Congressional candidate accepts convict as campaign volunteer

A pastor running for Doug Lamborn’s seat in Congress has chosen a man twice convicted of impersonating a police officer to help run his campaign.

Ken Harvell, senior pastor at Southwest Baptist Church, said God called him to run for Colorado’s 5th Congressional district. He’s proposed starting a political party dedicated to Jesus and questions the current definition of separation between church and state. He said he’s running on his Christian values, like redemption and forgiveness, and that’s why he accepted church member Jason Doorenbos-Parry’s request to be his campaign information officer.

“I think grace is, perhaps, what’s missing in our culture of media and our culture of politics,” said Harvell.

Doorenbos-Parry was convicted twice of impersonating a police officer; making traffic stops and issuing fake trespassing tickets in 2009 and again last year.

“He knows God’s forgiven him of things that have happened and I’m not ashamed of him at all,” said Harvell. “Because God’s a redeeming God. He heals us.”

Doorenbus-Parry said he was just trying to help people stay safe. He avoided jail time and is now on probation and in veteran’s court.

“I’ve taken classes, every single class I can take to better myself,” said Doorenbos-Parry. “I’m moving on with life.”

He said religion and Pastor Harvell have helped him do that.

“God is allowing me to do everything I possibly can to show the courts and show everybody that I’m doing what it takes to move on,” said Doorenbos-Parry.

Harvell is running on the American Constitution party ticket. Also in this race are Republicans Doug Lamborn and Robert Blaha as well as Libertarian Jim Pirtle and Independent Dave Anderson.