Recorded via Zoom to accommodate our travel schedule, this is our last episode before the election. It is a short one. We’re taking a quick look at fundraising, voter turnout and some of the endorsements the candidates have received, so you can see who is supporting them.  

Episode 12

Our last episode before the election is going to be a short one. We’re going to take a quick look at fundraising, voter turnout and some of the endorsements the candidates have received, so you can see who is supporting them.  

Fundraising Update

The most recent fundraising reports were submitted on March 15th. All total, the 12 candidates have raised just a hair under $2.0 million, easily the most money raised in a Colorado Springs Mayoral election. With another filing due on March 31st, they should easily pass $2.0 million before election day.

Overall, an additional $195,000 was added to the campaigns in the first two weeks of March, just slightly less than the two-week period prior.

Wayne Williams is up to $540,000 raised, now the most ever by a Colorado Springs Mayoral candidate. He has spent $469,000 and has $71,000 on-hand, as of March 15th.

Sallies Clark is now second with $435,000 raised and loaned and she has spent $390,000, leaving her with about $45,000 on hand.

Andrew Dalby has dropped to third with $406,000, of which $400,000 was a loan from himself to the campaigns. He has spent $333,000, leaving him almost $73,000 on hand.

Yemi Mobolade is up to $359,000, all from donations. He has spent $240,000, leaving $119,000 on hand. He continues to have the most donors – now up to 681 – which is more than double the next closest, Sallie Clark, with 305 donors.

Longinos Gonzalelz has a total of $198,000, of which he loaned his campaign $160,000. He has spent almost $103,000, leaving about $95,000 on hand.

Of the remaining candidates, Tig Tiegen is the only one that raised more than $5,000 in last period, bringing his total to almost $20,000. He has about $7,000 of that left on hand.

As we mentioned last week, there are two independent expenditure committees spending money in this race and combined could be spending more than a half of a million dollars. One group is supporting Wayne Williams and one is supporting Sallie Clark. If you add that the money they’ve raised, they each have more than $700,000 going toward their effort to be the next Mayor of Colorado Springs.

Voter Turnout

In an earlier episode we were speculating on voter turnout and estimated it would be around 105,000 votes. That’s right about 33% of the 311,000 registered voters in the City.

However, if trends hold, we could see at least 20,000 more votes cast that we predicted.

As of Friday, March 24th, 31,600 ballots had been returned. If an average of 3,500 ballots are returned each day through April 2nd, that would add another 31,500, bringing the total to around 63,000.

Over the past few election cycles, about 50% of ballots are being returned in the last two days. If that’s the case, we could see as many as 125,000 ballots cast in this election, or about 40% voter turnout.

Endorsements

Longinos Gonzalez           

 - Steve Durham, Colorado Board of Education & former State Senator- Representative Shane Sandridge- Former Fountain Mayor Gabriel Ortega- Former head of Colorado Springs Utilities Jerry Forte- Former President of the Colorado Springs Hispanic Chamber, Chris Long- Former President Black/Latino Coalition Will Breazell- Conservative radio host Richard Randall

Yemi Mobolade

Yemi’s campaign recently sent out a press release listing 116 business leaders in Colorado Springs who have endorsed him. 

 - Margaret Sabin, former President and CEO of Penrose-St. Francis Health Services- Mike Juran, CEO of Altia- Vance Brown, co-founder of Cherwell Software and Exponential Impact.

Other community leaders endorsing Yemi include Kathy Loo, Larry Yonker, Ted Collas, BJ and Randy Scott, and Susan Pattee.

Sallie Clark                       

 - Steve Bach, Former Mayor of Colorado Springs- Mary Bradfield, State Representative House District 21- Bill Murray, Colorado Springs City Councilmember At-large - Lorne Kramer, Former Colorado Springs Police Chief and City Manager - Jill Gaebler, Former City Councilmember District 5 - Marc Snyder, State Representative House District 18 and Former Mayor of Manitou Springs - Marcy Morrison Former Mayor of Manitou Springs and State Representative - Larry Small, Former Colorado Springs Vice Mayor

Wayne Williams

 - Mayor John Suthers, Former Mayor Lionel Rivera - The Gazette  - Colorado Springs Police Protective Association - Colorado Springs Professional Firefighters Local 5 - Housing & Building Association of Colorado Springs - Pikes Peak Association of REALTORS - Colorado Springs Apartment Association -  County Treasurer Chuck Broerman

Summary

This year’s Mayoral election has been interesting to say the least. Of the 12 candidates running five of them have held elected office in Colorado Springs or El Paso County for at least eight years. Four have served on City Council. Four have been a county commissioner. And at least four are veterans.

Five of them have at least $200,000 in their campaign and, as we said earlier, collectively they’ve raised almost $2.0 million, by far the most ever put into a mayoral election in Colorado Springs.

One of the candidates, Yemi Mobolade has never held elected office, but has raised more than $360,000 and has built one of the strongest grassroots efforts of all the candidates.

The two independent expenditure campaigns trying to influence the outcome mark the first time that has happened in a Colorado Springs mayoral election. So clearly the stakes have gotten a lot higher.

The extra money has been fueled by a heated battle between two factions of the housing development community and all because of the new rule passed by City Council that requires the City to have 128% of the water needed before any new development can be annexed into the city.

One side will tell you it’s a water issue and the other will you it’s a power play by one developer who owns 80% of the developable land currently in the city limits. The “water” side is supporting Wayne Williams and the other side is backing Sallie Clark. Will it hurt one or both of them? Will one or two of the other candidates benefit? We’ll find out next week if it mattered at all.

The city adopted the Strong Mayor form of government in 2010 and the first election was in 2011. Steve Bach, a local businessman who had never held elected office before won the election and served one term. He was followed by former District Attorney and Colorado Attorney General, John Suthers, who has served for the past eight years and is term-limited. So whoever wins this year will be the 42nd Mayor in Colorado Springs’ history, but just the third under the Strong Mayor system.

Almost certainly no one will get more than 50% of the vote in round 1, so there will be a runoff on May 16th between the top 2 vote getters. Based on the first round, the runoff could be even wilder in terms of money and vitriol.

Next Week

Our next episode will come out the day after the election, on Wednesday, April 5th. We’ll be analyzing the results and beginning to take a look at the runoff. During the runoff, we hope to have new interviews with the two finalists and we’ll continue to take a look at the important issues and where each candidate stands on those.

Thanks for listening.

COS'23:  The Mayor's Race is presented by AVANT StrategiesProduction assistance is provided by Ted Robertson