At Large candidates get no respect (statistically speaking)

Are the official election results misleading citizens about the race for City Council At Large seats?

Doug Linkhart’s 41,555 votes are displayed as representing 41% of the total. But the truth is, he received far more support than that.

That's because the Denver Election Commission displays the At Large percentages as a basis of all votes given in that race. Normally, that's fine. Total votes are usually equal to the total number of voters in any given race. But when voters can select up to two (2) candidates, as happens with At Large seats, the numbers are thrown out of whack.

For instance, the total number of At Large votes in May 2007 was 101,288, so half of that (assuming everyone voted for two candidates) would be 50,644. That seems low, insofar as 65,270 voted in the more obscure Clerk & Recorder race, yet it also seems unlikely that tens of thousands of folks chose just one of the three candidates. Still, if we raise the estimated votecount to 57,000 (halfway between the two numbers), the percentages change quite dramatically.

COUNCIL AT LARGE
Doug Linkhart – 41,555 / 57,000? - 72.9% (not 41.0%)
Carol Boigon – 31,952 / 57,000? - 56.1% (not 31.6%)
Carol Campbell – 27,144 / 57,000? - 47.6% (not 26.8%)
Write-In Candidate - 637 / 57,000? - 1.1% (not 0.6%)

Thus, for a more intuitive accounting, the vote tallies for At Large councilors should be judged not by the total number of votes, but the total number of voters who submitted a choice in that category.

Opinions may vary on the need for this revision, but it is at least important for voters to realize that the actual percentage of support for candidates in the At Large race was far more substantial than the generic results indicate.

What your city officials USED to say

The exercise with Mr Werther got me to wondering what our city officials' websites looked like way back, even before they were elected. And by extension, how do they compare to their official actions?

Using a wonderful resources called the Wayback Machine, I perused the old websites. One limitation is that certain graphics may not load and links may be broken, but you can still navigate (guessing at what the missing images may have shown) and see what they had to say about themselves.

I invite you to peruse Denver's election facades as they looked in April 2003.

John Hickenlooper
Dennis Gallagher
Rick Garcia
Jeanne Faatz
Rosemary Rodriguez
Peggy Lehmann
Marcia Johnson
Kathleen MacKenzie
Elbra Wedgeworth
Judy Montero
Jeanne Robb
Michael Hancock
Carol Boigon

Did you notice anything different or strange? Comments, ideas, and critiques of "how they were then" appreciated.

Video Interview: Carol Boigon (At-Large)

Colorado Confidential continues its video interviews with candidates, as Kerri Rebresh interviews Carol Boigon, candidate for City Council At-Large candidate Carol Boigon.

Boigon's biographical story is especially interesting, ranging from her Detroit origins, teaching background, reportorial work, and then service to Governor Roemer, presidential candidate Bill Clinton, and Mayor Wellington Webb.

She highlights her work in allowing neighborhood daycare facilities and supporting the new Denver preschool initiative.

Boigon's primary concern is making Denver better for children and families. She provides a compelling discussion of safety, culture, and education, and how they provide the central foundation of a strong city.

She also discusses in hard detail the development of Colfax, referencing both the process that led to the new Tattered Cover and the plans to use Main Street zoning on behalf of Districts 1, 3, 5, and 7.

In my personal opinion, this is one of the most impressive interviews of all the city electoral candidates. I recommend it to others.

Rocky endorses frontrunners

The Rocky Mountain News today issued official endorsements for the May 2007 municipal election. With due caution, they endorsed the frontrunner in every race... except for Council District 8, in which they offered kudos for both Sharon Bailey and Carla Madison:

Mayor: John Hickenlooper
Auditor: Dennis Gallagher
Clerk & Recorder: Stephanie O’Malley
District 3: Paul Lopez
District 4: Peggy Lehmann
District 5: Marcia Johnson
District 7: Chris Nevitt
District 8: Sharon Bailey or Carla Madison
District 9: Judy Montero
At-large: Doug Linkhart and Carol Boigon

Political force in the Home Builders Association of Metro Denver

I have been openly (sometime unreservedly) critical of the Denver dailies. But occasionally critical and hard-working reporters do slip through the cracks. One such reporter is Stuart Steers of the Rocky Mountain News.

