The Denver city election ballots are in and appear to be entirely counted (Here are the Denver Election Commission results).
In all but three races, the results are not surprising. Mayor John Hickenlooper won handily (with 87% support), as did Auditor Dennis Gallagher (78%) and Clerk and Record Stephanie O’Malley (78%). The city council incumbents also all won outright. Only in Districts 3, 7, and 8, the open seats, will there be runoffs. Referred Question 1A passed with 76% of the vote, thus adding another term to the limits faced by the District Attorney.
Another potential winner last night is the Rocky Mountain News, as their endorsed candidates outperformed the candidates endorsed by the Denver Post. In particular, Paul Lopez in District 3 and Chris Nevitt in District 7 head into the runoff as the fronrunners after scoring 46% and 47% of the general election vote, respectively. Lopez will face Post endorsed candidate JoAnn Phillips, while Nevitt will face Post endorsement candidate Shelly Watters.In the open seat races, the Denver Post chose to endorse women in all three districts, supporting Phillips in District 3, Watters in District 7, and Carla Madison in District 8. The Rocky Mountain News went with a gender neutral approach, endorsing Lopez in District 3, Nevitt in District 7, and a split endorsement in District 8 of Carla Madison and Sharon Bailey.
All of the endorsed candidates, incidentally, made the runoff.
It will be interesting to see which candidate the Rocky Mountain News decides to go with in the June 5 runoff in District 8, as all of their endorsed candidates performed well in the May 1 general and Nevitt and Lopez appear to be the frontrunners.
Of course, the Rocky could stick with their split endorsement, to ensure they pick the winner.
Note: Mark Mehringer consults for the Chris Nevitt Campaign.