The last time a Denver mayor lost a re-election bid at the ballot box was in 1983.
So it’s not an exaggeration to say that in two months when Denver voters cast ballots in the first open mayoral race since 2011 when Mayor Michael Hancock was first elected, they could dictate the course of the city for more than a decade.
Whether that opportunity — or the stakes — will drive turnout up over the 40% of voters who cast ballots in the city’s May 2019 election when the term-limited Hancock was last elected remains to be seen. Regardless of how many ballots are cast, political observers, economic development professionals and candidates agree, the April 4 election will be critical and potentially history-making for Denver. Ballots will be mailed out the week of March 13.
“I think it’s very important,” Paul Teske, the dean of the University of Colorado Denver School of Public Affairs, said. “I think the term inflection point is sometimes overused in all of our discourse but it does feel to me a little bit like the city is at an inflection point.”
It’s not just the open mayor’s race., the race for auditor, or the 10 out of 13 contested races for City Council seats.
Denver, like many cities, is at a precarious point on such critical issues as public safety, the cost of housing, homelessness and the future of its downtown core.
— Full story via Joe Rubino, The Denver Post
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