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."

Werther's expanding Web presence

Today I came across another first in the May 2007 municipal elections: a candidate buying weblinks.

Perusing the Rocky Mountain News, I saw the following sponsored links at the bottom:

I clicked on his site and found a greatly-improved Web presence, including the heroic flag pose and lots of white space.

I remembered his old site to be bland and blue, disorganized and rambling. It appears he is taking the race a lot more seriously now, as O'Malley has begun to stumble.

For fun, I went to recover the information from old Internet sites, but all I came up with was this: Werther's web presences from roughly 2002-2005:

In any event, I thought the paid weblink was novel and the history of his site renovations at least mildly interesting. Enjoy!

Did the Clerk & Recorder election break election laws?

According to former Denver Election Commissioner Jan Tyler, Denver's January 2007 election violated Ordinance #851. It was conducted after just 30 days notice, yet the controlling ordinance requires at least 60 days notice.

Dear Denver wonders "What if, on May 1, a judge declares Denver's January special election void?"

In essence, the judge would have to decide whether the election violated city election laws. And if so, what's the remedy?

It's possible that our current Clerk & Recorder race between Stephanie O'Malley and Jacob Werther would be for a non-existent seat. We'd have to have another special election to validate the need for an elected Clerk & Recorder, and one more special election for the potential candidates for this seat. All of this would be the result not of some "mad" judge, but of the city's failure to follow its own ordinances.

What a shame. But what a question. Where do you think it'll land?

More details available from Lisa Jones in "Can An Election Be Nullified"?