January 16, 2011 10:55 PM UTC

Isenberg out of Mayor's race

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• by: FrontRangeRiffRaff

Isenberg out leaving Chris Romer as only candidate with business experience.

Walter Isenberg sent out an email Friday ending the rumors that he was going to jump into the Mayor’s race. From the email he sent out it seems he really did want to run for Mayor but it sounds like he wasn’t ready to hand his company Sage over to somebody else to run after he’s spent years building it. Now a lot of people are speculating about who the business crowd will support.  Reading between the lines of Isenberg’s email it sounds like he has no plans to stay quiet about what’s needed in the next Mayor.

From Isenberg’s email —

We have a diverse and qualified pool of candidates who are running.  My message to them all will be the following:

We have a world class city, we must have world class schools for our children.  If we continue to fail our children, by not providing them with a world class education our economic future is limited.  While the Mayor has no direct control over DPS, they can influence and lead positive change which is always desperately needed

We must also continue marketing the city to attract people and business.   Attracting human and financial capital will bring jobs, visitors and new taxes, helping to fill our budget deficit

We must continue to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of government.  Easier said than done, but Governor Hickenlooper has laid the foundation for many of these changes, and we cannot afford to lose momentum

My passion for Denver and community service are unwavering.  I will remain active civically in helping to make Denver and Colorado the best place to live, work and play.

I know some people are expecting Linda Alvarado to get into the race very soon and argue that she is the natural “business” candidate. She may have some business experience but she has no government or political experience and even though she can self-fund I don’t think she can grab the business and moderate vote as well as Isenberg would have. Isenberg has a lot more connections to the political world and a lot more people know him from his charity work.

So who does Isenberg not getting in help the most? I think the candidate who has the most appeal to Isenberg’s base is Chris Romer.

Hancock’s only experience other than being a politician was the Urban League which was a mess when he went in and complete disaster when he left. Mejia has always been a government guy and has no experience in the private sector and wouldn’t know the first thing about reading a city budget much less balancing it. Hancock may have a lot of support out in HD7 after championing the restructuring of Montbello but I just don’t see that being enough to overcome his lack of any business experience.

Linkhart and Boigon have been on city council with Hancock and had plenty of chances to make the changes they now claim they would as Mayor but never have. Romer has experience creating jobs, he understands municipal finance which is huge with the city budget and debt. Alvarado has business experience with her construction company but she has never had to get tough policy through government.

Who do you think Isenberg getting out of the race helps or hurts the most?