DENVER-
Undeterred by an election fiasco, blizzards and other missteps, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper was cruising toward election to a second term on Tuesday with only token opposition in a city known for bruising ballots.
The boyish-faced restaurateur easily won his first term in 2003 by beating then-City Auditor Don Mares. He is running against Danny Lopez, a city employee who barely campaigned.
According to campaign finance reports through March, Hickenlooper raised $543,000 and spent $148,000, while Lopez raised $16,000 and spent $4,200.
Hickenlooper, 55, considered running as a Democrat for governor last year but decided against it, saying he hadn’t yet fulfilled his obligations as mayor.
Denver city offices are nonpartisan.
Other races on Tuesday’s ballot included city auditor, clerk and recorder, 12 council races and a measure asking voters to impose term limits on district attorneys.
Hickenlooper was criticized when a lengthy ballot, software problems and mechanical breakdowns created long lines at polling places in November and delayed some results for days. Critics said the mayor ignored repeated warnings that the city wasn’t prepared.
Alton Dillard, spokesman for the Denver Election Commission, said the panel was better prepared this time with more counting machines for the election, which is mail-in only. The only voting machines open Tuesday were at commission headquarters—for last-minute emergency registrations and for disabled voters.
Dillard said 187,000 ballots were mailed out and 66,000 had been returned. He said another 179,000 voting-age residents were notified they were listed as inactive, but only a small fraction responded.
Kevin Roberson, a 37-year-old civil engineer registered as a Republican, said he believes Hickenlooper had little opposition because he’s doing a good job and deserved a second term. He was especially impressed with the mayor’s environmental policies.
“He has a very good plan for parks, recreation and a green print, environmentally friendly Denver,” Roberson said.
Hickenlooper came under pressure this winter when snowstorms clogged streets for days and shut down the city-owned Denver International Airport for 45 hours. Critics said the city’s response was too slow.
Instead of throwing him out of office as they did previous mayors buried by snowstorms, city residents took Hickenlooper up on his offer to take a sledding holiday.
Early in his term, Hickenlooper was criticized for holding a fundraiser for an environmental group and offering attendees private conversations if they contributed additional money. The mayor shook off the criticism, and even used it to his benefit to show he has close ties to the business community.
A former geologist who opened Colorado’s first brew pub in downtown Denver, Hickenlooper erased a $70 million city budget deficit by cutting employees’ salaries, including his own, and requiring unpaid leave.
He began a program to end homelessness and named a woman who grilled him on the issue on the campaign trail to lead the effort. And he helped lure the 2008 Democratic National Convention to Denver.
Hickenlooper, who succeeded the term-limited Wellington Webb in his first run for public office, won in 2003 with a series of commercials poking fun at what he called the “nonsense of government,” including city policies that raised parking meter rates and drove shoppers out of downtown. Television ads showed him zooming around on a scooter with a change machine, plugging meters to save hapless motorists from tickets.
In 2005 he boosted his profile among Democrats and Republicans by appearing in television commercials parachuting out of a plane to win support for a plan to loosen Colorado’s tax limits.
This year, he’s hardly campaigned at all.
Political consultant Katy Atkinson said Hickenlooper got a pass for his mistakes during his first term because voters still see him as a political outsider.
“He isn’t perceived as being a hack politician. When he says he’s sorry, people believe him,” Atkinson said.
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