06/28/2012
General Election Date: 11/06/2012

Who Am I?

Colorado State Representative Joe Miklosi is serving his second term in the General Assembly for District 9 in southeast Denver and Arapahoe County, Colorado.

Representative Miklosi’s major focus has been on creating good-paying, renewable energy jobs and making Colorado the Renewable Energy Capital of the Country; increasing health care access, emphasizing more critical thinking skills and less standardized tests in schools; immigration reform that adheres to America’s values, passing the state version of the DREAM Act, and creating a statewide, college scholarship program, so every student can attend college or an apprenticeship program and use their unique talents and gifts to achieve their version of the American Dream. He also serves on the Audit Committee, which conducted 52 audits in 2010 and saved the Colorado taxpayers $47 million dollars.

Representative Miklosi has 12 years of public policy and political experience in both Washington, D.C. and Colorado, six years of business development experience in the information technology sector, where he helped start an Internet software company, and four years in the nonprofit sector working for PROJECT C.U.R.E., a nonprofit organization that provides donated medical supplies and equipment to hospitals in 123 developing countries.

Representative Miklosi worked as the Director of the State House Caucus where he helped the Democrats obtain the majority in 2004 for the first time in 30 years. He also served as Chief of Staff to former House Minority Leader Jennifer Veiga and as a legislative aide to former U.S. Senator Howard Metzenbaum.

Representative Miklosi worked as the Colorado State Director for Progressive Majority, a grassroots organization that trains the next generation of progressive leaders, especially female candidates and candidates from communities of color. He helped elect over 50 municipal and state officials throughout Colorado and founded the Color Colorado conference, a workshop to empower Latino candidates and other candidates from communities of color to win elected office.

Representative Miklosi was the eighth employee at Cyveillance, an Internet software company that protects intellectual property on the Internet. He produced 42% of company’s first clients. Representative Miklosi also worked as a business development representative for Computer Associates, Veritas Software, and Aristotle Industries.

Representative Miklosi earned a BA from Hope College in Holland, Michigan, where he studied Political Science and Religion, and a Master’s degree in Public Administration, with a concentration in Nonprofit Executive Management, from the University of Colorado at Denver Graduate School of Public Affairs. Representative Miklosi serves on the Rwanda Leadership Foundation, a group of Coloradoans committed to creating the leading technological K-12 school on the continent of Africa. He served in Rotary for eight years, where he has helped raise $100,000 for polio eradication and at-risk youth programs. Representative Miklosi is also actively raising $30,000 for college scholarships at Thomas Jefferson High School. He is a youth civic engagement researcher. His Master’s thesis – which focused on increasing youth civic engagement participation levels – was published in the National Civic Review in 2007. Joe and his wife Jennifer reside in southeast Denver.

Why Am I Running?

I’m running for Congress to restore the American Dream, to restore job growth, and to restore economic growth.

During the campaign, I hope to inspire others that we can still make a difference if we work together. There is a powerful belief today that can easily seduce you that ordinary people can’t make a difference and that their voice and vote don’t matter. But they do.

I’m running for office to be a servant leader, to be a prisoner of hope, to focus on outcomes, not outputs, and to show – that as a team – we can make a difference and make our country and economy work for everyone.

If elected, I hope to be a change agent who continually focuses on creating more educational and economic opportunities, such as investing in college scholarships, small business loans, and renewable energy jobs; be an advocate for fairness, especially increasing health care access, and encouraging government responsibility, especially by protecting Social Security and Medicare, civil liberties, the environment, and a woman’s right to choose.

Hold Me Accountable!

The three issues facing my constituents today are jobs, jobs, and jobs. Getting involved in my own neighborhood to help people find a job is one way to help families. Last year, I sponsored two job fairs that helped nearly 20 people find a job. It was astonishing to talk with so many participants from all backgrounds who were struggling to put the pieces back together.

Fighting for clean, local, renewable energy is another critical priority for me. In Colorado, during the past four years, we passed 57 incentives to incent the solar, wind, geothermal, bio-fuels, and related sectors to grow. As a result, in part, Colorado has 5,000, private sector, renewable energy companies. Approximately 15 years ago, there were only 150 renewable energy companies in Colorado. I want to triple that number of renewable companies by continuing to incentivize and invest in the renewable energy sector. A respected, Colorado economic development expert recently stated that without these incentives, Colorado’s unemployment rate would be 2% higher.

I’m proud of the incentives and support we have instituted to cultivate our renewable energy industry – and I want to do more. When the other side chants ‘Drill baby Drill’ I want to shout them down with a call to “Build baby Build.” We need to build a world class energy grid, to expand our clean renewable energy production and to manufacture energy efficient products for our daily lives. We can create thousands and thousands of jobs that make our country energy independent and thus, cleaner, safer, and more prosperous.

We also need to create more incentives for small business owners to access capital. There is too much private equity on the sidelines. We need to create incentives for the estimated $2.5T of private capital to loan to homeowners and small business owners. In Colorado, we demonstrated leadership for consumers and allocated $5M into a fund, which loaned $50M to 50 small business owners in $100K increments. The qualified, small business owners hired people, purchased equipment, and grew. Imagine if we allocated $15B of the approximate $123B unspent TARP money and loaned $150B to small business owners nationwide? We would help grow our economy and help people find badly needed jobs.

In regard to jobs, I am also a strong believer in investing in Career Technical education. In the Denver metropolitan area, there are wait lists for career technical schools because both parents and students want to learn a skill while earning a high school diploma. Students learn skills in nursing, culinary arts, video programming, airline management, computer technology, and a host of other disciplines. Imagine if the federal government partnered with more states and local school districts to fund these types of programs? We could re-tool an entire generation of learners with the skills they will need to achieve their unique version of the American Dream.

My DFA values:

When I served as Colorado State Director for Progressive Majority, I extolled upon my progressive candidates the need to activate and engage the grassroots. At my core, I am a field guy. As a Colorado State Representative, I knock 7,000 doors annually. We are going to activate the grassroots to get active and get involved. In addition to an aggressive field canvass, we are going to utilize social media outlets to allow our supporters and volunteers to expand our outreach and recruitment.

We will implement a neighbor to neighbor GOTV program. Due to Colorado’s successful mail in ballot program, nearly 60 percent of the state votes by mail. We want to increase this number with an emphasis in low-income and community of color neighborhoods. Technology allows us to track mail in voter participation and will allow our volunteers to stay in touch with voters over a three week period to ensure they vote.

Finally, there is a belief today by some that we cannot make a difference and that the challenges we confront are too complex. The belief is powerful. But it is wrong. We always have had the ability and we always will have the ability to make a difference, but only if we band together. There is strength in numbers. I’ve participated in politics and government through a lens that we are stronger when we stand together. As my web site states, let’s use the unique talents and gifts of each person to contribute to the community.

In regard to my campaign, I have focused and will continue to focus on reforming the Democratic Party to pass good government initiatives, such as voluntary, public financing of Congressional races, so Members can focus on legislating, not just fundraising; more transparency in government financial matters, so Americans have more faith in their institutions, and reinventing government initiatives so taxpayer dollars are used more prudently and federal government employees are respected and empowered.

My Campaign is People-Powered!

I’m running a people powered campaign with an aggressive, grassroots, low-dollar, fundraising program and by creating practical ways to serve the public, such as a Job Fair. We are going to win this race by working with and empowering others.

Volunteers planned a low-dollar fundraising program that has reached over 4,000 low dollar donors. Besides raising nearly $12,000, the activists have recruited volunteers, found yard sign recipients, discovered talented people to help the campaign in the areas of social media, communications, public policy research, event planning, administration, and other capacities.

Secondly, my team is planning a Job Fair to address the most pressing need of the community – quality jobs. Last year, we hosted two job fairs that helped nearly 20 people earn a job. We are inviting local business, universities, job coaches, and large companies to participate in the job fairs.