Denver Mayor’s Race Wide Open: Eight Weeks to Go

The April Denver mayoral election has only 7 more weeks of active campaigning for the 17 candidates.

One released poll and the fundraising reports of January 31 show the top 5 candidates with 4 percent or more of the voters saying they support them. (See table below).

Meanwhile, not surprising, 47 percent say they don’t know. Finance reports show six out of the 17 have collected $250,000 or more.

The early polling report is mostly name identification, which is beneficial at the start of a campaign but doesn’t mean much once the active campaign begins with debates, endorsements, advertising, and the inevitable attacks. Later, money and momentum can shift very quickly.

The poll was released by Debbie Ortega’s campaign and conducted January 11 to 14, 2023, with 500 likely voters. It attempted to model the Denver electorate with 48 percent Democrats, 43 percent Unaffiliated, and 10 percent Republican. Ortega is ahead of a list with mostly single digit support. Officeholders dominated the field along with candidates in previous races and ethnic identifies.

Early fundraising gets some attention and can attract more contributions, but the campaigns will quickly burn through prodigious amounts of money primarily for advertising. Mr. Rougeot is a self-funding Republican who may add more money. Also, there is likely to be independent funds from state and national political action committees.

Denver's City and County Building. Aug. 10, 2021. Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite