Guest Columns

The Colorado Municipal League (CML), a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization established in 1923 that represents the interests of 265 cities and towns, anticipates that at least 43 cities and towns throughout the state will be holding regular or special elections next month. What follows is a summary of some of them.

Randy Atkinson has been hanging around the Legislature for so many years it’s difficult to accept the fact he won’t be back for the next session. His death at 60 caught both friends and foes by surprise. President of the Colorado Professional Firefighters Association since 2006, Randy has been the lobbying voice of firefighters for more than thirty years. Outside of fire stations, there probably isn’t one Coloradan in a hundred who has ever heard of him. But, Atkinson was one of the most influential backroom politicians in our state.

The average American President serves 14 years in public office before ascending to the White House. When some of those years involve service in a state legislature or as a county commissioner, you should figure they probably weren’t the primary breadwinner in their families. Politicians may dress well, by and large, but local elected office doesn’t pay well, while campaigns have become increasingly expensive. Voters generally don’t consider how their leaders can afford to run a campaign or serve in office, when elected. I suspect most Coloradans would be surprised to learn that Bill Ritter liquidated much of his retirement savings to cover family expenses when he ran for Governor in 2006. There is a reason why Dan Maes was using mileage reimbursements to make mortgage expenses in 2010. Any candidacy generally requires a significant element of self-financing even if that contribution is foregone income.

Since the only suspense in Charlotte was whether the President’s acceptance speech would have to be moved indoors, the assembled punditocracy found it far more productive to speculate on the 2016 convention. In exchange for his nominating speech had Slick Willie extracted a promise from Barack Obama to support Hillary next time out (perhaps to the eventual disappointment of Joe Biden)? Was there anyone among the putative candidates, collectively known as the seven dwarfs, who could challenge Snow White? And, what of the party rank and file?