Jonathan Ambler has entered the race for House District 46. Below is an interview with Ambler regarding his candidacy and reasons for running for office.
1. Background:
I’m a father of seven and a grandfather of seven. I moved to the Greenhorn Valley in 1991 after graduating from Utah State University. I received my Master’s from Colorado Technical University and started teaching there a month later. I started my K-12 teaching career in Kim, CO and became the Superintendent of the district in three years. We moved back to the valley and the house our family built and taught school in Aguilar and Walsenburg. I had endorsements in Business, Social Studies, and Mathematics. In the summer you can occasionally find me riding my bike to Lake Isabel in the early mornings.
2. Office you are running for:
House District 46 which covers about 65% of Pueblo County. Rye, Colorado City, Beulah, Avondale, Blend and most of Pueblo except for the south-central part of the city.
3. Party Affiliation: Republican 4. Why did you feel impelled
4. Why did you feel impelled to run for office in this election? Many in the party asked me
Many in the party asked me to announce my candidacy over a year ago, but the new boundaries had not been established. One of the draft maps of the redistricting commission placed Colorado City in House District 60, Representative Stephanie Luck’s district. I made it very clear to my supporters that I would not run against her, as she has been a stalwart for liberty and life and conservative values in the legislature. I’ve run the past two election cycles and learned a lot about the process. In Colorado few ever beat an incumbent. I knew that and knew that flipping HD46 would require either huge amounts of money and selling out my values or time. I was compelled to run four years ago and knew it would take this long to compete against the political machine which we face. This is now the time. Democrats are no longer the largest group of voters, unaffiliated are and they are not happy with the direction the state is headed. I’ve seen this coming for some time. Now everyone else is seeing it too.
5. Three main points of emphasis
a. Life - HB22-1279 arguably makes Colorado the first state in the country to legalize infanticide. National polls show that less than 15% of the country agree that this should be legal. Yet our legislature on a strictly partisan basis passed it and the governor signed it into law. It shows that our legislature is committed to establishing socialist doctrine related to life: the state determines the right of life not God. Governor Polis authorizing COVID patients being admitted into nursing homes demonstrated the same doctrine. Democrats told us COVID was highly contagious and deadly, but authorized intrusions into citizens homes despite the risk. It is the government’s responsibility to protect life, not diminish its value.
b. Liberty - We have the freedom to educate our children how we want. We do not have the liberty to do so. Per pupil spending in our local school districts is between nine and ten thousand dollars. How that money is spent is determined not by parents and students, but by tradition and bureaucratic necessity. How would education change if parents and students determined how that money would be spent? Self-determination aka liberty brings about significant improvements.
c. Pursuit of Happiness - We recently experienced the worst abuses of civil liberties since the second world war during the pandemic. Small business was shuttered at the whim of government decrees. The state deciding winners and losers not on merit or science but political expediency, despite the damage to our economy. Small business owners had a right to protect their dreams, their property, and their living. Again, control was the point not science.
6. Your position on gun control:
The second amendment has one purpose, protect us from totalitarianism. A free people must be able to defend themselves.
7. Your position on abortion: Religiously I am opposed. Legally, only when a woman has no choice in the conception, such as in the case of rape, should abortion be permitted.
8. Why should a voter vote
for you, what do you offer another candidate won’t?
Our constitution gives a standard by which all candidates for office and incumbents should be judged. Do they strive to… form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity. Failing to do this results in what we have today. I will strive to live up to this standard.
9. Final thoughts:
For the last year I have been working on a citizens’ initiative that could fundamentally change Colorado politics. This is not what a “politician” would do. This initiative limits campaign expenditures to 150% of eligible electors. In other words, no longer will it be possible for national organizations or networks of non-elector donors be the primary funding source for campaigns. No longer would elected officials have the stain of being bought by outside interest. Campaigns will truly be of the people, by the people and for the people.