Much ado has been made about the “failure” of the short-lived campaign to recall 18th Judicial District Attorney Amy Padden — sealed this week when no signatures landed at the Secretary of State’s Office by deadline.

The effort was launched by Aurora City Councilwoman Danielle Jurinsky, a tireless champion for law enforcement and public safety in Padden’s Arapahoe County. Jurinsky told The Denver Gazette she’d gathered enough signatures to force a recall but backed off because she “felt like giving her a second chance.”

Good call. Recall elections are exceedingly rare — and rarely successful — given the sky-high bar. That’s why they generally are unwise, especially so early in an incumbent’s first term when the record is still thin. In Democrat-heavy Arapahoe County, this recall was probably doomed from the start.

But Padden’s victory lap went too far.

“While Arapahoe County overwhelmingly elected me to lead the 18th Judicial District in a new direction, the petition proponents sought to undermine the will of the voters,” she said in a statement. “By declining to sign the petition, voters recognized the important work that my office has been doing since January 2005 and plainly saw that this recall attempt was nothing more than partisan politics.”

Not so fast, Madame DA: You’re not out of the woods yet.

To her credit, Jurinsky’s recall push spotlighted serious problems. Padden is only 10 months into a four-year term — and she’s already courted multiple controversies.

In May, her office offered — and accepted — a plea of probation and community service for a 15-year-old illegal immigrant who killed 24-year-old Kaitlyn Weaver while speeding 90 mph through an Aurora neighborhood. Uninsured and underage, he slammed into her car.

By cutting the deal, Padden reneged on the commitment her predecessor, John Kellner, made to Weaver’s family to pursue the maximum two-year youth corrections sentence. Devastating.

The prosecutor who cut Padden’s deal was reportedly her handpicked second-in-command, Ryan Brackley — once the top deputy to ex-Denver DA Beth McCann. In July 2019, Brackley was forced to resign after taking “half-swings” with a baseball bat at a female colleague and making “demeaning and inappropriate comments” to others. A formal complaint described conduct “ranging from unprofessional to discriminatory,” including threats and “emotional abuse.” The female prosecutor wrote, “I feel quite certain he would not have engaged in that conduct with a male employee.”

An investigation also found Brackley had texted a female colleague, threatening to fire her “fing fat ass” over potential Facebook posts. Another reported he’d silenced her in a staff meeting and publicly accused her of pouting.

This is who Padden installed as her top deputy? Some judgment.

By July, her office prepared to drop charges against a transgender sex offender accused of attempting to kidnap an 11-year-old from an Aurora elementary school. The 33-year-old suspect, Solomon Galligan, was found mentally incompetent at his 23rd competency hearing in 18 years. The charges were dismissed, and Galligan was released. Even his family members were stunned.

Padden claimed her “hands were tied” since state law requires dismissal when a defendant is found incompetent and not restorable. But the legislature foolishly changed the law just last year, stripping judges of the discretion they’d previously had.

Padden never said a peep about it during the campaign — and only spoke out after backlash. Even then, she meekly suggested “some exceptions that can be carved out” instead of demanding full repeal.

Here’s the thing: The fact that she’s advocating half-measures should come as no surprise given her campaign platform. Padden ran on a soft-on-crime agenda: “reduce over-incarceration,” “protect vulnerable populations” and “address systemic inequalities.”

“Amy knows that alternatives to incarceration are sometimes more effective to rehabilitate offenders, particularly for those with mental health and substance abuse issues,” her campaign website declared. She vowed to fight “for-profit incarceration” and “to end the use of private prisons in Colorado.”

She railed against “racial inequities inherent in our criminal justice system,” called for “true criminal justice reform” and targeted the so-called “school to prison pipeline.” That included opposing the “pervasive practice of charging children as adults in the 18th JD” except in “the most extreme cases, not as a default.”

Of course, it was never the default — and the Kaitlyn Weaver case reveals what she’s really aiming for.

Padden’s positions once looked principled, even proud, albeit ideologically extreme. But as soon as the heat cranked in May, her website vanished. Visit amypadden.com now and you’ll find only “Private Site.” Unless residents know how to dig through the Wayback Machine, they can’t compare Padden’s record to her promises. In fact, the website’s last snapshot before it went dark was May 14 — just days after the Weaver plea deal. Why hide what you campaigned on?

Let’s be real: Amy Padden isn’t just soft on crime — she’s ducking accountability. A scrubbed website and a scrapped recall won’t erase reckless decisions. Voters deserve transparency, not excuses. And if she insists on staying in the dark, Arapahoe County voters will finally have a say when the time comes.

Jimmy Sengenberger is an investigative journalist, public speaker, and longtime local talk-radio host. Reach Jimmy online at Jimmysengenberger.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @SengCenter.