Karen Teja, former District 11 School Board Member, announced her entrance into the race for the Colorado Springs House District 14 seat. The announcement was made a THE TRUE BLUE AMERICAN RALLY on Saturday, February 18 at Howard's World Famous BBQ, in Colorado Springs. Over 250 attended the announcement, along with Representative Michael Merrifield, Speaker of the House Representative Andrew Romanoff, Representative Terrance Carroll of Denver, Candidate for Congress Jay Fawcett and Barbara O'Brien, Democratic Candidate for Lieutenant Governor.

"I am pleased to announce my candidacy for House District 14. For those of you who live in HD 14, I want to represent you and your family. For those of you who live in other districts, I want to work in Denver to make Colorado a better place for all of us. Most of you know that I completed two terms as member of the School District 11 Board of Directors. I am proud of my record that put students first. I strongly supported our dedicated teachers, and I led the charge on two winning bond issues that put badly needed bond money into our neighborhood schools. Public service has been a key part of my life. The end of my school board tenure is only the beginning of a new opportunity to serve our community. With Dave Schultheis leaving this House District, for the Senate a door opened for a moderate to represent you. That person is me."

At the announcement Teja outlined her goals: Better Education, new Jobs, and access to health care.

"I would like to be there to help Representative Merrifield lift Colorado public education to be the best in the Nation. Our education system must provide a broad based system to meet the unique needs of each student, be they a future rocket scientist, brain surgeon, car mechanic, involved citizen or singing legislator.

"Our kids are our future. To give them a fair chance at success we need to attract quality jobs – jobs which enable them to support their families and a fair chance at the American dream.

"Improve preventative health care. As a county, we send back money to the State and federal government every year which is designated for child health care. We are last in the nation for providing child immunizations. We have 80,000 children not receiving services for which they qualify. Other Health care issues we must address are the need for mammograms, prostate cancer screening and childhood obesity, which have been proven to save lives.

Karen also outlined her strategy for winning.

"With your help, I will walk the 45 precincts in HD 14. I have started meeting with each precinct leader to organize my campaign. I have learned many lessons running for public office and I know that I can win this one house at a time.

Karen and her husband Dan have been El Paso County residents for 11 years. Together they have 2 children. The oldest one is attending College and youngest is attending a D11 high school. Karen earned a degree in Early Childhood Education. She pursued this career as an educator for 8 years.

Shortly after arriving in Colorado Springs, Karen became involved in educational and community issues/activities, from PTA's, HOA's, Coalitions and The Head Start Board. Karen has been actively involved as a Board of Education Director for the past 8 years, until she was term limited this last November.

Republican, Mary Wierman stated "Karen has served the District 11 community with integrity and dedication".

Karen's community service includes: Vice President, School District 11 Board of Education, Treasurer, School District 11 Board of Education, Member of Pinion Valley Neighborhood Association, Board Member for Community Partnership for Child Development (Headstart), PTA Legislative Chair, and a Girl Scout leader.

Where is House District 14?

House District 14 runs along Woodmen Road, North from Centennial to Powers Boulevard. For a complete map of the district, visit http://car.elpasoco.com/DistMaps/webrepdist14.pdf

Candidate for House District 14 Karen Teja, 719-232-3429 karenteja@earthlink.net