First off, I'm biased. I've known Cindy Lowery for years through the Denver Dems and Denver Young Dems. She was Jill Conrad's campaign manager for Denver School Board, a race Jill was not expected to win, running against a well monied candidate hand picked by superintendent Michael Bennet.
In addition to brief chats by phone, and emailing a list of questions to each candidate, I've combed through the three candidate's websites to get a sense of their positions before submitting the same questions to them all. Most illuminating were a series of videos recorded at a number of public forums by DenverDirect.
I particularly liked this answer from Cindy on lunching with lobbyists. The question was actually who would pay for lunch. The expected answer should be that she would pay for her own lunch. Instead Cindy replied lobbyists can meet her in her office, just like everyone else. By email, Cindy also detailed a thorough plan for community outreach:
I plan to send out regular newsletters (by email and mail to those without email). I also will hold regular and public town hall meetings. I will, of course, have open office hours during the session but I really hope to be able to open a community office. We don't have public funding for that purpose but I hope to be able to raise it or share an office with another community leader.
Similar outreach is planned by Bergles and McCann.
This video is from Matt Bergles answering what obstacles exist to achieving one's legislative goals. In it he seems to criticize current legislators for acting too slowly and letting the next election get in the way of policy. Asking Matt if he felt an answer like this would make it difficult for him to get along with current officials, he seemed surprised by my question and thought he was being taken out of context. This being a few days before the primary, I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and agreed to not bring it up. However, he opened the door back up with his answer to this question by email:
I plan to not get caught up in the who's in/who's out game and the constant trap of running for re-election. It seems to me that too many of our elected officials play this game at the expense of representing their
constituents and making good public policy. I've put myself through this grind to make good public policy - not for prestige or ego.
Furthermore, the video in question is on the front page of his campaign website.
Beth McCann appears to want to lead from her experience, currently the Deputy Attorney General in charge of the Civil Litigation and Employment Law Section of the Colorado Attorney General's Office. And, in '91 she was appointed by mayor Wellington Webb to be the Denver Manager of Safety. I'd like to expand on that a bit more, but after a phone call and email yesterday afternoon, her responses expressed how busy she was.
Update: 11pm Received McCann's responses.
In describing her endorsements she also called out regular folks in the community. Nice touch!
I am also very proud of the hundreds of endorsements I have from active engaged residents of HD8 such as Alice Kelly of Park Hill, T. Michael Smith of Park Hill, Larry Hunt and Jovan Melton of North Denver, Sarah Foster and Owetta McNeil of Northeast Denver, Lisa Weil, Edgar Neel, and Kevin O'Connor of Congress Park and many many others.
Q. What do you plan to do different than any other legislator that's come before you?
Well, I am not sure I can claim to do something that no other legislator has done. I would like to move away from the partisan bickering where everyone's motives are attributed to politics. That is not how I operate, and I would like to be able to maintain my integrity and treat everyone with respect. I do not think that members of the other party are always out to get members of my party. I hope that we can all work for the common good of Colorado.
I don't understand why people call it partisan bickering. The fact is Republicans have been bludgeoning Democrats over and over again for years. It's only in the last few years that Dems have fought back some of the time and gotten some stuff done. I suppose some see distancing themselves from this idea tells voters they want to get to work. But, those of us paying attention know what's really going on.
In case you were wondering, HD08 is currently held by Rosemary Marshall. The district includes about half of lodo then runs from 6th ave to the south, approximately Monoco on the East and overlaps I-70 a bit to the north.
First off, I'm biased. I've known 
This video is from Matt Bergles answering what 
RSS Feed
