The front door at a house off Thornton’s 118th Avenue has three signs.
On top is a woodcut that displays the name “Namazi” proudly. Directly underneath are two campaign signs. One signals support for City Council candidate Roberta Ayala. The other backs mayoral candidate Julia Marvin.
The man behind that door, Dariush Namazi, says the signs aren’t his.
“That’s all my wife’s stuff,” Namazi said.
Namazi is better known by another name, Danny Kulmann, in political circles and on social media. It turns out that’s the same last name as Mayor Jan Kulmann, though he’s not related. And, it seems like an odd coincidence coming from the man behind the door that has a sign supporting Kulmann’s adversary in the mayor’s race.
Kulmann, for her part, is concerned about it and alleges that Namazi is trying to hurt her political image and that sometimes Namazi’s actions have left her feeling scared.
Namazi has made himself seen at events around town – and in the garb of a pro-MAGA supporter, acting like the mayor’s biggest fan. He touts former President Trump’s “Make America Great Again” and his Danny Kulmann name as he shadows Mayor Kulmann on the campaign trail seeking reelection to what would be a final term in the office.
Namazi sometimes wears a bright red MAGA cap and a shirt with Mayor Kulmann’s picture on it, loudly proclaiming his devotion for the mayor and the conservative issues he claims she represents – anti-trans, anti-LGBTQ and unregulated oil drilling are at the top policy goals on Namazi’s list.
For instance, he appeared at Adams County Pride, Thornton Pride and Arts in the Park with signs saying, “Keep Thornton Straight” and “Reelect Mayor Jan Kulmann.” But Kulmann says it is bizarre political theater and Namazi and his signs have nothing to do with her views or her campaign. She sees Namazi’s actions as a ploy to stoke confusion and negative reactions to her conservative, but nuanced, positions on numerous issues.
“He doesn’t speak for me, he doesn’t represent me or my values, and in fact works with my political opponent,” Kulmann alleged of Namazi on her campaign Facebook account. “His demeanor and theatrics continue to turn aggressive to the point that I don’t feel comfortable bringing my daughter to city events.”
Marvin, Kulmann’s opponent, told the Northglenn-Thornton Sentinel, that Kulmann’s allegation is off base and that Namazi isn’t part of her campaign.
And Kulmann told the Sentinel that she felt unsafe at a recent public event when she asked Namazi to back away from her but he stood his ground.
“If a normal person was talking to you in whatever way they are and you ask them to stop, they will back off,” she said.
In a video Namazi took during the council’s June 13 meeting and posted to Facebook, Police Chief Terrence Gordon informs Namazi that he does not have the right to be disorderly during a public meeting.
“If a police officer says ‘you’re getting too close,’ you back off,” Kulmann said. “He escalates the behavior each time.”
Kulmann is so concerned for herself and her children that she has pursued, and subsequently received, a restraining order against Namazi. According to Tiffany Coolidge, campaign manager for Kulmann, Namazi was served a temporary restraining order by the Adams County Sheriff’s Office on June 22. The order alleges that Namazi shouted at and interrupted her, misrepresented her political views and has not left her alone even though she has asked. The order by a county judge states that Namazi will stay at least five yards away from Kulmann and includes stipulations that Namazi will not stalk, harass or threaten her.
The order could be made permanent or dismissed at a July 5 hearing.
Kulmann first noticed Namazi at Thorntonfest, which was on June 3. Then she saw him popping up at other events in a way she alleges is harassing.
“When he saw me (at Thornton Pride) as I was getting ready to leave, he chased me out into the parking lot into my car and said, ‘We don’t even want you here,’” Kulmann alleged. “But of course nobody’s around to hear it and he’s not filming it.
Bedolla, Garcia and Sandgren
Other candidates and members of the City Council raise concerns about Namazi’s activities at events and say they’ve experienced similar incidents. City Councilor Eric Garcia, Mayor Pro-Tem Jessica Sandgren and council candidate Angie Bedolla fear Namazi might be misrepresenting their views and stated that he doesn’t speak for them.
“It’s all nonsense,” Garcia said. “He doesn’t represent me, he doesn’t represent my views. He doesn’t represent anything at all. To me, it looks like just a big huge act.”
Garcia said he witnessed Namazi follow Kulmann when he was with Kulmann and that he stepped in between them out of concern. He also said Namazi has called his personal cell phone.
