Goodbye, greenhorn

I'm making a list this evening about entitled "Top Ten Ways to Ruin Your Political Prospects." The list isn't complete yet, but it includes oldies-but-goodies like:

10) Nevermind niceties like personal grooming.
9) Greet voters by kissing hands and shaking babies
8) Use your prison cell as campaign headquarters
... et cetera

More to the point of this post is the decision by Clerk and Recorder candidate Jacob Werther to end his political career before it started. Because if there's one way to ruin your own political prospects, it's to expose your own supporters to public ridicule.

For some reason, Werther has released to Colorado Confidential a personal phone message recently left on his answering service by Councilwoman Kathleen MacKenzie. In it, MacKenzie apologizes for not being able to support Werther publicly, since she had previously pledged to support candidate Stephanie O'Malley.

Read the entire article in Mark Mehringer's "Apology Regarding Endorsement Leads to Hurt Feelings in Denver Clerk Race."

There's no serious harm in the release, aside from hurt feelings, but it certainly reveals a lack of both awareness and sensibility about basic political matters.

So in a last homage to Mr Werther before his drubbing at the polls is announced, we offer this thought from Ralph Waldo Emerson:

"The best way to have a friend is to be a friend."

Fighting for civility in Denver City Council

Dear Denver has created another wonderful video montage of the soon-to-end feud between Council members Brown and MacKenzie.

The assembled quotes were taken from Council deliberations over the course of two weeks in March 2007. The concern arose from a number of situations when members of the public were berated, disdained, and talked down to. Councilwoman MacKenzie's stand on behalf of legislative civility was both long overdue and much appreciated.

Enjoy the video entitled "Diminution of Civility."

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.

Characteristics of a Good City Council Candidate

Councilwoman Kathleen MacKenzie was recently asked about the characteristics voters should consider in the upcoming May 2007 municipal elections. The article, found at DU Today and written by Richard Chapman, was entitled "MacKenzie weighs in on election."

Denver City Councilwoman Kathleen MacKenzie doesn’t know who her successor in District 7 will be, but she has some strong ideas about how voters should sort through the candidates.

Here’s what voters should look for, MacKenzie says: responsiveness to questions, evidence of hard work, bravery and brains.

“One of the things I would ask of who succeeds me — one of the things I would judge them on — is their willingness to confront powerful people.

“When I was having those battles with (former DU Chancellor Dan) Ritchie, I thought ‘What are you doing, here’s a man who’s a giant in our community, don’t knit-pick.’

“But you have to be willing to say, ‘Yeah, you know you’ve done a lot of good things, but there are problems there.’ I don’t think politicians do that enough.”

Evaluate brains, she says, as if you were interviewing the person for a job. Measure responsiveness to questions by what makes sense and whether the answers seem “forthright and honest.”

Lastly, MacKenzie advises, look at how much effort they put into their campaigns.

“You want somebody who is going to be a hard worker.”

This article originally appeared in The Source, April 2007

Profile: Julie Connor (CD7)

DU Today has published an article outlining the policy positions of city council candidates in three areas. The article by Richard Chapman is entitled "Candidates vie to replace MacKenzie in District 7," and includes profiles of both Council District 6 and Council District 7 candidates.

Below is the response of CD7's Julie Connor:

Experience you consider most relevant to Denver City Council service:
My current position as aide to Councilwoman Kathleen MacKenzie makes me the only candidate with exactly the experience and knowledge needed to represent District7 residents. Additionally, my stint in Peace Corps provided community development experience in an especially challenging atmosphere.

The University of Denver describes itself as a “private institution for the public good.” If the University were to ask you for suggestions as to how this could be accomplished in the years ahead, how would you answer?
First and foremost, get students out of their cars. (And the city can work on getting non-students out of their cars.) The tree-planting program in conjunction with the Park People is a stellar community service. A couple off-the-cuff ideas for enhancing the public good using university resources would be to find ways to incorporate into the curriculum students serving on city task forces, and establishing citizen academies (dealing with topics such as urban design, small-business planning, legal workshops, etc.) that could be facilitated by students.

What are the top three issues affecting District 7 that you intend to tackle after being elected to City Council?
I’ve got four: 1) Focusing on zoning as it pertains to keeping stable neighborhoods stable and directing investment to neighborhoods that desire it; 2) Enhancing public safety vis-à-vis police technology, infrastructure improvements and code compliance enforcement; 3) Fostering local business and neighborhood schools; and 4) Promoting environmental principles.

Campaigns struggle for publicity in 2007

Denver Post reporter George Merritt today highlighted the very issue that initiated this blog. The article was entitled "Slew of council candidates under the radar."

No fewer than 18 candidates are vying for three open seats on the Denver City Council this spring, but the contests have largely gone under the radar without a high-profile race for mayor to draw attention to the campaign season.

...No one currently in Denver government knows the difficulties of running for office in a low-profile election year as well as outgoing Councilwoman Kathleen MacKenzie. She won the only open seat on the council in 1999 - a year in which the incumbent mayor, Wellington Webb, won handily.

"I think that was one of the worst turnouts ever," MacKenzie said. "I was nervous as the day went by and the turnout was so low."

Similarly, this year's race for mayor is not likely to drive people to the polls. Mayor John Hickenlooper has a war chest closing on $600,000, and the only opponent to turn in petitions, Public Works employee Danny Lopez, does not have a campaign budget.

Hickenlooper officially launched his re-election bid Tuesday, filing more than four times the necessary 300 signatures.

Adding to the difficulty of stirring public interest, this year's election will be by mail ballot - effectively shortening the campaign for candidates because ballots go out about a month before the May 1 election day.

Regardless of the lack of buzz surrounding the election, Mac Kenzie and others said council seats are still won by pounding the pavement.

"The papers tend to cover the mayor ... but there's still not much coverage of the council race," MacKenzie said. "Those races are won by a real, door-to-door grassroots effort."

...Challengers facing the 10 council incumbents seeking re-election face the biggest obstacle. Since the 1970s, just three incumbents have been knocked out of a council seat.

"There is approximately a 95 percent re-election rate among incumbents" on the City Council, said John Bennett, a former council administrator who analyzed the council elections. "The chances of an incumbent losing is almost nil."

Denver City Council voted against Iraq war

As a historian, I frequently harken back to previous actions of elected officials. One such occasion four years ago seems especially prescient.

In February 2003, Denver City Council voted 7-3 in favor of a resolution against the Iraq war, as reported by the Denver Post. No current Council members voted for the war.

The resolution passed on a 7-3 vote with Joyce Foster and Charlie Brown abstaining and Ramona Martinez absent.

In favor were Susan Barnes-Gelt, Dennis Gallagher, Happy Haynes, Kathleen MacKenzie, Debbie Ortega, Elbra Wedgeworth and Cathy Reynolds. Opposed were Polly Flobeck, Ted Hackworth and Ed Thomas.

An amendment proposed by Hackworth supporting the Bush administration failed by the same vote.

...The measure also resolved: "That United States forces may be deployed as a last resort if it is determined that military action is necessary to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction with full support for our military personnel."