Progressive candidates in Aurora City Council races appear to have run the table in Tuesday’s election as thousands of voters in the suburbs turned out to weigh in on numerous contests and ballot issues.
Two left-leaning candidates — Rob Andrews and Alli Jackson — are still comfortably leading in Aurora’s at-large race, where conservative firebrand Danielle Jurinsky continues to trail in third place as of 7:30 a.m. Wednesday. Only the top two vote-getters in the at-large race will win seats on the council.
Meanwhile, a progressive incumbent held onto a huge lead in Aurora’s Ward III race, while a conservative member of the council in Ward II was narrowly trailing in his race.
The large city’s council races were among metro Denver’s most notable contests and ballot measures in the off-year election.
In results posted at 7:30 a.m., support for a controversial ballot measure in Littleton that could slow down the construction of denser housing in the city of 44,000 was leading by nearly 10 percentage points.
Voters in at least 65 cities and towns across Colorado have been mulling municipal contests in the election. More than 100 municipal ballot issues -- many of them revolving around tax and charter language updates -- were up for a vote statewide.
Aurora City Council
In Aurora, 13 candidates jostled for five council positions in Colorado's third-largest city -- three representing individual wards and two elected at large. The ranks of left-leaning council members in Aurora have thinned over the last few election cycles, starting with Mike Coffman, a former Republican congressman, winning the mayor's seat in 2019.
In this cycle, conservative kingmakers have far outspent their counterparts in support of right-leaning hopefuls and incumbents in the races, with the aim of keeping the council out of liberal hands. But things were looking increasingly shaky for the conservatives as the night went on.
In results as of 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, Andrews had top billing in the at-large race with 26% of the vote, while Jackson was next with 25.3%. Jurinsky, who made national headlines during last year's presidential race when Aurora exploded into the larger debate over immigration, trailed with 22.5% of the vote.
Incumbent Amsalu Kassaw, a conservative, held fourth place out of five candidates.
Ward III incumbent Councilman Ruben Medina, a progressive, held a monster 25-plus percentage point lead over opponent Marsha Berzins, a well-known conservative name in Aurora politics. And in Ward I, progressive Gianina Horton held a sizable lead over conservative Stephen Elkins -- 57.7% to 29.4%, while Reid Hettich claimed 12.9% of the vote.
In the Ward II race, incumbent Steve Sunberg, a conservative, was trailing his progressive opponent, Amy Wiles, by 53.4% to 46.6%.
Littleton's Measure 3A
The most compelling suburban Denver issue this fall came out of Littleton, where voters in the southern city were being asked to decide whether stronger guardrails should be erected against denser styles of housing.
The campaign for Measure 3A spawned countless yard signs and even a traveling billboard -- a truck plastered with a trio of electronic screens urging voters to check "yes." The Littleton City Council passed a resolution last month urging voters to turn down the measure.
As of 7:30 a.m., Measure 3A was leading 54.8% to 45.2%.
Central City's Measure 2A
For those with bawdier interests than single-family homes versus triplexes, look no further up the road than Central City. Voters there were deciding whether on the gambling town’s historic Main Street in Measure 2A.
As of 7:30 a.m., the no votes were ahead 57.7% to 42.3%.
Fire department, district funding
There was a lot of money requested from voters by agencies both north and south of Denver that provide fire and rescue services to a wide swath of the metro population. And all were winning in results posted Wednesday morning.
In Denver's northern suburbs, Westminster voters were asked to pass a 0.4% sales and use tax to raise $14 million annually to hire 30 firefighters and emergency medical and support personnel. The money from would also fund the construction of a new fire station, as well as the purchase of new emergency vehicles.
As of 7:30 a.m., the measure was leading by a 51.7% to 48.3% margin.
The South Adams County Fire District, which covers fast-growing Commerce City and adjacent areas, is asking voters for a . The increase would raise $12.5 million a year to quicken response times, lower ambulance costs and ensure firefighters and paramedics have the proper training and life-saving equipment. The ballot issue is Measure 6A and it was leading by a 57.7% to 42.3% split as of Wednesday morning.
South of Denver, one of metro Denver's largest firefighting forces -- serving nearly 600,000 residents -- is on the ballot asking for a property tax increase to address an anticipated $500 million shortage over the next decade. The measure was prevailing by a margin of 55.6% to 44.4%.
If South Metro Fire Rescue's passes, a homeowner with a $750,000 house — the district's average — will pay about $140 more per year.