It takes more than a little gusto to rip through the campaign statements over every political candidate for municipal elections in Denver. But if you want to understand the power of such powerful organizations as the Home Builders Association of Metro Denver, that's what it takes.

Especially when one of the most important tasks of the next Denver City Council is going to be implementing the recommended changes of the Zoning Code Taskforce.

Review Steers' article entitled "Developers build campaign coffers: Elected officials bound to have say in major projects." Specific mention is provided to council candidates Marcia Johnson, Carol Boigon, Jeanne Faatz, Peggy Lehmann, Doug Linkhart, Shelly Watters, Carla Madison, and Charlie Brown.

Private Money In City Government: A Good Idea or Bad?

Privatizing government services is generally considered a Republican idea, but what happens when a Democratic mayor funds many of his social service initiatives through private donations?

Chirstopher Osher of the Denver Post explains in "Mayor dreams big; donors come true."

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper has raised at least $104 million from private donors to pay for a variety of city programs, including help for the homeless, a guarantee of college scholarships for the poor and plans for planting up to 1 million trees.

Since taking office in 2003, the mayor repeatedly has tapped private sources to pay for some of his top initiatives.

"People don't like throwing money at problems, especially tax money," Hickenlooper said. "Philanthropic sources are careful, but they have a higher tolerance for innovation."

As the money has poured in, though, some are beginning to question what the rules are when private money moves into the public sphere.

Those who raise concerns applaud the mayor for his fundraising prowess and good intentions but question whether there is sufficient transparency to gauge whether conflicts of interest are developing from donors.

They also caution that the fundraising could end up inflating city budgets in the end as some of the privately funded programs eventually require taxpayer support.

The biggest concerns seems to revolve around accountability and special favors:

Early in his tenure, Hickenlooper even established the Office of Strategic Partnerships, lodged in the Department of Human Services, to coordinate the fundraising and the efforts of nonprofit foundations.

But the fundraiser in chief raised concerns among some City Council members that he may have overreached when he secured $150,000 from an as- yet-undisclosed private foundation to pay some of the costs of a gang task force wanted by District Attorney Mitch Morrissey.

Councilwoman Carol Boigon said she won't back private funding of the gang task force because she fears it could create a situation where a defendant feared his prosecution was because an enemy donated money.

"When we are in the position of being able to take away someone's money, property, freedom and good name, I think it's very important that we be very, very clear and beyond any remote question that this is truly a public process and not privately funded," Boigon said.

Councilwoman Jeanne Faatz has said it's crucial that the mayor divulge the source of the gang funds to ensure no conflict of interest develops. She wants even the identity of the person who supplied the money to the foundation disclosed.

The mayor said he will reveal the foundation when it actually forwards the money to the city, but he said he doesn't know who gave the money to the foundation and wants to keep it that way.

"We didn't want the district attorney or the chief of police to know what individual had given money so there could never be any accusation that this person was avoiding prosecution or this person was getting this or that," the mayor said. "That's why we wanted the money to be anonymous."

Hickenlooper also wants to allow donors to contribute anonymously to his scholarship foundation program, which has raised $70 million so far, $50 million of which came from oilman Tim Marquez and his wife, Bernadette.

Faatz has questioned whether privately funded initiatives could end up with a hidden tax bite in the future. She voted against the mayor's homelessness initiative in part because she feared adequate resources hadn't been identified to pay for programs in the future.

"You can build a bureaucracy and end up not having buy-in to put that in the general fund," Faatz said, while stressing that she thinks Hickenlooper's ability to tap private donors is one of his top strengths.

Faatz also has been a stickler for full disclosure of donors, including in the scholarship program.

"There could still be expectations on the donor, and it could create cozy relationships," Faatz said. "It seems to me to be more upfront that if a public official is asking something of someone else, that that is transparent."

What do you think? Is this all a very progressive and well-intentioned effort, or are the likely consequences for public access and accountability too severe to allow continuation?

POLL: Council At Large seats

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Profile: Carol Boigon (At Large District)

Several candidates for a City Council At Large seat were profiled in the March 2007 edition of Life On Capitol Hill.

Carol Boigon's candidacy was described as follows:

Incumbent At-Large Councilwoman Carol Boigon is focusing her re-election campaign on neighborhood and family issues, redevelopment of urban corridors, and neighborhood stability.

