Rivera: Mayor For Four More

Lionel Rivera has easily landed a second term as Mayor of Colorado Springs.

That Rivera won the all-mail ballot election, with more than 59 percent of the vote, was widely anticipated. The remaining votes were split between his three opponents – none of them who are well known or who have previously served in office. His opponents included “Blabbing Mike” Coletta, who hosts a Website devoted to Colorado Springs media, Tony Carpenter, who was fired from his city job a decade ago and currently lists his occupation as  “Frito-Lay” – and Tony Tyler, an insurance agent.

Coletta received nearly 15 percent of the vote, Carpenter pulled in a little more than 19 percent and Tyler just shy of 7 percent.

Rivera, the city’s first Hispanic mayor, surprised many when, depite his high profile position, he finished in fourth place among six candidates running in last year’s six-man Republican primary race to replace Congressman Joel Hefley, who retired after 20 years in office. Doug Lamborn, who won the GOP primary, went on to beat Democrat Jay Fawcett in the general election.

Today’s Colorado Springs Gazette quoted Rivera’s take on his reelection, along with three of four incumbent members of the city council.

“I think people are generally satisfied with the direction the city is going in,” Rivera was quoted saying. “We’ve improved the quality of life, and not a lot of change is needed. We need to make sure we put adequate resources in public safety. We will continue to add police officers. We’re back to where we started before.”

Cara DeGette is a senior fellow at Colorado Confidential, and a columnist and contributing editor at the Colorado Springs Independent. E-mail her at cdegette@coloradoconfidential.com