City Council ballot will be a lonely spot
Just two of the four incumbents seeking reelection to the Colorado Springs City Council will have opponents this year, a dramatic shift from the crowded races of 2003.
No last-minute political hopefuls registered to run before Wednesday’s 5 p.m. deadline, so there won’t be a crowded ballot April 5.
Barring an unlikely write-in candidacy, Councilmen Darryl Glenn and Jerry Heimlicher will hold onto their posts. Write-in candidates must submit paperwork by Friday, and no one had expressed interest in doing so by Wednesday.
Council members Scott Hente and Margaret Radford will face opponents. Hente will be challenged by retired Air Force officer Al Brody and Radford by government critic Tony Carpenter, who turned in his required signatures Tuesday.
The six-person field is a far cry from the 27 candidates who ran for seven spots, including the mayor’s post, on the nine-member council in 2003.
Why so little interest?
Heimlicher thinks it’s a reflection of support for the current group of elected officials.
“I would think that the people are reasonably pleased with the way we function and they want to give us two more years,” he said.
Brody said he wants the council to examine whether the city has been allowed to grow too quickly.
He hopes to emphasize mass transit over highway expansion and water conservation over building new pipelines.
Because of those stances, Brody is the only candidate who has the backing of the Government for the People Election Committee, founded by activists Dave Gardner and Dick Anson.
The committee is planning grass-roots campaigning to push its slower-growth agenda.
The group likes Brody’s open-minded approach toward council issues and wants to remove Hente from his northwest District 1 council seat, Gardner said. It has accused Hente, a home builder, of having a conflict of interest because of several of his votes, including those against raising tap fees for new homes.
Hente has defended his record and said he looks forward to the challenge of continuing to try to improve the local economy.
Carpenter is not running with any group or coalition.
Dan Ponder, an associate professor of political science at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, said potential candidates often are reluctant to challenge incumbents.
On the 2003 ballot, six of the seven seats were vacant, but all of the incumbents start races this year with high name recognition and more access to donors.
Normally, only five seats would have been open in 2003, but two council members left in midterm to run for mayor. Every two years, at least half of the council seats, which are four-year positions, are up for election.
Glenn is the first person to run unopposed in District 2, which covers the northeastern part of the city, since Mary Ellen McNally did in 1989.
Single-candidate races are more common in Heimlicher’s downtown and westside District 3, where Leon Young had no opponents three times in his seven terms from 1973 to 2001.
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RUNNING
Colorado Springs City Council candidates
District 1
Al Brody Scott Hente (I)
District 2
Darryl Glenn (I)
District 3
Jerry Heimlicher (I)
District 4
Tony Carpenter Margaret Radford (I) I=incumbent
