John Hickenlooper achieved on Tuesday what Wellington Webb could not.
By most accounts, it was the mayor’s consensus-building skills and popularity that soundly snagged Denver a new jail and courthouse on West Colfax Avenue.
Tuesday’s 12-point win follows the defeat of a similar measure pushed by Webb, Hickenlooper’s predecessor, in 2001.
It also follows the passage of last year’s $4.7 billion FasTracks transit expansion plan and of an ambitious city personnel reform measure in 2003 – both projects that Hickenlooper championed.
“This is about his ability to pull groups together and tackle tough issues when others might try to avoid them,” said Richard Scharf, president of the Denver Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Tuesday’s $378 million bond issue marked a challenge for Hickenlooper, a Democrat who won office two years ago as a self-deprecating political neophyte who promised to streamline government and revitalize neighborhoods. He began a recent justice-center campaign ad by acknowledging that he didn’t run for mayor to build a jail.
“It’s hard to sell a jail,” said litigator Frances Koncilja, who helped chair the campaign.
“It’s not an issue that makes your heart go pitter patter,” said Denver political consultant Eric Sondermann.
With Hickenlooper’s help, Citizens for a Safe Denver raised $680,000 from bail- bond houses, law firms, architects, construction companies and others close to the mayor.
Early on, backers decided against using scare tactics. That’s why the campaign made no mention of this winter’s string of rapes in the Denver area nor of a deadly courthouse shooting in Atlanta in March.
Instead, supporters pitched the proposal as a way to ease crowding in the city’s jail without increasing Denverites’ net tax burden.
Opponents calling themselves Citizens for Responsible Spending amassed about one-tenth of what proponents raised in contributions.
The “Fail the Jail” movement brought together an unlikely coalition of liberals who said Denver should rehabilitate more criminals outside of jail and conservatives arguing that the bond was, in fact, a tax increase.
Still, grassroots opposition this year didn’t reach nearly the volume that it did against Webb’s plan in 2001.
“We have a mayor with unheard-of levels of popularity instead of a lame-duck mayor who was somewhat spent. That eliminated a lot of dissent,” said Sondermann, who worked to unseat Webb in 1995.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar and Republican state Attorney General John Suthers joined police and sheriff’s officials in backing the justice center. Republican Gov. Bill Owens chose not to weigh in, even after promising Hickenlooper that he would help support it.
Ultimately, even those on the losing side conceded, it was Hickenlooper’s backing that put the measure over the top.
“They dressed up a terrible proposal by putting up the most popular politician in the state in front of it,” said Bill Vandenberg, spokesman for the opposition. “Mayor Hickenlooper is a decent man, so he came across to voters as trustworthy.”
Several prominent Democrats have tried to recruit Hickenlooper to run for governor next year. So far, he has demurred.
Staff writer Susan Greene can be reached at 303-820-1589 or sgreene@denverpost.com.
