Ken Gordon - Founder and Director

In 1992, I was elected to the House of Representatives. I ran for office because I wanted to help protect the environment. I knew that Colorado had a history of resource extraction—mining, oil and gas, and now real estate development—and I was concerned that if legislative campaigns were financed in large part by contributions from these special interests, it would be difficult to protect Colorado’s awesome beauty.

For this reason, I made campaign finance reform a major part of my campaign. I was the only candidate that year—in either party—who did not take campaign contributions from the political action committees (PACs) of special interest groups.  I went on to serve in the state Senate as the Senate Majority Leader.  I was term-limted out in 2009, but I wanted to keep working on the issue of campaign finance. That's why I started CleanSlateNow.org in October of 2011.

 Niki Bornes - Campaign Coordinator

I grew up in an Illinois town near St.Louis, MO and went to college and grad school at the University of Illinois in Champaign. But after hiking up the Drakensburg mountains in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, I was sold. In search of more local mountainous views, I hit the road to Colorado as soon as I got the chance. I have joint Master's degrees in Human and Community Development and Social Work. As an ardent supporter of the environmental movement and especially of conservation efforts, I knew that was where I wanted to put my skills to work.

In looking at the political landscape in the U.S., I realized we were going to get nowhere in the environmental movement, if we didn't first get big money out of our policy decisions. As author Lawrence Lessig says, we need to get to the root of the problem, and the rest will follow. So, I came to CleanSlateNow.org to start my work as a "rootstriker." Contact me: niki "at" cleanslatenow.org.