This spring, Denverites will elect a new mayor for the first time in 12 years and a number of city council members are either term limited or not seeking reelection. This means big change in Denver is on the horizon—and, if you know anything about the work we do, you know that we’re not just going to sit around and let it happen.
First, we want to let you know that the Denver Streets Partnership won’t be endorsing candidates in this election because of our status as a 501(c)(3) organization (and because we’ll be working with the new mayor and council members, no matter who gets elected!)
But we do have two goals for the next few months leading up to the election. First, we want to make sure that candidates have an understanding of the issues we work on and the urgency to prioritize them. Second, we want to make sure that voters like you have access to information and resources that will help you make informed decisions at the ballot box. Read on to get a preview of our plans!
Even if you don’t read any further, here are some important dates you need to know:
- Ballots mailed: March 13
- Election Day: April 4
- Runoff Election Day: June 6
Candidate engagement
In September 2022, alongside our Steering Committee, we released our 2023 Municipal Election Policy Platform to all candidates. Think of our policy platform as the platform that DSP would run on if our organization was running for mayor (insert joke about everyone running for mayor). Running for office is a big undertaking and every candidate can’t be an expert in every issue area, so this platform is meant to help candidates understand the issues we work on and offers suggestions of policies that candidates can adopt into their own platforms.
Beyond the policy platform, we will pursue opportunities to influence the conversation with candidates and make sure that our issues are being addressed in public forums. This might include us authoring opinion pieces over the next few months, sending timely issue updates to candidates, and participating in non-partisan candidate forums.
Voter education
It’s our full time job at DSP to keep tabs on what’s happening with our local government, but it doesn’t have to be yours. We want to make sure that voters like you have access to reliable non-partisan resources that will help you make informed decisions and feel less overwhelmed when it’s time to vote this spring.
In the coming weeks we’ll be launching a page on our website where you can find information about upcoming candidate forums and online resources to help you learn more about who is running and what their priorities are. We’ll also be sending a questionnaire to all candidates and will post the responses on that page.
But wait—there’s more! We’re cooking up a voter toolkit that will include a list of questions for you to ask at candidate forums related to the issues we work on, resources for registering to vote/casting your ballot, and some tools to help you get-out-the vote among your own network of friends and family. Do you have ideas for something that would be helpful to you as a Denver voter this election that DSP could include in this toolkit? Let us know here!
Get started
If you want to get started on becoming an election wiz before we launch our toolkit, here are a few good places to start:
- Denver Elections Division: Register to vote
- Denverite: What does Denver’s mayor do and how much power does the position have?
- Denver Elections Division: This page is updated as new candidates declare they’re running
- Denver Elections Division: Denver has a new campaign finance reporting system that makes it easier than ever to see what money is flowing in and out of campaigns
- Denverite: Denver Fair Elections Fund side effect: Regular voters can be as powerful as developers
- Denverite: Play our version of Guess Who and get to know some mayoral candidates