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Stan VanderWerf
Stan VanderWerf was a member of the El Paso County Commission in Colorado, representing District 3. He assumed office on January 11, 2017. He left office on January 14, 2025.
VanderWerf (Republican Party) ran for election to the Colorado State Senate to represent District 12. He lost in the general election on November 5, 2024.
VanderWerf completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Stan VanderWerf was born in Morrison, Illinois. He served in the U.S. Air Force from 1983 to 2011. He earned a bachelor's degree from Purdue University in 1983, a graduate degree from the University of Dayton in 1986, and a graduate degree from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces in 2004. His career experience includes working as a chief executive officer for numerous companies including a consulting firm and 3-D printer.[1]
VanderWerf has been affiliated with the following organizations:[1]
- Colorado Counties Inc.
- Colorado State Board of Health
- Colorado Homeland Security Advisory Committee
- Space Infrastructure Foundation
- Pikes Peak Workforce Center
- Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments
- Colorado Springs Airport Advisory Commission
- El Paso County Parks Board
- Air Force Association
- Association of the United States Army
- American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
- Association of Old Crows
- Military Officers Association of America
- American Legion
- VFW
- National Rifle Association
- Pikes Peak Firearms Coalition
- UAS Colorado
Elections
2024
See also: Colorado State Senate elections, 2024
General election
General election for Colorado State Senate District 12
Marc Snyder defeated Stan VanderWerf and John Angle in the general election for Colorado State Senate District 12 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Marc Snyder (D) | 48.9 | 36,971 |
 | Stan VanderWerf (R)  | 47.5 | 35,872 | |
| John Angle (L) | 3.6 | 2,755 | ||
| Total votes: 75,598 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Colorado State Senate District 12
Marc Snyder advanced from the Democratic primary for Colorado State Senate District 12 on June 25, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Marc Snyder | 100.0 | 9,817 |
| Total votes: 9,817 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Colorado State Senate District 12
Stan VanderWerf defeated Adriana Cuva in the Republican primary for Colorado State Senate District 12 on June 25, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Stan VanderWerf | 59.5 | 9,093 |
| Adriana Cuva | 40.5 | 6,191 | ||
| Total votes: 15,284 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Campaign finance
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for VanderWerf in this election.
Pledges
VanderWerf signed the following pledges.
2020
See also: Municipal elections in El Paso County, Colorado (2020)
General election
General election for El Paso County Commission District 3
Incumbent Stan VanderWerf defeated Ken Schauer and Timothy Campbell in the general election for El Paso County Commission District 3 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Stan VanderWerf (R) | 52.7 | 42,303 |
 | Ken Schauer (D) | 43.1 | 34,640 | |
| Timothy Campbell (L) | 4.2 | 3,374 | ||
| Total votes: 80,317 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for El Paso County Commission District 3
Ken Schauer advanced from the Democratic primary for El Paso County Commission District 3 on June 30, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Ken Schauer | 100.0 | 18,694 |
| Total votes: 18,694 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for El Paso County Commission District 3
Incumbent Stan VanderWerf advanced from the Republican primary for El Paso County Commission District 3 on June 30, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Stan VanderWerf | 100.0 | 17,512 |
| Total votes: 17,512 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Libertarian convention
Libertarian convention for El Paso County Commission District 3
Timothy Campbell advanced from the Libertarian convention for El Paso County Commission District 3 on April 13, 2020.
Candidate | ||
| ✔ | Timothy Campbell (L) | |
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Stan VanderWerf completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by VanderWerf's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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As an El Paso County Commissioner, I have a well-regarded record of achievement having never raised taxes while also improving roads and bridges, increasing parks and citizen services, improving the County's finances, and having been engaged in MANY community activities. It's so much fun AND an honor.
I am also a combat veteran and served 28 years in the military around the world. I served in Europe during the cold war, Asia (Korea), and Iraq. I am a businessman having created and run several companies.
I have a great family. My wife, Betsy, and I have been married for 33 years and have two adult children, both with college degrees and successful jobs.