Boigon notes the accomplishments of her first term, including: helping to preserve the Lowenstein Theatre while bringing redevelopment to East Colfax; working on several city- and state-level legislative initiatives that support early childhood education services for Denver children; participating at a neighborhood level to help communities with issues regarding crime, liquor license proliferation and access to city resources; helping to lead the push for additional police officers in the 2006 budget; revising Denver's zoning code to support neighborhood-based' ' preschool, daycare and early childhood education programs; and championing. the successful vote to lift restrictions in the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR).

Councilwoman Boigon has many issues she wants to address- in a second term, among them: successful implementation of the Denver Preschool Program; sound planning around the 38 FasTracks transit stops that will be located in neighborhoods, so that the new stops are an asset in each community; protecting the existing mature trees in Denver; improving the city's irrigation system for its parks and parkways; and using the redevelopment lessons learned along East Colfax and applying them to other parts of Colfax as well as other troubled corridors.

Profile: Videotape of the District 8 and At Large City Council candidates

An image is worth a thousand words, then Denver Direct has just offered a million or so helpful words for Denver voters this campaign season.

Gerald Trumbule visited a candidates forum sponsored by the San Rafael neighborhood association on Thursday evening (March 22nd), and videotaped all of the introductory statements by candidates.

Would you be interested to see the likes of District 8 candidates Sharon Bailey, Carla Madison, Greg Rasheed, Lynn Smith, and Darrell Watson? No matter where you live in Denver, the candidates for the At-Large Seat are important: Carol Boigon, Carol Campbell, and Doug Linkhart.

Please visit Denver City Council District 8 Candidates Speak at San Rafael 3-22-07.

The vast majority of Denver voters will never meet these candidates face-to-face. That's why issue-based, Internet resources are so valuable. Thanks, Jerry!

Opinon: Denver needs more spirited politics

Former city councilwoman Susan Barnes-Gelt penned a March 3 column for the Denver Post entitled "Election Below the Radar".

So much of the article is good, it's hard to know where to start. The column begins with a rundown of the current apathetic political situation:

So far, Denver's all-mail, May 1 municipal ballot looks like a nothing burger. With the exception of three open City Council seats in Districts 3, 7 and 8, there are no truly contested council races. There are no serious candidates challenging the mayor or the auditor. Nor does there appear to be a real horse race to fill the newly created, $125,000-per-year elected job of clerk and recorder.

Oh, sure, the perfunctory Harold Stassen candidates (the Minnesota Republican who sought the presidential nomination nine times between 1948 and 1992) have pulled petitions: Dwight Henson, Denver's "homeless mayor," may run for mayor; CPA Bill Wells is gathering signatures - again - to run for auditor; Ike Kelley Jr. and William Rutherford III want the District 4 seat; Mitchell Poindexter and R.J. Ours are running in District 5; and there's Waldo Benavides in District 9. Denver voters see these names regularly on the ballot.

In the at-large race, only Carol E. Campbell, a credible west Denver neighborhood activist, has pulled a petition. The at-large race has been a slam-dunk incumbent's dream for as long as anyone can remember because of two significant factors: money and geography. It's nearly impossible to build a political base by going door-to-door citywide. The other alternatives are a challenger with high citywide name recognition or a wealthy, self-funded candidate who would have to spend tens of thousands of dollars to buy name recognition though direct mail, TV and radio.

In fact, Councilwoman at-large Carol Boigon did exactly that four years ago. She loaned her campaign nearly $190,000 for advertising in the 2003 election and placed first in a field of seven - with 22 percent of the votes cast. Doug Linkhart secured the other at-large position with 17 percent.

After discussing the now-discarded idea of splitting the at-large council elections into two separate seats, which would have ensured more direct accountability and head-to-head campaigns, she returns to the question of political candidacies in Denver.

In 1995, Denver voters extended municipal terms to 12 years and in 2003, 10 of 13 council seats, the mayor and the auditor were open. Despite record candidate interest and numerous hotly contested seats, less than 47 percent of Denverites voted in the May municipal election.

Honestly, I don't know what to make of a citywide election for 16 important positions and little controversy. Are we so absorbed in national and international affairs and the doings at the state legislature that we simply don't care about the direction of our city, its condition and its future?

Maybe I'm tone deaf, but the absence of a spirited civic dialogue that should accompany municipal elections is not music to my ears.