April 11, 2011 06:13 PM UTC

Fundraising Update: City Council At-Large

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• by: Colorado Pols

We’ll be the first to admit, we’ve focused a lot on Denver’s Mayoral race. Perhaps that’s a function of how much money has been spent in that race compared to all the others. Perhaps it’s a function of the personalities competing against each other for Denver’s top job. Perhaps its a function of the fact that it is, indeed, Denver’s top job.

Either way, someone told us that there are several other important seats up for grabs next month. Here’s our take on Denver’s City Council At-Large race.

While the City Council At-Large candidates would represent the same exact constituency as the Mayoral candidates if elected, the dynamics of the race are totally different. There will be no run-off election following May 3rd. Instead, the top two vote-getters will both be elected.  

Robin Kniech

If you pick frontrunners in this race, Robin is definitely one. She’s scored some of the endorsements that matter most, and her experience as a former Hickenlooper appointee has given her pretty long fundraising lists. She’s raised a little over $95,000 in total, and has spent just about $20,000 of that in the time before the March filing. That means Kniech is sitting pretty on a campaign war-chest of nearly $75,000. No matter how you look at it, Kniech’s got the resources to win one of the open seats. She can use all of that money in direct mail and field pushes. She can afford to go all-out in the final month before the election and more importantly she can afford to go door-to-door and mailbox-to-mailbox while ballots are sitting on kitchen counters across the city. We can’t really find a scenario where Kniech won’t pull off a win.

Debbie Ortega

Debbie’s clearly a force to be reckoned with in this race. In fact, we were a little shocked that she wanted to run for Council; her previous experience in that body probably qualified her for a Mayoral run. Either way, Ortega’s name ID is high. Probably not as high as she claims, but definitely one of the highest in the race. She’s raised only about $30,000 and has just over $10,000 left to spend. In raising as little as she has, Ortega is clearly banking on the fact that she’ll be recognized from her previous time in public service. Is it a safe bet? Well, let’s just say that it’s lucky for Ortega that there are two open seats.

Josh Davies

We honestly haven’t heard much buzz about Josh. Not that you’ll hear too much buzz in one of these Council races in general, but we’ve certainly seen more out of Kniech and Ortega. The way Davies can pull out a win against either of the above two candidates is by raising exponentially more than them, theoretically paying for TV ads in a race that doesn’t usually enjoy them. He’s done ok in fundraising, bringing in about $50,000 so far. It’s definitely less than we expected from him, and a lot less than he needed to guarantee a win. Unfortunately for Josh, he’s already spent about $30,000 of it, meaning he’s going to have to work really hard in the next 2 weeks. Maybe he can do it, but it’d be an upset.

Rich Gonzales

The real question is what’s going on with Rich Gonzales. As Denver’s former Fire Chief, he’s got one of the most electable stories in the whole race. People love firefighters: they save lives. Rich really has a winnable story. What remains to be seen is if he’s been able to tell that story. He’s raised a little over $45,000 and spent about $30,000 of it. Is it enough? Like Davies, he certainly would’ve benefited by raising a lot more. In fact, if he had bested the other candidates in fundraising, he’d be the candidate to beat. Unfortunately, he didn’t and he’s not.

Jesse Shelmire

Who? Jesse’s supporters have e-mailed us pretty consistently over the last few weeks protesting the fact that he was not included on our Big Line. We’re sure he’s a really sweet guy. Unfortunately, he is not a factor in this race: nobody has heard of him outside of his social group, and he’s raised under $1000. This isn’t your year, Jesse. He may be able to use his $115 of cash on hand to send a lot of e-mails, though.