June 02, 2007 04:03 PM UTC

Dirty Climax to Denver City Council Runoffs

• 3 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

As the Rocky Mountain News reports:

Ballots are due Tuesday in the runoff election for three City Council seats, and accusations of political trickery are flying.

One of the more bizarre incidents took place Thursday night, when District 8 candidate Carla Madison received a message from a man who claimed to be working with a Denver Post reporter on a story about the sculptures in Madison’s yard…

Madison says when she returned the call, the man – who never clearly identified himself – seemed surprised when she described the gargoyles as harmless ornaments meant to ward off evil spirits.

“That doesn’t sound very satanic,” she remembers him saying. “Like he was expecting me to go off on how I was a witch.”

Madison says she was even more surprised when her caller ID showed the name John Bailey – husband of her opponent, Sharon Bailey. “I can’t believe he’d call from his own phone,” she said…

Late Friday, John Bailey scoffed at the accusation, calling it a desperate act by an opponent “who’s running behind.”

In District 3, where Paul Lopez is facing JoAnn Phillips, it’s been rumored that Lopez hasn’t lived in the district for the required full year. Lopez was born in the district and spent most of his life there, but Phillips formally asked the Denver Election Commission to investigate.

Lopez has denied that he lived outside the district. “There’s definitely dirty politics happening in District 3,” said Gia Irlando, his campaign manager…

At an unrelated news conference at the Capitol, a Shelly Watters supporter asked Mayor John Hickenlooper about a campaign flier from the other candidate, Chris Nevitt, that had the mayor’s name and picture.

Hickenlooper said he was “disappointed” in Nevitt because the flier misled voters into thinking he had endorsed Nevitt.

Watters’ campaign manager initially denied knowing who asked the question but later admitted it was a Watters ally, Jake Schroeder, front man for the band Opie Gone Bad.

Our view: bring it on. This is the most fun we’ve seen since those Holtzman and Beauprez staffers got into a shoving match last May. Of course, we’re also the guys behind you at the Rockies game screaming “BLOOD! WE WANT BLOOD!” when the benches clear. This late in the game, it might be a mistake to assume our mirthy reaction to shots below the belt will be shared by the average voter.