Sandgren became fearful over his actions, including from a Facebook post in which Namazi wrote: “Jessica Sandgren, Thornton Mayor Pro Tem walking serenely through a field with a ray of sunshine overhead is truly a piece of art. I’ve stared at this photo for hours now, but I keep finding more meaning in it. She is honestly an inspiration, just like Jan Kulmann, Mayor of Thornton.”
Sandgren saw it as creepy and harassing.
“I get we’re elected officials and there’s a certain level of access people have to us,” Sandgren said. “But as a woman, I’m not comfortable with what is going on.”
Bedolla alleged that Namazi harassed her in front of her two daughters.
“I did not feel safe at all and I also did not feel that my daughters were very safe,” Bedolla said.
The council members say their views are more nuanced and complex than Namazi represents them as. For instance, Bedolla voted with Sandgren and Kulmann in 2021 against raising the pride flag in Thornton. Bedolla said she supports the LGBTQ community, but a vote to allow the raising of any one flag “opens Pandora’s box” for other flags to be flown.
Kulmann also voted against it, but she said it was because of the procedure of voting on the item, not the item itself. Since there wasn’t a consensus to bring the item forward during the planning session, that was against the procedure.
“I even said in the moment ‘I’m really glad this passed. I support it 100%.’ I don’t support votes on the floor where we have not had a consensus agreement about it,” she said.
Sandgren said she faults the way the issue came about and it didn’t offer the community a way to give their feedback.
Kulmann campaign manager Coolidge, who also manages Bedolla’s and Garcia’s campaigns, alleges that Namazi is working for other candidates in Thornton. Coolidge has called on Ward 2 candidates Roberta Ayala and Marvin to disavow Namazi.
Videos show Namazi door knocking and passing out Ayala fliers.
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
Click the arrow in the upper left to expand the video. Dariush Namazi passing out fliers from Thornton city council candidate Roberta Ayala’s campaign. Video courtesy of Tiffany Coolidge.
But Ayala claims Namazi isn’t working or volunteering for her campaign.
“Definitely wouldn’t have a MAGA person doing that on my campaign,” Ayala said.
After being told of videos of Namazi going door to door with Ayala’s campaign fliers, she said that he may have been involved before he started acting as Danny Kulmann. Ayala said to her knowledge that he isn’t currently involved with her campaign.
“I have nothing to do with it,” Ayala said. “I don’t know that it’s necessarily harassment. It’s something that he’s doing though, and I don’t have anything to do with it.”
However, Namazi’s wife is a volunteer for the campaign, Ayala confirmed. She has a pet pig that also attends Ayala’s campaign events as an unofficial campaign mascot.
Coolidge’s questions linger, though, given other moments involving Namazi, like a photo of Ayala’s campaign Facebook account dated April 15 with Namazi sitting at the same table as Ayala.
As for Namazi, he denied that he is an Ayala supporter.
When asked if Namazi’s actions are wrong, prior to the restraining order meant to keep him away from Kulmann, Ayala said, “He’s not breaking any laws.” When asked, given that Kulmann sees Namazi’s actions as harassment, if it’s OK, she said uncomfortable moments come with running a campaign.
“I think that when we decide to run for office, there are going to be people that have opinions of our viewpoints, whether they be for or against us and that’s part of running for office is that we have to face those challenges of working with the community,” Ayala said.
She added a caveat: “I would disavow anything illegal that anybody’s doing. If there is evidence of harassment, I would disavow that.”
The concerns have also led Councilor Marvin to say that neither Namazi nor his wife are affiliated with her reelection campaign in any way. She said she’s only talked with the couple at public events in the past.
“As I’ve continued to say, over and over, these people are not associated with my campaign,” Marvin said. “I’m not paying them. They’re not volunteering for my campaign. They don’t have anything to do with it.”
Marvin said the situation is a symptom of a bigger issue – that the council is viewed as nonpartisan yet members of the council have ideological views.
Marvin said some council watchers for years have been “frustrated with candidates who sort of hide behind the nonpartisan piece of things and won’t openly speak about their positions on things.”
Marvin did not answer the question of whether Namazi’s actions are fair in an interview. The following day, Marvin followed up with an emailed statement.
“I believe that political discourse is healthy and an important part of the process, and as elected officials people can and should have a wide latitude on how they can engage with us,” she wrote. “However, I don’t agree with anyone using tactics that make candidates or elected officials feel unsafe. And I can empathize with that feeling, having been in situations myself where people have followed me, and I found that stressful and intimidating.”
