The Denver mayoral race is entering the home stretch, with ballots already delivered for election day on April 4. As the timeline tightens, many of the sixteen candidates left on the ballot have dropped slick commercials to deliver their message to voters in thirty seconds.
These ads all try to make very specific points, directed to specific groups of people. Here's a look at the commercials of the six candidates who've released them so far:
Chris Hansen
Chris Hansen dropped his ad, the first TV commercial in the mayoral campaign, on February 14. After showing people camping on sidewalks, a street fight and theft from a porch, where there's a Band-Aid on a Ring door camera, implying that the current Denver government is using Band-Aids on important issues — when it isn't closing its eyes to problems altogether. Hansen offers an alternative: He'll audit homeless programs and "enforce the camping ban across the city," he says.
"I have plans to solve these problems, not hide from them," Hansen adds, ripping off the Band-Aid with a gesture that implies he'll be tough on these issues, not soft.
Hansen, a state senator who has raised $575,862, is targeting voters who are fed up with unsheltered homelessness and crime. That could account for a large swath of the Denver population.
Hansen drew controversy with this ad, however, with a handful of other mayoral candidates pointing out that the commercial plays into racial stereotypes by showing one person of color after another committing crimes. Hansen has rejected these critiques as cynical politicking and stands by his ad.
Andy Rougeot
The lone registered Republican in the Denver mayoral race, Andy Rougeot released a campaign commercial that feels like one of those slickly produced U.S. Army recruiting ads. In the ad, he's strapping on his Army boots, citing his deployment to Afghanistan in 2013 while helicopters buzz by in the background.
He says he'll enforce the camping ban, add 400 new police officers and "get the homeless off the streets and help they need," appealing to the conservative vote in deep-blue Denver.
Rougeot, son of the CEO of Sephora Americas, sports a Carhartt jacket in the ad, giving him the vibe of a blue-collar worker. Largely through self-funding, his campaign has collected $806,215.
Mike Johnston
A former state senator who has raised $2,572,347 for this race, Mike Johnston has become adept at sticking to his message. Throughout his campaign, Johnston has focused heavily on housing and homelessness, even promising to end homelessness in the Mile High City in his first term. In fact, his first television ad delivers that exact message.
"I'm Mike Johnston, and I'm running for mayor because we have a moral obligation to house everyone in Denver," Johnston says, while standing in front of a tent and then under a viaduct, pointing out that nobody should have to call either a home or a roof. The ad also features a shot taken from above Union Station while snow is coming down, with Johnston noting that no one should have to spend a Colorado winter "sleeping out here."
"Denver's streets are for all of us. But they shouldn't be home for any of us," Johnston concludes. It's a smart ad that communicates directly with voters concerned about unsheltered homelessness, which is just about everyone in Denver.
Kelly Brough
Kelly Brough's most notable professional experience came from her time as CEO and president of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce. But in her most notable campaign ad, Brough, who has raised $2,299,249, highlights an experience she had working in the City of Denver's personnel department.
"An airport snow plow driver complained to me that I didn't know his job. And he was right," Brough says as she gets into a snow plow. "So I went and got a commercial driver's license and worked after hours plowing snow off the runways. It taught me about his job and mine." The ad then shows her plowing an airport runway.
This ad doesn't say much about Brough's policy ideas, but that's not the point. Instead, it shows that Brought plans to be a take-charge mayor. And the blue-collar nature of the work in the ad gives Brough, a candidate with business ties, a more down-to-earth feel.
Leslie Herod
While Hansen and Rougeot opted to take more critical looks at Denver in their ads, Leslie Herod took the opposite approach. In her campaign commercial, Herod expresses optimism about the Mile High City. "I know how we get back, get better than ever," she says, as upbeat music plays around the candidate in hip settings on the streets of Denver, with happy people around her.
"Don't ever let any politician knock the hope out of you. Our city is there for the remaking," continues Herod, a state representative who has raised $1,087,303 for this campaign.
The positive nature of the ad could be helpful in buoying Herod's candidacy, which has been dealing with negative press based on criticism from former aides.
Debbie Ortega
At the beginning of her campaign ad, Debbie Ortega, a longtime member of Denver City Council, focuses on the tragedy her family experienced when she was young: Her father died while working as a coal miner in New Mexico.
It's the most compelling fact in Ortega's origin story, showing that she overcame an early loss and went on to serve on council for 28 years, during two separate stints. The ad also shows Ortega when she was a young mother, driving home the fact that she's been serving Denver across generations. Ortega's campaign strategy sees that as a plus, since she knows how the city works. But it could also backfire, since many voters think Denver needs a change.
Ortega, who's raised $524,288 for this race, highlights endorsements in her ad, including nods from unions representing Denver Sheriff Department deputies and Denver firefighters. And everyone appreciates firefighters.