April 18, 2011 08:53 PM UTC

Breaking: Boigon Out, Endorses Hancock

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• by: Colorado Pols

From an e-mail we just received from the Michael Hancock campaign:

I want to share some exciting news! My good friend and colleague, At-Large Councilwoman Carol Boigon, has decided to end her mayoral campaign and endorse me.

While bringing her own campaign to an end was a painful choice, Carol wants everyone to know she is joining our “We are all Denver” team. I’m honored that such a strong and dedicated leader as Carol is now in our corner.

This is perhaps the biggest announcement of the race thus far. Boigon saw the writing on the wall following yesterday’s poll numbers. She also hasn’t raised the kind of money indicating people were invested in her candidacy; her strength in fundraising came directly from her own wallet.

It’s also kind of a surprise. While we didn’t think it would be incredibly successful, Boigon playing the “first woman Mayor” card obviously got some traction. She had broad support in varying communities. Her name ID wasn’t great, but she was on TV and she had a capable field staff.

What ultimately killed the Boigon campaign was a lack of energy, however. She just couldn’t get voters fired up. She couldn’t create enough excitement about her candidacy. In part, that’s because Carol Boigon was such an old school  type of candidate. She’s not young and she’s not charismatic, and so she campaigned on her laurels. She campaigned like she should’ve campaigned for Mayor if she was running 20 years ago. Her TV ads were nothing special, either.

How will this affect the race? Boigon’s name is already on the ballot currently being sent out and received in Denver; some of her supporters who don’t get the message or don’t like Hancock for whatever reason will probably still vote for Boigon. But she did give enough notice that she can use some of her own ballot-chasing infrastructure to let people know she’s made an endorsement.

Hancock, now, may look mighty appealing to the “anybody but Romer” crowd. The progressives who supported Boigon will probably now support Linkhart over Michael, however. Either way, Romer still makes it through to the run-off. The real question is whether Mejia or Hancock will be joining him, or whether Linkhart can pull off some sort of populist campaign miracle in the next two weeks.

Hancock has also lost his achilles heel. Remember, Boigon repeatedly attacked Michael for his vote for the City Council pay bump. She was also the only candidate who could repeatedly attack Michael as she voted no on the same pay increase. With Boigon gone, the other candidates will have to be the ones reminding voters what Hancock voted for, but it won’t have the same traction coming from James Mejia or Chris Romer. Boigon was the only one who could feasibly say “I didn’t make the same mistake as Michael Hancock,” and now she’s gone and endorsed the one candidate she’s focused her attacks on. It’s a smart move on Carol’s behalf, at least. She’s preserved the remnants of her political career for the near future and may even end up with a Cabinet post.

Interesting stuff, folks. Stay tuned for the new Big Line.