Marvin also pointed to the fact that the city council changed the rules for campaigning within city events in 2019, which allowed candidates to campaign at city events.
Kulmann has been on Thornton’s council since 2013 and Marvin since 2019. The time Marvin spent on the council leads her to believe Kulmann is far-right, and that Kulmann’s views during the Congressional District 8 race align with those views. One view, Marvin pointed to, was that Kulmann wouldn’t say whether or not the election was stolen.
But according to a Colorado Sun article from June 2022 amidst the campaign for the CD-8 seat, Kulmann did confirm that President Joe Biden won the election and said she was “…running to take back the House and put a stop on his radical agenda that continues to hurt working families across the country.”
Political theater in Thornton
In an interview with the Sentinel, Namazi insists he is not acting. He also has a story as to why he prefers to be called “Danny Kulmann”.
Namazi said he grew up in Texas and received a lot of hate for his Iranian last name after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He chose Dan before he went to college, but said he chose Kulmann as his “authentic self” to Thornton’s community.
Now, much of his act plays out on Facebook where he posts videos of himself posed with City Councilors and Kulmann’s other supporters.
A 2016 graduate of Baylor University, Namazi moved to Colorado soon after and he and his wife purchased a house in Thornton in 2017.
Namazi filed papers with the Colorado Secretary of State in 2017 for a run for Colorado State Senate District 24 – as a Democrat.
But in public, he maintains his MAGA persona, pledging his support for former President Trump, his GOP opponent Ron DeSantis and conservative icons like Ben Shapiro. He alleged that it is obvious that Kulmann supports MAGA candidates like DeSantis based on her social media and her voting record.
“That is the only presidential candidate she follows on social media and so I don’t think it takes a lot for a patriot like me to read between the lines of what she thinks,” Namazi said.
He pointed to views of DeSantis that he links with her that he agrees with.
“Ron says that he’s going to exterminate trans ideology,” Namazi said. “I very strongly support that. I know Jan supports that. She voted against her pride events. She voted to make sure that sort of indoctrination is now brought here to Colorado.”
Posters on Colorado Pols, a progressive online bulletin board and discussion site, seemed initially confused, trading snark with Namazi until one poster said what Namazi appears to be doing is “…doing vaudevillian political theater. Maybe that’s all this is… the spasmodic antics of someone who wants attention, and doesn’t care whose candidacies he hurts in the process.”
Far-right, or middle of the road
As for Kulmann, she said she identifies as a middle-of-the-road conservative – both fiscally conservative and socially liberal. Coolidge said her past congressional campaign spoke for itself. Kulmann learned her views weren’t partisan enough to win, which she sees as the reason she lost the Republican primary.
“I lost the primary because the primary is a very partisan race,” Kulmann said.
Further, in The Colorado Sun article published in June of 2022, it lays out other issues she and other Republican primary candidates for the district took stances on.
In her answers, Kulmann said her top priority would’ve been to “unleash American energy dominance” due to energy costs.
She didn’t support abortion except in cases of rape, incest or if the mother is at risk. She said she supports federal legislation that limits late-term abortion except when the mother’s life is at risk. She also said she supports the Hyde Amendment, which bars federal money being spent on abortions.
In regards to guns, she said the mental health crisis in kids needs to be addressed, and there needs to be more police in communities and schools.
On immigration policy, she told the Sun in a written response: “Those who have followed the rules should be at the front of the line. Those who came here illegally should be at the back of the line.”
She also said that humans contribute to climate change but “innovation and technology will solve it, not bureaucracy and certainly not far-left policies.”
Specific to Thornton
Kulmann also voted for a 10-well fracking site in Thornton that was 1.5 miles south of Stargate Charter School and .5 miles south of Little Lights Christian Early Learning Center.
Even if the council didn’t approve those sites, they would’ve been approved through a different route of authorization, according to city staff. Through the City Council process, the company was held to higher standards.
Kulmann also did not support a grassroots movement in 2022 seeking more campaign finance reform, but said she was in favor of more transparency and wanted a more collaborative effort.
Kulmann also voted to take former City Councilor Jacque Phillips off council due to a purchase of a home in Alamosa and starting a second job there. Phillips and other councilors have called the move political.
As for her almost ten years on Thornton’s dias, the Danny Kulmann situation proves most unusual.
“In 2013, it was just about talking to people. There were social media pages, but nobody really used them,” Kulmann said.