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August 03, 2011 12:33 AM UTC

Vicki Stack Resigns

  • 1 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

Folks, we’ve never thought that Lakewood City Councilmember Vicki Stack was an integral part of the City Council. First elected in 2005 and then re-elected without opposition in 2009, nobody has ever pinned Stack as a legislative leader. To her credit, though, she was elected and then re-elected, and most observers will tell you that Stack gradually became more effective as she became less extreme. She became the type of Councilor that you could work with, a far cry from her initial hot-headedness in 2006.

While we never thought that Stack could be Mayor, she had a comfortable spot on Council. Nobody opposed her re-election and she caused little controversy in recent memory. By all accounts it looked as though she’d continue to serve until she was termed out in 2013. It turns out that won’t be happening, according to the City of Lakewood:

Ward 1 City Council member resigns

July 27, 2011 – City Council member Vicki Stack submitted her resignation today for her Ward 1 seat.

Council member Stack resigned because she has moved out of the area she represents, disqualifying her as an eligible representative for Ward 1. Her resignation is effective Aug. 6.

Her Ward 1 seat will now be part of the Tuesday, Nov. 1, election for Lakewood mayor and the other five of the 10 City Council seats. But the election for this seat will be only for the unexpired term of two years.

We had heard from sources earlier in the year that Stack had indeed moved out of Ward 1, but it makes sense that she’s only now resigning. Sure, it’s a little brash to represent a constituency to which you don’t belong, but above all else Stack always seemed to believe in the will of her voters. Why wait to resign, then? Well, according to the Lakewood City Charter:

In the event the office of any member of the City Council, except the Mayor, is vacated for any reason, the City Council shall call a special election within 90 days of the effective date of such vacancy in order to elect a successor for the remainder of the term of office; provided, however, that the City Council shall not call a special election if a regular municipal election will be held within 90 days from the effective date of the vacancy [Pols Emphasis].

As the regular municipal election is just 87 days away, Stack’s resignation makes the most sense now because the election to fill the remainder of her term can coincide with the regular election of Mayor and half of the Council.

Professional candidate and former RTD Director Dave Ruchman has made no secret of his interest in Vicki’s seat. In fact, he’s been perhaps the most vocal in gunning for Stack to resign if only because he’s chomping at the bit to finally get elected to something. Ruchman, you’ll recall, ran first in a Democratic primary for Cheri Jahn’s vacant House Seat in 2008 against Sue Schafer. He lost. In 2010, he then primaried Cheri Jahn for Moe Keller’s old SD-20 seat. He lost then, too. In a race the size of a City Council district, however, we think Ruchman would have little trouble getting elected, and he’s been aggressive at trying to keep other candidates out of the race. Still, we’re sure there’s a bench of candidates out there waiting to announce, and they still have a couple of weeks to do it.

We haven’t heard of any other candidates at this stage of the game, but it’d be unheard of for an empty seat to go unopposed, especially against twice-loser Dave Ruchman.  As for Vicki Stack? While we have no idea where she moved to, we hope it’s still in the City of Lakewood. Can you imagine the political drama if Stack were to rise again from a different Ward? It might be enough to get voters to pay attention to municipal elections. Probably not, though.  

Comments

One thought on “Vicki Stack Resigns

  1. If memory serves, as of July 1st, Ruchman is now a three-time loser. One might include his 2011 run and loss, in his race for the PERA Board of Trustees.  Seems the PERA retirees decided to place their trust elsewhere.

    Ruchman may be well on his way to emulating old man Heckman who ran for, and lost in every possible race he could think of beginning in 1969. Heckman just wanted to be elected to something. Anything.  Anything at all.  He ran for every local, state and federal office he could think of until 2007, when he died at age 99 yrs. Death is the only thing that stopped John Heckman’s perennial candidacies.  Heckman even started his own church!  The Church of Practical Reality.  Seems being reality challenged is something Ruchman shares in common with Heckman.  It’s the kind of thing that eventually gets consigned to the political graveyard.  

    Or, Ruchman could be going the rout of “Wear-em down Weichmann”, the Lakewood Ward 4 councilor who has been appointed to every imaginable volunteer position from School Accountability committees and President of the Green Mountainside Civic Association, to the Board of Directors for West Metro Fire.  Eventually, people just decided to finally throw the fella a bone.  He was finally elected to City Council in 2009. Even the pathologically attention seeking can win an election now and then.

    As a practical matter however, it isn’t likely that the Republicans, or the Libertarians will let an open seat on council go unchallenged, especially when the other Ward 1 seat is currently occupied by a well known Democrat. Yep.  It is a non-partisan race “wink-wink”.  

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