Five Surprises at Last Night's Denver Mayoral Debate

The first Denver mayoral debate under the Fair Elections Fund rules was held February 9 in a packed Regis University auditorium, with moderator Dominic Dezzutti managing a three-ring circus with enough candidates to fill a clown car.

Seventeen are on the ballot. One, Andy Gardner, didn't make it to the debate, but he had an excused absence: A granddaughter had just been born, and he was with his family. That proved convenient, since the evening's format called for five topics — affordable housing, homelessness, crime, growth and the environment — with four questions within each topic each answered by four candidates. The candidates were also armed with three rebuttal cards, which they could use at any time. But not for long: All responses were limited to thirty seconds.

Even within those sound bytes, though, there were some tasty surprises. For example:

Robert Treta jumped up early with the first rebuttal (he wanted to know why Trinidad Rodriguez, who got the first question about affordable housing, had not recommended ADUs during his work on Blueprint Denver), and continued to pop up. But it wasn't until late in the debate that we learned that Treta, the only builder among the candidates, owns a Tesla, and also has a very, very green house.

Vehicles also made an appearance in Kwame Spearman's response to a question about crime. The Tattered Cover CEO, who says he wants to be a mayor for the neighborhoods, revealed that the van used by the book stores has had five catalytic converters stolen.

Also during the crime segment, Terrance Roberts pointed out that not only is he the only former gang member running for mayor across the country, but he's been shot, twice. He didn't mention that he also shot a man in 2013 and was found not guilty by a Denver jury in 2015. That incident plays a major role in the documentary The Holly.

While plenty of candidates took shots at each other, state Representative Leslie Herod actually had a compliment for Ean Thomas Tafoya and all he's done on behalf of the environment and environmental justice at both the state and city level. "Hats off to Ean," she said. "Thanks for your work on that."

And then there was Renate Behrens, whose all-red outfit (right up to her hair) was a candidate first, as was her suggestion for one way to fix homelessness: "We can change the divorce laws...so the weaker partner does not get homeless."

And there was more, much more, including some dispute over who started the STAR program and Dezzutti's quick ask that all of the candidates in favor of enforcing the urban camping laws stand up. The crowd was split.

"My biggest surprise was seeing how truly wide open the race seems, once you see the candidates in person," says Dezzutti. "Fundraising and name recognition seem to create what I think is a false ranking. When you see the candidates take on questions and challenge each other, you get a real sense for how many are ready for prime time, and that there are no real frontrunners. I attribute much of that to the Hickenlooper effect. He proved that a candidate can come out of nowhere in a crowded race and catch fire at just the right time with just the right message. His past success is what I think is fueling the long list of candidates who frankly have a real shot at becoming Denver's next mayor."

That, and the fact that the Fair Elections Fund made many of these candidacies possible.

On February 16, 9News will host the second official mayoral debate at Metropolitan State University of Denver; because he did not apply for Fair Elections Fund financing, Andy Rougeot is not part of that debate, which could make the field an even sixteen again.

For the record, here are the seventeen candidates who qualified for the April 4 election, with ballots going out March 13: Lisa Calderón, Trinidad Rodriguez, Aurelio Martinez, Thomas Wolf, Al Gardner, Terrance Roberts, Kwame Spearman, Renate Behrens, Chris Hansen, Mike Johnston, James Walsh, Ean Thomas Tafoya, Andy Rougeot, Leslie Herod, Robert Treta, Deborah “Debbie” Ortega and Kelly Brough.