As many of our readers know, District 1 Councilwoman and former State Senator Paula Sandoval has announced that she will not be running for re-election because of her husband’s cancer fears. We wish Councilwoman Sandoval and her husband, former State Senator Paul Sandoval, all the best.
With Sandoval out of the running for District 1, however, it’s a very different race. Sandoval would’ve had have no problem retaining the seat. In fact, though there were other declared candidates for the seat, we’d say there was absolutely no chance anyone other than Sandoval would win that election.
Sandoval won handily in last year’s special election to replace Rick Garcia when he went to HUD, earning about 23% of the vote. Sure, turnout was only about 30% for the special election, but Sandoval would’ve easily swept the floor with any opponents as the incumbent.
With Sandoval out, those who ran against her for the open seat have got to be counting their blessings. With only a few days until candidate petitions are due, the fact that Sandoval bowed out so late has prevented dozens of stronger, more well known candidates from jumping in the race.
Ken Padilla, who got about 10% of the vote in last year’s special election had already submitted for a do-over against Sandoval, though his campaign didn’t stand a chance. He’ll be in the running for the now-open seat.
He won’t be alone. According to an email we received today from Susan Shepard,
she’s running too:
In light of the vacancy, I would also like to announce that I will be running for the Denver City Council 1 seat. As many of you know, I ran for this seat last year, and thanks to very hard work from a very skilled campaign team, I finished 2nd in a 10 way race.
Susan’s kicking off her campaign tomorrow, and we have no doubt she’ll have an incredibly easy time getting the 100 signatures necessary to get on the ballot. Shepard got about 17% of the vote last May and with Sandoval out of this year’s race should do even better against a field of unknown, untested candidates.
That said, Sandoval’s legacy through her and her husband’s work as State Senator made her quite the opponent for other heavy hitters. We wouldn’t be surprised if Jerry Frangas or Joel Judd jumped in for what would be a relatively easy win. Both are smarting from previous losses for City Council and State Senate seats, and this open seat provides literally the perfect opportunity for both to use their fundraising lists and name ID to jump back into public service without having to wage as difficult of a campaign.
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And everyone and their mother has jumped in, here’s the current list:
http://www.denvergov.com/ForCa…
For point of reference, prior to the unfortunate news about Paul Sandoval and Paula subsequently dropping out there were only two other candidates in the field. . . .
Larry Ambrose ran and got about 10% of the vote last year. John Haney got 12%, John Lehman got 3.65%.
Really, this election is nothing but dumb luck for everyone who ran against Sandoval last year and lost. The only one of that group who’s positioned to win is Susan Shepard, though. Of course, if Frangas ran he probably could more easily dispatch with Shepard this year than last.
Link (.pdf): http://www.denvergov.com/Porta…
I would guess a number of people pulled them quickly to decide over the weekend and see if they could get a campaign together in time, grab the signatures, etc.
Probably at least half of those won’t turn them back in when they decide they can’t do it in time.
One of the people who pulled petitions already decided not to submit. . . will withhold names in case they change their mind.