The Denver mayoral election is still more than five months away, but already the field is filling up and early campaign moves are getting scrutiny.
Twelve people have made initial filings that they intend to run in the first open election for mayor since 2003.
Today, James Mejia, chief executive of the Denver Preschool Program, will make a formal announcement that he intends to run, even though he had already made an initial filing.
Mejia joins other notables: state Sen. Chris Romer, Denver Councilmen Michael Hancock and Doug Linkhart vying to replace outgoing Mayor John Hickenlooper, who will be sworn in as Colorado’s 42nd governor on Jan. 11. The municipal election is May 3.
Romer, who announced his candidacy earlier this month, apparently at the last minute decided against hiring Ray Rivera as his campaign manager.
Rivera — former Colorado state director for Barack Obama’s presidential bid and current director of external and intra-governmental affairs for the U.S. Interior Department — had gotten the blessing from his boss, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, to leave the federal job and head to Denver.
But Romer selected Adam Dunstone, former field campaign coordinator for Sen. Michael Bennet’s 2010 campaign, for the job.
The move upset some in the Latino community, a key voting bloc.
“The Hispanic community has great concerns,” said Paul Sandoval, northwest Denver businessman and keen political observer who says that 40 percent of Denver’s active voters are Latino.
Romer last week said Rivera remains a friend and an adviser.
“We had good conversations about a number of different roles,” Romer said. “Ray is a federal employee with a great job and girlfriend in Washington, D.C. He is going to stay there. It just didn’t work out.”
Rivera, in an e-mail said: “I did talk with Chris about working with him. I am a longtime friend of the Romer family and Chris is a great candidate, but ultimately I decided that I wanted to continue my service with Secretary Salazar and the Administration.”
