John Michael Kefalas was born on December 26,1954 and is a politician in the US state of Colorado.
35 Facts About John Kefalas
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An educator and lobbyist before first running for the legislature in 2004, Kefalas defeated a Republican incumbent to win election to the Colorado House of Representatives as a Democrat in 2006.
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John Kefalas won election to the State Senate in 2012 and represented Senate District 14 until early 2019.
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In 2018, John Kefalas ran for and won a seat on the Larimer County Board of County Commissioners.
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John Kefalas resigned his Senate seat, and a vacancy committee nominated Joann Ginal to replace him.
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John Kefalas has worked as an employment counselor for Larimer County, Colorado, and as a health outreach worker.
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From 1997 to 2004, Kefalas worked as a public policy advocate and community development coordinator for Catholic Charities until his departure amidst a controversy regarding his public support for Roe v Wade and abortion rights during his 2004 legislative campaign.
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John Kefalas has served as a member of the Fort Collins Housing Authority and the Colorado Social Legislation Committee, and, in 2001, won the City of Fort Collins Human Relations Award.
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From 1980 to 1994, John Kefalas redirected a portion of his federal income taxes to charitable organizations as a protest against United States military actions in Central America.
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John Kefalas has paid his income taxes in full since 1994, but continued to boycott the federal telephone excise tax as recently as 2004.
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John Kefalas has paid his back taxes and considers his actions to be a conscientious protest.
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John Kefalas has written about his experience of "war tax resistance" for the newsletter of the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee.
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In both his 2004 and 2006 legislative campaigns, John Kefalas was accused of avoiding his federal tax obligation, both by his Republican opponent and by independent political committees.
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John Kefalas has been an outspoken opponent of the Iraq War, and has engaged in non-violent civil disobedience in protest of the war.
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John Kefalas first ran for the state legislature in 2004, winning the Democratic Party primary by only seven votes over Fort Collins councilman Bill Bertschy after a recount process that lasted for several weeks.
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John Kefalas lost the general election by fewer than 500 votes to incumbent Republican Bob McCluskey in a race that included Libertarian Party candidate Jassen Bowman.
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John Kefalas ran unchallenged for the Democratic nomination in 2006, and narrowly prevailed over McCluskey in the general election.
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John Kefalas proposed a bill to explore alternative voting systems, which was defeated in committee, but which led to the creation of an 11-member multi-partisan task force to study related issues.
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Representative John Kefalas was joined by chief of staff Anne Bellows, a legal and civil rights expert.
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Ron Tupa, John Kefalas was the house sponsor of legislation designed to reduce the cost of college textbooks by requiring textbook publishers to disclose costs and offer textbooks unbundled from additional materials, and he sponsored legislation to allow outpatient surgery centers to establish peer review committees; both bills were signed into law by Gov.
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John Kefalas sponsored a bill to authorize local pilot tests of ranked choice voting methods.
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John Kefalas sponsored a bill to establish a Colorado Housing Investment Fund, but withdrew the bill when proponents moved forward with a similar ballot initiative.
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John Kefalas later expressed frustration when plans for the ballot measure were withdrawn.
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John Kefalas introduced a bill in the 2008 session to restore Colorado's EITC at ten percent of the federal credit, but the bill was defeated in a House committee.
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Since taking office, John Kefalas sought to maintain a dialogue with constituents by leading a series of monthly "community conversations" on topics ranging from health care to mobile home parks, and named sustainable economic development his top priority in office.
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McCluskey's bid to unseat John Kefalas was endorsed by the Denver Post, while John Kefalas was endorsed by the Windsor Beacon and the Fort Collins Coloradoan.
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John Kefalas ultimately won a second term with about 59 percent of the popular vote, becoming the first Democrat to win re-election in the east Fort Collins district since 1936.
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John Kefalas has named health care reform as his top priority and planned on introducing legislation to create a single-payer universal health care system in Colorado during the 2009 session.
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John Kefalas sponsored the Colorado Innovation Investment Tax Credit, legislation to create $750,000 in tax credits for angel investors in startup companies, to increase support for job training programs, and to create a Colorado Railroad Authority to begin planning for statewide passenger rail service.
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Representative John Kefalas announced that he would seek election to the state senate seat vacated by Bob Bacon.
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John Kefalas' bid was endorsed by The Fort Collins Coloradoan and several former elected officials.
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Senator John Kefalas now represents the people of State Senate District 14.
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Senator John Kefalas successfully ran for re-election in 2016 against Republican challenger Hans Hochheimer.
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In 2018, Senator John Kefalas ran for Larimer County Commissioner, District 1.
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In January 2022, Commissioner John Kefalas announced his intention to run for re-election for Larimer County Commissioner District 1.