Some moments in history

Call for more of the same

Others call for something different

 

Patty McMahon believes America is at one of those moments. Throughout her career, she worked with both employers and workers, helping restore communication when it had broken down and bridge differences that often seemed impossible to overcome. Now, she’s ready to bring that same approach to Congress.

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Patty dedicated 35 years to federal service with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, where she worked directly with congressional offices in Colorado and across the country. She served as the Region VIII Lead for the White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders.

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During her career, Patty was selected to serve on an elite team that reorganized a federal agency, saving taxpayers millions of dollars without arbitrary layoffs. Many of the improvements developed during that effort remain in place today.

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Patty has worked with leaders from across the political spectrum and continues to serve on several Colorado nonprofit and civic boards. She believes good ideas deserve support regardless of political party.

She also believes political parties have altered our constitutional relationship of separation of powers.

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“Parties tell voters that giving their party control of the presidency, the House, the Senate, and eventually the courts will strengthen the voters’ voice,” Patty said. “But I believe the opposite happens. The institutional resistance designed to protect that voice weakens and members of Congress don’t check a president of their own party and, instead, serve their political party’s shared agenda. The political party’s voice grows louder across government while the voter’s voice grows quieter because, in reality, the voter no longer has a representative. The political party has taken that representative away.”

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In that way, political parties have used the American voter to amplify their own voice while persuading voters to give away the constitutional structure designed to protect them. Patty believes a Representative’s primary duty is to represent the people of the district—not a political party.

 

A graduate of Metropolitan State University of Denver, Patty has called Colorado’s 6th Congressional District home for 26 years. She is running for Congress to put her experience to work for the people of Colorado.