Coffman ekes out likely victory in race for mayor
A hard-fought election that cemented Aurora’s current status as a battleground for the state’s Democrats and Republicans came to a wild end late Thursday — maybe — in a mixed decision for the parties.
Former U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman held on to his Election Day lead in the Aurora mayor’s race by a mere 273 votes as Arapahoe and Adams counties wrapped most of their ballot-counting nearly two days after polls closed. The Republican led with 35.83% of the vote, while the second-place candidate, NAACP chapter president Omar Montgomery, had 35.46%.
Three other candidates split the rest of the votes.
Arapahoe County said it has about 1,000 ballots that need voters to correct signature discrepancies before they can be counted, but it’s not known how many of those are in Aurora vs. elsewhere in the county. Also, overseas and military ballots have extra time to arrive.
Montgomery’s campaign is not conceding, spokesperson Ashley Wheeland said late Thursday: “We believe we owe it to our community to make sure every vote is counted.”
Coffman also isn’t calling the race yet, with campaign spokesperson Bill Ray echoing the call
for all votes to be counted. He estimated there are about 650 Aurora ballots in Arapahoe and Adams counties combined that need to be cured.
As of Thursday evening, Coffman’s lead was outside the margin that would trigger an automatic recount. That only happens if the difference between the top two candidates is less than or equal to 0.5% of the leading candidate’s total — not the overall total votes. Coffman’s 273-vote lead divided by his 26,201 votes equals 1.04%.
The Aurora races are technically nonpartisan, but partisan politics loomed large. The mayor and council races pulled in endorsements, money and backing from statewide elected officials.
Some attribute that to Coffman’s entry into the mayoral race, but others say Aurora’s size and the issues it’s facing have brought the statewide interest.
And some of the City Council races finished as close as the mayor’s race: The progressive challengers in the Ward IV and Ward V races each won by fewer than 300 votes. In Ward IV, candidate Juan Marcano took the victory by 230 votes against incumbent Charlie Richardson, and Ward V voters elected Alison Coombs over incumbent Bob Roth by 261 votes.
In other council results, Curtis Gardner, 23%, and Angela Lawson, 22.7%, easily bested the rest of the at-large field, and Franciose Bergan was re-elected with 57% of the vote in Ward VI.
The Democrats’ path to victory wasn’t obvious from the first day of ballot counting, when they were significantly behind. Marcano said he began making alternative plans to stay engaged in the community after lagging Tuesday night, and was shocked when he pulled ahead Thursday afternoon.
But the successes weren’t by chance, Marcano said.
“We did a lot of work in 2017 because Aurora is in a position of having a (mostly) Democratic representation in the state legislature and they win pretty decisively,” he said. “But our entire City Council in 2017 was conservative.”
The following year, progressives were able to add three Democratic women to the City Council roster, and they hoped for more this year.
“I think that folks are definitely looking for change,” Marcano said.
Fights over immigration, oil and gas drilling, and fiscal priorities have put a political spotlight on Aurora.
That, and it’s the third-largest city in Colorado.
The city’s conservative leadership didn’t fully represent its diverse constituents, said Michal Rosenoer, executive director of the women candidates’ training program Emerge Colorado. So when progressive groups backed candidates such as Coombs — an Emerge graduate — for City Council offices, the backlash from conservatives was swift, Rosenoer said.
In the mayoral race, Coffman’s backers poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into the race. He received support from elected officials throughout Colorado, including Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler.
Statewide Republicans also endorsed council candidates Curtis Gardner, Johnny Watson, Francoise Bergan and Charlie Richardson. Texts were sent to some voters, including one, attributed to Brauchler, that called Marcano “a self avowed socialist” and urged conservative votes.
But Brauchler said he didn’t wade into Aurora’s politics to necessarily push a conservative agenda across the council. He knows Coffman and Richardson and supports them, but he also pays more attention to Aurora’s politics than other cities because of his role as Arapahoe County’s district attorney.
“It’s a big player in our jurisdiction,” he said. “It has an oversized representation in the criminal justice system.”
Although municipal races are meant to be nonpartisan, Democratic strategist Jim Carpenter said Coffman’s entry into the race may have further politicized an election that was already headed in that direction.
“It’s just reflective of our growing partisan politics,” he said. “It’s harder and harder to do things that are not tied to a party or perspective.”