Jake Jabs

Jake Jabs (born 1930) is an American businessman, philanthropist, and United States Air Force veteran. He is the founder and CEO of American Furniture Warehouse (AFW), a chain of furniture stores in Colorado, Texas, and Arizona.

Jabs makes political donations to the Republican Party and conservative organizations. In 1985, he announced an intent to run for the United States Senate in the state of Colorado, but was deemed ineligible because he was not registered as a Republican. He was criticized for advocating to other people to vote, when he had not done so in the prior decade.

The Jake Jabs College of Business and Entrepreneurship and Jake Jabs Center for Entrepreneurship are named after him due to his substantial donations to Montana State University and the University of Colorado Denver.

Early life and education Jabs was born in the rural outskirts of Lodge Grass, Montana, as one of 9 children to a Volga German mother and Vistula German father,Efn|Several sources claim that Jabs is Polish, Russian, and Jewish. Jabs has stated that he is not Jewish, from which he graduated in 1948.

Jabs then attended Montana State College, He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Vocational Agriculture When he completed his duty, he relocated to Nashville, Tennessee,

Jabs then returned to Bozeman, where he became a co-partner in a music store Mediterranean furniture store,

The same year that Jabs liquidated his furniture stores, another Colorado furniture store that had been in business since 1898, the American Furniture Company, closed and liquidated their inventory suddenly after its parent company had failed to pay its leases and an involuntary bankruptcy petition had been opened against them. The assets at the Denver store and warehouse were worth more than . In 1975, Jabs founded a new company, the American Furniture Warehouse Company (AFW), and used all of the money he had to make a deal for the remaining assets, which included forklifts, by 1984, it was among the largest furniture stores in the country.

Politics and philanthropy

1986 Republican US Senate campaign in Colorado Early in 1985, Jabs was identified as a potential Republican Party nominee for United States Senate in Colorado when Gary Hart considered whether or not to run for re-election following his withdrawal from the 1984 United States presidential election. Jabs said that his goal was to reduce regulations and paperwork for small business owners. On May 26, 1985, he announced his intent to campaign in the Republican primary election for the 1986 Senate race.

Jabs was deemed ineligible to run as a Republican candidate. Law prohibits spouses from selecting party affiliations on their spouses behalf. According to Jabs, he was then automatically registered as unaffiliated with any party, which he had been unaware of. Jabs registered as a Republican, and re-affirmed his intent to run in mid-July. The following week, the Arapahoe County Clerk, Marjorie Page, provided records that showed he had never been registered as a Republican in that county since at least 1975. Page said that if he had voted in a primary election, he would have automatically been registered as a member of the Republican party. He was notified after failing to vote in 1978 and 1982 Gubernatorial elections that he had been dropped from the voter rolls. In both cases, he re-registered as an unaffiliated voter. On July 1, 1985, a new state ballot access law had taken effect which required candidates to be registered with a party for at least one year prior to candidacy, which meant the deadline for Jabs to register had passed on June 27. The suit was quickly dismissed a district judge as premature, arguing that the matter would not be ripe for the courts to hear until June 1986, calling the controversy "imagined" and "speculative." Jabs disputed this, arguing he would first have to invest his time and hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign advertising first. He appealed the case to the Colorado Supreme Court, which they declined to hear.

While Jabs presented his ineligibility to run as a "fluke," his lack of voting over the previous decade was scrutinized by the press. The Daily Sentinel argued that if Jabs couldn't manage to register to vote, then he wasn't a suitable Senate candidate.

Donations Jabs donates to the Republican Party and supports anti-union measures. In 2008, he paid for advertisements pushing Coloradans to vote for a right-to-work law. He also pledged to the American Tradition Partnership. He also funds the University of Colorado Denver's Jake Jabs Center for Entrepreneurship.

Awards and honors Colorado Business Hall of Fame

Popular culture Jabs was referenced in Guitar Queer-O, an episode of the cartoon South Park.