I have extensive experience and skills in policy and legislation at the State and Federal level and have been deeply involved in Colorado concerns as a County Commissioner.
Personally, I also love the outdoors. I am a mountaineer with a worldwide climbing resume, a skier, and pilot.
If I am elected to the State Senate District 12, I hope to continue my service to our citizens, community, state, and nation. Senate District 12 covers Fountain, Fort Carson, the Broadmoor, Skyway, Old Colorado City, Manitou Springs, and Old North End. I am asking for your vote so I may continue to serve YOU. Your passions and concerns matter to me, and I would love to hear from you.- I love to serve! I am dedicated to service! My whole life I have been serving my Family, Community, and Nation!
- I will fight for YOU and want to hear from you. My I believe in limited government, safe neighborhoods, jobs and opportunity, improved infrastructure, and civility and statesmanship. My experience, spanning military, private sector, academia, and government, will help me develop useful and thoughtful legislation.
- As a State Senator, I will work to reduce regulatory burden, a key issue I hear about from just about every citizen and company leader. I want to hear from you about who you are, what you care about, and how you think we could improve Colorado.
I will also work to improve public safety! This is not only law enforcement but also 1) affordable housing, 2) jobs and job opportunities, 3) community services to help people in need, 4) reducing drug addictions, 5) having safe and effective infrastructure, and much more.
We have so much to be grateful for! With your help, working together, our future will be better than ever!
THANK YOU for giving me an opportunity to serve!
They were experts at government systems, and they understood the human spirit was designed to be free. They knew there was something greater than humans and mentioned natures god as the entity who gave us our inherent rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They stated that because these rights came from a higher authority, no other man may take these things from us.
I do have over 250 books in my political library. In this are many books describing the brilliance of our nation, the importance of a free market because it always delivers improved goods and services, the essential need for the human soul to be free, how government can become the oppressor of its citizens, the horrors of socialism and communism, political systems of various countries, American policies that worked and those that didn't, and much more.
Also needed is experience, knowledge, wisdom, patience, communication skills, and determination. All of these come in handy at one time or another. I have many examples from my own personal experience where these characteristics and principles were essential to achieve a goal or make a something better.
My guiding principles include limited and lean government, support for private action to solve community challenges, the benefits of freedom (personal and market), the importance of partnership, teamwork, diplomacy and statesmanship, and a belief in God.
I am proud of my experience in leadership, legislative, program director, budget, and diplomacy. My engineering background is a unique skill rarely found in elected officials. As an industrial engineer, I have scientifically analyzed operations to ensure they can succeed and are cost effective. This includes modeling operations as I did for NORAD NORTHCOM. With a team of experts, we modeled all kinds of things even including a flu pandemic that had many findings useful for COVID operations. In addition to all the qualities I mentioned in earlier answers, operations expertise and an ability to scientifically evaluate these operations will be exceptionally helpful as a legislator.
So many times, laws have these unintended consequences. For example, a 2024 Colorado bill recently passed requires denser communities around transportation corridors. This was sponsored by people who wanted higher housing density in Denver. But they used a state law that will apply in many other locations.
This bill is bad for Colorado Springs because our main transportation corridor, I-25, is very close to a national forest, unlike Denver. This carries a unique requirement to restrict dense development to ensure people are able to evacuate from a forest fire. With this law in place, Colorado Springs will be compelled to increase its density around I-25. I am certain this law, at some point in the future, will result in killing people trying to evacuate from a fire who are caught in a traffic jam from forced densification. This is one of my great skills. To find those unintended consequences and address them.
These basic issues are almost always overlooked or insufficiently evaluated. Every public agency, just like I did for NORAD NORTHCOM, have an obligation to create law that not only minimizes the cost of compliance, but perhaps even reduces that cost. I would like to offer several laws that reduce the cost of compliance. As I mentioned in my previous response, I have a unique skill that can deliver on this idea.
