When Mike Coffman gained the Aurora mayor’s workplace in 2019, he did so by a hair — and netted simply shy of 36% of the vote in a crowded race to guide Colorado’s third-largest metropolis.
Within the Nov. 7 election, voters within the state’s most racially and ethnically various metropolis will resolve whether or not to present the previous Republican congressman a second time period as mayor. He’s obtained a battle on his fingers, dealing with outspoken first-term Metropolis Councilman Juan Marcano, a progressive Democrat, as his main challenger in a three-way race.
Whereas Aurora’s elections are formally nonpartisan, Marcano and a bloc of Democratic council candidates who’re vying for 5 different seats on the poll are hoping to revive the council’s leftward lean. In 2021, Coffman-supported candidates swung the bulk on the 11-member council — which incorporates the mayor — in conservatives’ favor, after two cycles that had seen liberal beneficial properties.
The election’s end result, and the ensuing steadiness of energy, seemingly will have an effect on Aurora’s strategy to a rising homelessness downside and responses to considerations over policing and public security. The suburban metropolis is also contending with rising housing prices and neighborhoods’ efforts to stem gentrification as redevelopment costs lower-income households out of areas that was once inexpensive.
Coffman, 68, mentioned that when he first ran for metropolis workplace, voters have been extra involved with what he noticed as conventional suburban points: high quality of life, financial progress and transportation. However this election is totally different — and he doesn’t see Aurora going again.
“Within the final 4 years, the problems have turn into rather more city,” he mentioned. “It’s actually about race, poverty and crime on this metropolis.”
For Marcano, 37, the election will resolve whether or not it’s time to guide Aurora in a unique course and be sure that metropolis leaders tackle the issues dealing with communities that town has underinvested in or uncared for.
“They’re asking for (larger) wages,” he mentioned. “They’re asking for lease management. They’re asking for extra inexpensive housing, and so they vibe with the root-causes-of-crime strategy” to public security.
The highest campaigns have reported a mixed $304,330 in contributions — $214,708 to Coffman’s marketing campaign and $89,623 to Marcano’s, based on the newest finance experiences.
The third candidate within the race, Jeff Sanford, 58, is a program analyst for a federal company. He hasn’t raised any cash and has run a restricted marketing campaign.
Sanford mentioned he determined to run after discussions a few potential poll measure that attracted vital consideration earlier this 12 months: Ought to Aurora undertake a strong-mayor type of authorities, much like Denver’s?
Because it seems, voters gained’t resolve that query but. Coffman financially backed the marketing campaign that had hoped to place that query to voters, nevertheless it missed the deadline to make the 2023 poll. That measure could also be a part of a future election, however for now, the winner of the mayor’s race will nonetheless sit on the council and participate in votes — serving in a full-time capability whereas a lot of the executive energy lies within the workplace of town supervisor.
Aurora’s growing population is approaching 394,000, based on census estimates, and it’s the largest Colorado metropolis with municipal contests within the fall election. Its ethnic make-up is 44% non-Hispanic white, 29% Hispanic or Latino, almost 17% Black and almost 7% Asian.
Completely different backgrounds, visions for Aurora
The candidates convey totally different backgrounds and visions for town.
Coffman, raised in Aurora, was born right into a army household and is a veteran of the U.S. Military and the Marine Corps, and he has a protracted historical past in Colorado politics. He ran for mayor after dropping a reelection bid for a sixth time period within the U.S. Home in 2018 to now-U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, a Democrat.
Coffman additionally has served within the state legislature and as state treasurer and secretary of state. He based a property administration firm in Aurora and labored as a accomplice for 17 years. He’s divorced.
He mentioned he’s operating for mayor once more to proceed the work he began throughout his first time period on crime, homelessness and housing affordability. Typically he’s taken a tough-on-crime strategy, and he spearheaded town’s tenting ban.
Marcano, born in Puerto Rico, mentioned his “solidly middle-class” dad and mom moved the household to the southern U.S. mainland earlier than settling in Houston when he was about 10. Marcano and his spouse moved to Colorado in 2007 and have lived in Aurora for almost 9 years. Marcano has knowledgeable background in architectural and development design.
Voters elected Marcano in 2019 because the Ward IV Metropolis Council member, representing a district that presently straddles Interstate 225 south of East Mississippi Avenue.
He’s been a member of the Democratic Socialists of America for a number of years, however he break up with the group this month, citing his disagreement with a current assertion by the Denver DSA chapter that expressed help for Palestinians. He wrote in a response that it ought to have “universally” condemned Hamas’ conflict crimes.
He’s been a member of the Democratic Socialists of America for a number of years. However he split with the organization this month, citing his disagreement with a recent statement by the Denver DSA chapter that expressed help for Palestinians. He wrote in a response that it ought to have condemned Hamas’ “conflict crimes” when the group attacked and killed Israelis.
Marcano says he’s operating for mayor to higher characterize the pursuits of the group, notably as somebody who speaks the identical language, Spanish, as a lot of town’s immigrant inhabitants. He’s additionally a renter and mentioned that provides him an understanding of excessive housing prices.
Sanford, an Aurora resident for greater than three a long time, has served within the U.S. Air Drive and has labored in the private and non-private sectors. He has no prior political expertise. Although affiliated as a Democrat, he says he has no sturdy political allegiance.
