Shontel Lewis worked at the Colorado Department of Human Services East Food Stamp Office. Her job was to help low-income families access Electronic Benefit Transfer cards so they could eat. Instead, she reissued those cards to herself and her roommate.

She pleaded guilty to misdemeanor theft in 2008 and was sentenced to 18 months of probation.

Now Lewis is a Denver city councilwoman, a card-carrying member of the Democratic Socialists of America, and a candidate for mayor. At least 10 people are running for the seat. Most of them probably haven't stolen government benefits from the agency that employed them. Lewis, though, has a different pitch. She told interviewers that the conviction doesn't disqualify her — it does the opposite.

"I actually think that experience is what actually QUALIFIES me," Lewis said. She called the theft "something silly."

Something silly. That's what you call wearing your shirt inside out. That's what you call forgetting your keys. Reissuing EBT cards meant for impoverished families to yourself while drawing a paycheck from the office tasked with distributing them — that's theft from people who needed the help you were hired to provide.

Lewis's argument is that her conviction gives her "insight into poverty." The insight she gained was apparently that if you work at the office that distributes public benefits, you can redirect those benefits to your own household. That's not insight into poverty. That's a scheme.

The Democratic Socialists of America endorsed her anyway. Lewis has also made headlines on the Denver City Council for proposing that every council meeting begin with a slavery acknowledgment. So the pattern is familiar: big public gestures about systemic injustice from someone whose personal contribution to injustice involved stealing food money from the poor.

Lewis later paid full restitution — which her supporters cite as proof she's moved past it. Restitution is what the court ordered. It doesn't transform the act into a leadership credential. Paying back stolen money is the minimum consequence, not a character reference.

Denver's DSA chapter isn't the only socialist operation making news. Melat Kiros, a 29-year-old Democratic Socialist from Ethiopia backed by streamer Hasan Piker, won a July congressional primary by unseating a 15-term incumbent Democrat. Multiple DSA candidates did the same in NYC. The DSA bench is growing. The vetting process, evidently, is not.