I seek to understand the mind of the voter outside the Blair-Caldwell library in Five Points. I catch the after-work crowd, the last-minute bunch, dawdlers by design and circumstance, dropping off their ballots. You never know, they say, something might come up with one of the candidates, and then where would they be?
It’s easier to capture the deliberations of the voter in this municipal election than it is the nonvoter if only because there are fewer of the former. Only a third of the city’s registered voters bothered to cast a ballot, and they did so despite having to choose from 10 mayoral candidates and, in this council district, 38 write-in hopefuls. Not surprisingly, at least half of the otherwise dedicated voters I interviewed did not write in anyone, though East High assistant administrator Shawne Anderson did write in his wife. She was not one of the 38 eligible candidates, but who knew the difference? It’s possible that among these District 8 voters are the jokers who ballot checkers discovered had written in Charlie Sheen.
It’s useful to ask people why they vote for one person and not another. “Useful” here has a variety of definitions, both enlightening and dismaying.
“It’s funny how I decided,” Brady Delander says before telling me one day he saw a campaign truck with a familiar name upon it for City Council. “It was a guy I went to high school with, so I just threw his name down.”
Voter Gloria Goodman may give Delander credit for candor. Then again, she might not. “I eliminated everyone I’d never heard about and that left me with six, and I started reading whatever I could find about them and narrowed it to two and then settled upon a particular person, and no, I will not tell you who that was.”
I wasn’t surprised to see Albus Brooks and Wil Alston advance to the runoff. Both are backed by heavyweights. If you don’t know the candidate, you probably know Bill Ritter (backing Alston) and Wellington Webb (backing Brooks).
I interviewed 30 people. They were all over the age and race map, but, by and large, politically liberal, so bear that in mind. This is anecdote, not science. It was revealing, nevertheless, because it speaks to the challenges Chris Romer and Michael Hancock, the two top mayoral vote-getters, now face.
The tough choice, nearly all of these voters told me, was between James Mejia and Hancock. Those who went for Mejia — the majority interviewed — said they did so because they thought he was more experienced and focused and able to build consensus. Hancock, they said, seems young and naive despite his years on the City Council.
Voters who cast ballots for Romer — I counted three of 30 — tended to be small-business owners or, as Colin Gibbs described himself, “I’m a liberal, but more of a businessman/ libertarian/liberal.”
Based upon what I heard, Romer is going to have the tougher time of it in the runoff. Not because he’s the rich white-guy candidate, although that did bother Dave Colberg, a not-so-rich white guy who says, “Rich white guys only look out for rich white guys.”
A lot of people don’t like Romer the candidate. That’s become clear through the campaign. What was interesting and then fascinating about my conversations was that the negative reaction to Romer was so visceral. “He’s smug.” “He seems like a bully.” “I just don’t trust him.” “He’s a pompous, self-satisfied person,” Jason Evans tells me. Where rational explanation fails, irrational steps in and everything from Romer’s facial expressions to his suit to his father, Gov. Roy, seemed fair game.
Liking a candidate is not a prerequisite for voting for him or her and, like Romer or not, 31,901 people voted for him. But I don’t see Romer gaining traction among the Mejia voters here.
Consultant Eric Sondermann summed up it well when I talked to him Wednesday morning: “Romer has to be not as likeable as Hancock, but likeable enough. Hancock has to be not as tough as Romer, but tough enough. That’s their respective challenge.”
The runoff is June 7. Thirty-three days and counting.
Tina Griego writes Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Reach her at 303-954-2699 or tgriego@denverpost.com.
