Games might be on ballot

Organizer says “Denver voters need a voice” to choose if they want to spend on “mega project.”

Denver made history in 1972, when its voters decided to reject the Winter Olympic Games that had been scheduled for the city in 1976.

Now, the spirit of ’76 is in the air again: A group of political organizers, including former Gov. Dick Lamm, are launching a campaign that could give Denver voters the ultimate decision on the city’s financial involvement in a potential bid for the Games.

“Denver voters need a voice, especially when there’s more abundant resources,” said Tony Pigford, an organizer of the new campaign and a candidate for Denver City Council. “Let them decide if they want to spend it on a really risky mega project.”

City officials and business leaders have been looking at the 2030 Winter Games since December, when Mayor Michael Hancock convened an “exploratory” group of influential people. That group recommended that Denver pursue a bid for the Games.

The new countereffort, called Olympics Right to Vote Initiative, would give local voters significant influence over that bid. If it succeeds, Denver residents would decide whether the city government can spend any public money or resources to support the Olympic Games.

The organizers recently got approval from Denver Elections for the language of their proposal. That means they can start gathering voters’ signatures. If they collect about 4,800 valid signatures, their question will appear on local ballots for the May 2019 elections.

“I don’t want this to come off as antiOlympics. I believe there are ways that it can be done properly,” said campaign manager Brandon Rietheimer. Having secured the green light, the campaign will host a launch party and start collecting signatures later this month.

Statewide or local vote?

Perhaps anticipating this kind of resistance, the mayor’s Olympics committee has recommended that the state pursue a privately funded Games, without direct public funding or any threat of financial losses for taxpayers.

Rietheimer said the new campaign’s goal is “holding them to their word on that statement.”

The mayor’s committee suggested that the bid process “should include a statewide vote of the people in the year 2020 or later.” But the booster group’s report did not say what ex actly the state vote would decide or how binding it would be.

Since the U.S. Olympic Committee hasn’t announced formal plans for 2030, it’s “too early to know specifics about a future statewide ballot initiative, including whether or not it would be binding,” wrote Ramonna Robinson, a spokesperson for the local exploratory committee, in an email to The Denver Post.

And the group warned against the idea of a local vote, saying in its report that the Games “would be conducted throughout Colorado” and that Denver voters “would not bear financial responsibility for the Winter Games.”

“The need for an initiative in the City and County of Denver is unclear because the recommendation of the Exploratory Committee is for a privately financed Games that would not require taxpayer subsidies or government guarantees,” Robinson wrote.

The exploratory committee’s report also warned that a Denver vote could set a precedent for other large events in the future.

Complicated politics

An Olympics measure could introduce a significant new quirk for next year’s municipal elections. Hancock and the other incumbents already face dozens of opponents across 16 local races.

Many of the challengers hope to capitalize on anger and angst over the city’s rapid development — the same factors that powered the antiOlympics movement in the 1970s. Also similar: The leadership of the new “Right to Vote” campaign includes Lamm, the former governor who spearheaded the resistance in the 1970s.

The campaign committee also includes Rietheimer, who shocked Denver developers with his successful greenroof initiative last year; Pigford, who is running for an atlarge seat on Denver City Council; and local organizers Christine O’Connor and Dana Miller.

The local Olympic organizing committee, meanwhile, has said that the Games could be an opportunity to jumpstart civic projects by building new housing and improving Interstate 70 in the mountains. The organizing committee includes Hancock, Gov. John Hickenlooper, former Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning and dozens of others.

The committee estimated that hosting the event would cost about $2 billion, with half of that coming from the International Olympic Committee. Salt Lake City and Reno also are potential U.S. bidders for the 2030 Winter Games.