Boulder Buzz: Weissmann in the Race

Another race is on in Boulder County after County Commissioner Tom Mayer, of Lafayette, died June 22 of cancer.

State Rep. Paul Weissmann is now among the candidates to replace Mayer, as John Aguilar
reports
in the Daily Camera. If Weissmann is successful, it could set off a chain reaction for the east Boulder County House seat.

More on the flip…A vacancy committee has 10 days to appoint a successor for Mayer. Boulder County Democrats on that committee will meet Monday night to vote on a new commissioner. The new commissioner must come from a district that includes Lafayette, Louisville and Superior. They’ll have to run for office again in 2008, when the other two commissioners – Will Toor and Ben Pearlman – are also up for reelection.

As Aguilar reports, Weissmann joins a field that includes County Assessor Cindy Domenico, who was reelected to a third four-year term last November. Other candidates include Boulder County Planning Commissioner Barbara Connors, Lafayette Mayor Chris Berry, Superior Trustee Karen Imbierowicz, Boulder County diversity liaison Pete Salas and former Superior Town Clerk Gladys Forshee.

The county commissioner’s job is a full-time gig that pays $87,300 a year. That compares to $30,000 a year state lawmakers bring in for working full-time during the four months of the legislative session and part-time on interim committees and constituent service the rest of the year.

Weissmann, who works at the Blue Parrot restaurant in Louisville, is in his third two-year term in the House and could serve another term there under the state’s term limit provisions. He served one four-year term in the state Senate in the 1990s, leaving for an unsuccessful U.S. Senate bid.

If Weissmann were appointed commissioner, a House District 12 vacancy committee would have to appoint a successor within 20 days after Weissmann submitted his resignation of the House seat.

The quick commissioners race  contrasts with the crowded race (14 candidates) to replace the late Tom Eldridge on the Boulder City Council. A change to the city charter in the 1990s requires a special election for a vacancy, superseding the previous process in which council members appointed a successor.