Restricting parent's choice in schools for their kids is also a problem. Our state is also refusing to allow growth in infrastructure when failing to meet a very tough unrealistic greenhouse gas standard. Dozens of other laws have increased regulator burden, centralized power in Denver, and forced local government to pay for state enacted laws which is a way to "end run" Colorado's TABOR law.
As I have mentioned before I have almost 40 years' experience in these areas working in a wide variety of conditions and the skills acquired from these jobs have prepared me to be a County Commissioner and State Senator or any other senior elected official job for that matter.
But the most amazing story for me was when I went knocking on doors in a trailer park and I met Mr. Don Stratton and his wife Velma. Don was on the USS Arizona during the Pearl Harbor attack, was burned on 60% of his body. He was living in Colorado Springs, but no one knew that. Being a history buff, I was amazed he was living here with us.
I vowed to do something for him if I got elected. My election succeeded so we made June 8, El Paso County Don Stratton Day. I then created a board of retired military personnel called the Heroes Legacy Committee and we raised $100,000 to build a museum exhibit around Don's story. This exhibit included a 180-pound piece of the Arizona which now sits in the Colorado Springs East Library so children can learn about World War II. I was then able to get the Fillmore bridge named after Don Stratton. Done by proclamation at the State legislature, none of this would have been possible without my relationships with many people. We named the bridge in a ceremony which brought senior Pentagon officials, federal Senators and Congressmen, and 500 people to honor Don Stratton.
This can be delivered with legislation setting the procedures in advance and then, upon convening, perhaps manage those powers as a check and balance. It is important to ensure those emergency powers are not abused. Colorado's laws have a vast array of authorities granted to the Governor including the authority to suspend statutes, regulate business, commandeer private property, order evacuations, stop sales of certain products, activate the militia, and more.
I believe that in 2020, Governor Polis over-extended his emergency powers in response to COVID, and if not that, then the legislature granted too much power to the governor in current legislation. He ordered the closure of industries, limited attendance at public gatherings, forced the firing of healthcare workers who refused the COVID shot, abused religious rights, and did other harmful things. Certainly, that was an uncertain time, but I believe it could have been handled better. I believe, presently, Colorado law gives too much power to the governor in emergency situations.
Recently I attended a Chamber of Commerce/BBB/SBDC sponsored small business listening session and every one of the business owners there complained about the huge small business regulator burden in Colorado. Some described the "business harming" climate of the state legislature as unstable because it was changing so often. They claimed there was no hope in keeping up with the changes.
This has inspired me to consider introducing in my first session as a Senator, at least a few bills to reduce business, and especially small business, burdens. So....
1) I will introduce a bill to eliminate the business private property tax which not only has a non-sensical title, but burdens businesses using capital equipment with a property tax for that equipment every year. This is not only a fiscal burden, but an outlier across the 50 US states, and a regulatory burden that has a cost associated with it for compliance.
2) I will introduce a bill to substantially reduce the very high tax burden for businesses that was caused by the unfortunate relationship between the TABOR and Gallagher laws that was recently decoupled. However, business tax burden in Colorado remains one of the highest in any US State. This needs to be reduced and placed into better balance.
1) Appropriations - extensive experience in Colorado and DoD federal appropriations, from building and integrating budgets to advocating and evaluation the best value outcomes.
2) As a businessman and technology developer, I have a lot of background in this arena as well. And I have sat on the Pikes Peak Workforce Center board for several years now.
3) Local Government and Housing - I am especially interested in this Committee because as a County Commissioner, I have been a victim and recipient of a lot of unfunded mandates from state law and have had many local authorities removed from my purview and centralized in the state. Both of these are bad policy.
Funds should never be spent on projects that are not for the broader good. Public budgets should be just that, public, and every budget should be open to public scrutiny and comment. In every one of our County Commissioner meetings, we have an opportunity for any citizen to come in and give comments to anything on or off the agenda. It is their right. These are important because the funding used is not owned by the government. It is owned by the taxpayers who entrust the elected official to use those funds wisely and in the interests of its citizens.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
2020
Stan VanderWerf did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
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Candidate Colorado State Senate District 12 |
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Footnotes
