What is city's role in jobs?
Election coverage
This story is part of The Gazette's ongoing coverage of candidates and issues in the April 7 Colorado Springs mail-ballot election. Voters will elect four City Council members and decide four questions about city finances. Watch the paper and gazette.com/election for more news and analysis.
Construction firms and developers are pouring money into the campaign to extend a Colorado Springs property tax and use the money to create new jobs.
Donations to the Jobs Now campaign, including six of $10,000 apiece, may be the high-water mark in what has otherwise been a fairly uneventful political fundraising season. Jobs Now aims to pass Question 1A on the April 7 mail-in election ballot. It had raised $145,225 as of Monday, according to filings with the Colorado Springs City Clerk's Office. An organization opposing 1A, Citizens for Cost-Effective Government, had just $4,000 from two donors.
The 1A campaign has become the hottest among four questions and four City Council seats on the ballot. It essentially asks voters their view of government's role in creating jobs.
On one side, Mayor Lionel Rivera and others favor a "yes" vote, arguing the estimated $3.2 million in annual revenue would allow the city to create incentives for businesses to move here and to aid struggling local firms. On the other side, small-government advocates say economic development should be about removing barriers to business success, not handouts from government.
"I don't think this is the way to try to do economic development. I think you probably attract the wrong kinds of companies when you offer them money to come," said Joe Woodford, a Colorado Springs businessman who gave $3,000 to the opposition group.
The organization reported just one other donation, $1,000 from businessman Jim Marvin.
Campaign donations go to pay for the trappings of politics: yard signs, mail advertisements, postage, pizza for campaign volunteers.
Spending on the 1A campaign isn't stratospheric by the standard of previous city campaigns. In 2003, a campaign to extend the city's Trails, Open Space and Parks Sales Tax brought in $80,935.
Donations to candidates, in many cases, are well below what candidates have raised in previous campaigns.
"It's not the end yet, you're probably going to see more fundraising, but I think the economy does play a role in this," said Sarah Jack, a veteran political consultant who's done work for the City Council campaigns of Jerry Heimlicher and Bernie Herpin.
Another factor likely keeping a damper on money in politics is that this election involves only candidates for district offices, Jack said. Each candidate is seeking votes from only a quarter of the city. Spending tends to be higher for at-large seats, the mayor's race or when many candidates are seeking a single office, she said.
That analysis appears to fit Heimlicher's campaign. The incumbent District 3 representative has raised $13,478 from 32 contributors. In 2003, when Heimlicher first won office in a five-way race, he raised more than three times as much. This year, he's got just one opponent, Dave Gardner, who reported raising $4,615 from 49 contributors.
Three ballot measures, questions 1B, 1C and 1D have no formal support or opposition. Two of the City Council candidates also have no opposition, Scott Hente in District 1 and Darryl Glenn in District 2. Glenn has collected the hefty sum of $11,632, more than any candidate except Heimlicher. He collected most of that before he knew if he would have an opponent. Glenn has floated the idea of running for El Paso County commissioner, and, if he does, the law allows using the cash for that race.
In City Council District 4, Bernie Herpin has amassed $9,560 from 77 contributors, the largest number of any candidate. Herpin's also been running longer than any other candidate. He filed papers declaring his candidacy nearly a year ago. District 4 candidate Tony Carpenter, who like Herpin has run for office several times, reported two donations in early March totalling $1,800.
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