The long-awaited effort to persuade voters to let the City keep people’s TABOR-mandated refunds has finally begun.  Although it’s been on the establishment’s to-do list for years, they have avoided putting it on the ballot for fear of a voter backlash.  However, this year’s refund has gotten too large to pass up.  With the recent hail storms, there was a lot of fees and taxes paid by insurance companies to…

           A couple years ago, city staff made it clear they want a single trash hauler system in Lakewood similar to the one in Golden.  However due to political opposition it was decided to do this in gradual increments.  The first step, to register all the trash haulers, was accomplished a year or two ago.  The second step, currently underway, is to build up public support…

Water and sewer services in Lakewood are generally not provided by the City but rather by scores of independent water districts run by an elected Board of Directors.  In the May of even numbered years there are elections to fill seats on these boards.  Ordinarily they don’t generate much interest but the Green Mountain Water District is turning into a battle between the backers of development and those who would…

Politicians get power because they seek power.  They support their friends and hurt their opponents.  This gang mentality is nothing new and the fact it occurs at a local level comes as no surprise.  In Lakewood power-hungry politicians flock together as the ruling establishment.  By looking out for each other and scratching each other’s back, politicians are able to stay in power.  However in November candidates independent of the establishment…

It’s been standard practice for years for political hacks to fling mud at opposing candidates.  While it is appropriate to compare/contrast qualifications,  issue positions, funding sources and an incumbent’s voting record most people agree character assassination is inappropriate.  The most common form of the “smear” is liberal/leftist accusing their conservative opponents of being “bad people”.  This is often in the form of “racism”, sexual impropriety and/or the always popular “you’re…

The most expensive City Council race in Lakewood history ended with a resounding defeat for the establishment candidates.  In Ward 4 David Skilling was elected with nearly 53% of the vote which almost matched the 54% achieved by his predecessor David Wiechman against Betty Boyd in 2015.  Mayor Adam Paul’s selected candidate LaDawn Sperling came in third with 21% of the Ward 4 vote.  In second place was the Democratic…

In our recent blogs we noted the introduction of “independent expenditure committees” into city politics to get around the problem of Lakewood’s $2,500 limit on donations to candidates.  These committees also allow donors who wish to remain unknown (such as the marijuana retailers funding mailers in support of Kyra DeGruy in Ward 1) to cover their tracks by funneling donations through a number of pass-through groups.  Following the money trail…

We have often noted Mayor Paul’s unique political ability to get opposing political interests to support his agenda (see previous blog Strange Bedfellows).  With the introduction of dark money through the use of new campaign finance committees, called independent expenditure committees, we now have one of the most bizarre couplings so far.  Traditionally, the establishment has its unions, in this case the Police Union and the West Metro Firefighters Union,…

One of the important lessons Mayor Adam Paul learned from his mentor, Bob Murphy, is the need to eliminate critics.  When Ward 1 Council Member Ramey Johnson ran against Paul for mayor in 2015, she automatically went to the head of the mayor’s hit list.  Since Ramey received over 49% of the city wide vote during an election that was ultimately driven by fallout from the school board recall, she…

As our resident political science major Mayor Adam Paul well knows, one of the secrets to staying in political power is to run negative campaign ads against your challengers.  As noted previously, four of the five Council seats up for election this fall have strong challengers to the mayor’s candidates.  As we enter into the final couple weeks of the campaign the debate between the candidates will move away from…