When I was young, my parents instilled in me the American Dream. I could be anything I wanted with hard work and perseverance....a future where I would have the opportunity for a wonderful family and a good life if I worked hard enough. There are countless stories of immigrants and talented people 'pulling themselves up' by their own bootstraps, even people that come from backgrounds with limited resources. This is the America I believe in.

Throughout my life, this belief was never far from my mind. I was a good student, graduating with honors at Boston College with degrees in economics and history. I gained experience with various jobs in different types of industries, and started a number of companies. I met and married my wife in Colorado and we started a family. We have 10 year old twins, one boy and one girl. Today I currently own and run a small software company (www.loanxengine.com) that started from our home, which has numerous clients across the country. I did this without venture capital, loans from banks or other debt instruments. The company grew on its own cash flow and revenue, and grew only as I could afford to reinvest. For myself and my family, this has meant years of sacrifice and hard work. But I'm proud of my company and the families that the company is able to support. I'm proud of the fact that the company is in a position where we can offer retirement savings plans and healthcare for our employees.

One of the biggest lessons I've taken from my business experience is that it is *extremely* hard to 'manufacture money'...to start with a blank slate, create a product (any product), sell it for a profit, persevere, and overtime grow it into business. At times, growing my business has challenged me more than I've been challenged in my life, but it's also taught me more about nearly everything. It has sharpened my understanding and vision into the world around us. I've learned immeasurable lessons and gained unbelievable respect for other business entrepreneurs and individuals working to create our future.

While there have been great lessons and inspiring days in my professional and personal life, I've also witnessed other behavior I would characterize as deplorable, disappointing and unethical. And when I look around at America today, I get upset at the stagnation, the government, the crony capitalism, the polarizing finger pointing and the propagation of short sighted policies which are selling out future generations, short changing savers and senior citizens, and jeopardizing the ability for our nation to grow. Opportunities that previous generations have enjoyed are becoming increasingly diminished for our kids and grandkids.

I have decided to do something about it. I have decided to take action to do whatever I can to fix the mistakes our politicians have made and to plant seeds for a future on solid footing...for our country, our state and our kids. I have always been involved in private business, but I have something unique to give and see something worth fighting for. I plan to bring fresh ideas on how to fix our business environment to facilitate direct job growth, ideas for protecting our children's education, and diversifying Colorado's economy.

I am taking action and implore you to take action with me. Please support my campaign however you can, and most importantly, please vote for me this November so that I can bring a fresh perspective to our state and country.

On these pages, I plan to write extensively on various issues facing our state and country, offer my perspective and new ideas that I hope to move forward as your representative. I welcome your feedback and support.

Sincerely,
Alan Johnson
Your candidate for Colorado House District 8

One of the especially troublesome fiscal issues that have arisen in the last couple of years is that the Federal Government requires Colorado to participate and pay for 'unfunded' programs. These programs have resulted in what is referred to as a "clawback," where the Federal Government has legislated a way to extract money from Colorado that would otherwise be earmarked for other purposes. Because of Colorado's unique laws that limit the State Legislature's ability to tax without direct citizen approval, there is limited ability for our State Government to arbitrarily raise taxes to pay for these unfunded federal clawbacks. (BTW these State laws are a good thing, and the reason why Colorado is not in worse fiscal shape.)

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This entry was posted on May 3, 2012 at 2:05 PM and has received 65 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

The other day I was having a conversation at a Cub Scout outing with a group of dads, and in particular, with a friend of mine who is very active in the Democratic Party. In the past, I had related to him my desire to one day run for public office, and wanted to personally tell him that I am running to represent District 8 in the Colorado State House of Representatives.

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This entry was posted on April 20, 2012 at 2:30 AM and has received 150 views. There are currently 1 comments. Print this entry.

I'm going to discuss some more specific issues and ideas shortly, but one of the things I wanted to write about is the great shame of the banking crisis where the federal government and the Fed transferred major bank gambling losses onto our children.

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This entry was posted on April 6, 2012 at 2:16 AM and has received 123 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

I hear a lot of talk about our government 'creating jobs' and 'lowering unemployment', but when I look at the policies our government employs to create jobs, it is clear to me the politicians don't understand the real mechanism of how an 'actual job' is created.

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This entry was posted on April 4, 2012 at 5:53 AM and has received 76 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.