He’s not fundraising, he mentioned, as a result of he doesn’t consider elections ought to be purchased. He additionally isn’t spending time knocking on voters’ doorways or searching for endorsements. He mentioned that if elected, he would create a citywide masterplan that’s all-encompassing, delving into town’s imaginative and prescient, its funds, metropolis infrastructure and plans for the surroundings and sustainability. He additionally helps making Aurora its personal county and mentioned his overarching targets would tackle points reminiscent of homelessness — an issue of housing affordability, he says — and public security.
He sees Marcano and Coffman as sitting on reverse extremes.
“We’d like decisive management proper now to alter the course that town’s going ahead with for (town’s) status and future progress,” Sanford mentioned. “If we don’t, we’re going to be stagnated.”
Occasion leanings convey variations in strategy
The Aurora election has not gone unnoticed by each the state GOP and Democratic events, with party-aligned teams spending cash on voter outreach and mailers as they try to affect town’s political course.
Occasion leanings have resulted in starkly totally different approaches on a number of points in Aurora. Coffman and his council allies have taken a more durable line on homelessness, a problem the place the mayor obtained concerned personally in a manner that spurred backlash from progressives.
In 2021, he earned media consideration after it was revealed that he posed as “Homeless Mike,” a homeless veteran, and slept in encampments and shelters for every week in Denver and Aurora. Primarily based on his expertise, he attributed folks’s determination to stay exterior as a life-style selection largely made on account of drug use. Some critics known as it an ill-informed performative train.
In 2022, after the council’s make-up modified, Coffman led the profitable effort to go an city tenting ban, which had failed below the earlier council.
If reelected, Coffman mentioned, his plans embrace making a campus for people who find themselves homeless, modeled after one in Colorado Springs, with three classes of housing: a low-barrier shelter, housing for people who find themselves getting providers for psychological and behavioral well being issues, and transitional housing for individuals who simply want slightly help as they proceed to work.
The top objective is getting folks employed.
“We’ve got to get them off the road. We’ve got to get them into therapy. We’ve got to get issues stabilized,” Coffman mentioned. “So my strategy is to … have all of the providers in place earlier than I turn into extra aggressive when it comes to getting them off the road in a punitive manner.”
Marcano needs to repeal Aurora’s tenting ban, which he says has proved ineffective. He believes in a housing-first mannequin, like that applied by Houston, — an strategy that prioritizes getting folks off the road and into steady housing with out first requiring them to get habit or psychological well being therapy. People who find themselves homeless additionally would obtain case administration and different supportive providers, with the housing interspersed all through town.
“What that appears like is as a substitute of getting swept to the opposite aspect of I-225, or from Iliff and Peoria out to the Cherry Creek Reservoir, you get swept into housing with wraparound providers,” Marcano mentioned.
Public security in focus
Public security has turn into one other politically fraught situation in Aurora. Just a few months earlier than Coffman was elected, 23-year-old Elijah McClain, a Black man, died after a violent arrest throughout which he was injected with ketamine. The 2020 racial justice protests reignited requires accountability for McClain’s dying, leading to adjustments in state regulation and felony prices in opposition to town’s law enforcement officials and paramedics.
A 14-month investigation by the Colorado Lawyer Common’s Workplace discovered a sample of racially biased policing, requiring court-ordered reforms. Chief Vanessa Wilson was employed in 2020 throughout a tumultuous time for the division, and he or she was fired in 2022 in a controversial transfer that break up the Metropolis Council’s conservatives, who pushed for a change in management, and progressives. Artwork Acevedo is now serving as interim chief.
As policing within the metropolis faces scrutiny, Aurora voters even have been involved by rising crime charges lately.
Each Marcano and Coffman are optimistic concerning the division’s course, although Marcano has criticized the brand new chief’s preliminary public feedback concerning the deadly capturing of 14-year-old Jor’Dell Richardson in June. However the candidates differ on bigger questions on public security.
Marcano’s plans revolve round prevention. “A number of chiefs that we’ve had have mentioned, ‘You can not police your manner out of plenty of these issues,’ ” he mentioned. “It’s necessary to carry folks accountable (for crime), nevertheless it’s extra necessary to cease them from doing the flawed factor to start with.”
He says his focus can be to handle root causes, whether or not they’re associated to public security or financial circumstances. He needs the council to place more cash towards group investments, which he mentioned progressive members haven’t been capable of do as a result of they don’t have the votes. These embrace social helps for residents and placing more cash towards inexpensive housing to scale back poverty.
It’s most of these targets that led Arnie Schultz, who met Marcano by the Colorado Individuals’s Alliance, to again Marcano once more after supporting his 2019 council run.
“He is aware of town. He is aware of the folks,” Shultz mentioned. “He needs to serve the underserved. He needs to enhance residing circumstances by housing, by larger wages (and) getting the unhoused housed.”
Coffman thinks town ought to spend money on some youth violence prevention and diversion applications. However he nonetheless believes in incarceration, he mentioned, “as a result of all people has the correct to stay with out worry of being the sufferer of a criminal offense.”
The mayor’s yard indicators are clear, with “Robust on crime” spelled out above his identify. He’s been a proponent of accelerating felony penalties and he plans to work with different space mayors and state lawmakers to hunt potential options for crime.
Coffman says he believes his values align with these of Aurora’s residents. Bob Adams, a Black veteran who’s supported Coffman since he was in Congress, mentioned Coffman is the correct particular person to guide town.
“He’s been robust crime and I like what he’s performed with homelessness,” Adams mentioned. “I’d like to see extra (of that).”
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