Write-in candidate results

The write-in candidate results are in, and boy are they underwhelming. None even reached three digits, with Lynn Smith leading the pack at 93 votes.

Clerk & Recorder: Kevin Slevin 61
City Council D01: Gerald Styron 6
City Council D08: Lynn Smith 93
City Council D09: Ray Barela 9
City Council D11: William Helfrich 0

If you voted for someone who was not an authorized write-in candidate, your vote was not tabulated. That means we'll have no official tabulation of the votes for "Santa Claus," "George Washington," "Martha Stewart," or the ever-popular "John Elway." Sorry, folks!

Candidate responsiveness in Council District 8

Denver Direct has analyzed candidate responsiveness to Internet questioning in Council District 8.

The winner? Greg Rasheed.

The losers? Lynn Smith and Sharon Bailey.

CD8: Serious questions for Council District 8 candidates

The folks over at Denver Direct have spent a lot of time videotaping candidates forums and trying to stay abreast of the news.

Now they've got some questions they want answered. Hard questions for each and every City Council candidate in Council District 8. Plus some advice on presentation style and answer format for future forums.

Candidates are advised to review and respond directly to their "Unsolicited Advice and Unanswered Questions for the Candidates for Denver City Council District 8."

Sample questions below:

To Lynn Smith
1. What was the “technicality” that kept you off the ballet?
2. What was your total development activity in the last 10 years?
3. Isn’t your candidacy based on your reaction to difficulty you’ve had working with the City bureaucracy? Since Hickenlooper promised to fix that, and apparently didn’t, how can you have any effect on it?

To Greg Rasheed
1. What did you conclude when you were told “we know who you are”?
2. Please get real. You can’t meet 26,500 people face to face. What will you actually do to foster communication? Radio? Internet?
3. Do you have the knowledge of the workings of City government that well enable you to “hit the ground running” or will it be more like “on the job training”?

To Sharon Bailey
1. Your biography indicates that you were a consultant for 12 years after and before government jobs. Isn’t this the revolving door they talk about?
2. You mention being elected to the Denver School Board. Are the current sad state of Denver Schools (high-drop out, low scores, closed) your legacy?
3. Are you trying to prove something to your husband?

To Carla Madison
1. You’ve seemed apologetic for being “nervous”, “smarter than you seem”, and “white”. Why are you running for this “black seat”?
2. Some of us thought your husband Paul started the Festival of the Arts, now you say it was you. Why did CPWNA pay Paul to run the festival?
3. Didn’t the City waive its $50,000 fee from CPWNA, control, direct and implement the overlay and achieve “unanimous participation” only after allowing all dissidents to have their property removed from the overlay?

To Darrell Watson
1. Why aren’t you gay enough?
2. What do you actually do at your day job, and how are you connected to foundations and boards of directors of other organizations?
3. Serious accusations have flown your way, and people are now accusing you of exaggeration and taking credit for others work. Yet, you refuse to respond. What gives?

CD8: Cole Neighborhood Association meeting

Gerald Trumble continues to tape candidate forums, providing a valuable public service to folks who otherwise wouldn't get to see their prospective city council members.

Visit Denver Direct to view the opening remarks of all City Council District 8 candidates: Sharon Bailey, Carla Madison, Greg Rasheed, Lynn Smith, and Darrell Watson.

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!

Profile: Lynn Smith (CD8)

Several candidates for the District 8 City Council seat were profiled in the March 2007 edition of Life On Capitol Hill.

Lynn Smith's candidacy was described as follows:

Lynn Smith, who has owned and run Kate's on 35th for 30 years, formerly coordinated special projects for the city. When she worked for the city she was "connected to the authority and resources of the administration."

As a private citizen she has come to realize that accessing the services citizens are entitled to "requires the kind of time, focus and political connections most residents don't. have (since) such a system is inherently ineffective and inherently unfair."

If elected, she plans on committing full-time energy and focus to initiating and developing such major projects as: ombudsman offices for historic preservation and neighborhood senior services; express lanes in regulatory agencies; revitalization grants for neighborhood-commercial districts; and prototype xeriscape and median strips designed by Denver Botanic Gardens with trained youth installing and maintaining them.

Smith intends to give the neighborhoods north of Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. more help than at present since they are currently areas with "residents for whom access to even basic services is limited," people who are "long overdue for a champion on City Council."

Specific projects targeted in those neighborhoods could include full-service grocery and general (such as Walgreens) stores; pedestrian pathways; and careful monitoring of zoning laws and Public Works' priorities "to ensure that neighborhoods and individual rights are respectfully and equitably protected."