“You can’t have it both ways. You can’t have someone who you call ineffective and then also recognize that they are the sole target of an entire developer [smear] campaign citywide,” said Candi CdeBaca at a Denver City Council District 9 debate held in the CSU Spur’s Hydro building on the National Western Complex grounds the evening of February 7.
The debate was hosted by the GES Gazette and Greater Park Hill News, and all three candidates in the district were in attendance: incumbent CdeBaca, Darrell Watson — who ran unsuccessfully for council in 2007 — and newcomer Kwon Atlas, a Five Points community leader.
There were several key issues that candidates spent time on, but the one cited by CdeBaca pointed to a series of postcards sent out citywide during the days surrounding the January 23 city council vote on the Park Hill Golf Course development area plan, which is currently under a conservation easement that voters may or may not decide to lift during the April 4 municipal election.
The postcards, sent anonymously, called attention to Denver’s housing crisis and highlighted certain “no” votes CdeBaca had cast on legislation related to housing and development. Notably, she had been the only councilmember to do so.
The mailers seem to imply that CdeBaca opposes affordable-housing solutions. One postcard read, “Affordability is on the ballot this April.” Another asked, “Who is taking action on affordable housing?” above a list of “YES” votes and CdeBaca’s bright-red “NO” vote for the Loretto Heights redevelopment agreement.
CdeBaca explained her positions on the votes referenced in the mailers in a newsletter last week, saying, “On the occasions when I have voted No, I’ve consistently backed every vote up with a thorough explanation and data, especially when I have challenged insufficient development proposals.” She also argued during Tuesday’s debate that most of these pieces of legislation had misleading titles that make them seem more appealing than they really are.
The councilwoman initially suspected that the mailers had broken the law. However, multiple news outlets reported last week that because the mailers do not include a specific call to action, and because stricter electioneering rules do not take effect until sixty days before the election, the legality is unclear, and because of that, no legal action has been pursued by CdeBaca.
Atlas, the latest to join the race for the D9 council seat, said that he didn’t know who sent the mailers and that he disagreed with their messaging. “We all know why Candi voted on these bills; she did not believe that they were good enough,” he said during the debate. Atlas advocated for stricter laws around these kinds of shady, dark-money campaign tactics. However, he also pointed to those votes as evidence of CdeBaca’s ineffective leadership style. “Does [CdeBaca] have the political and social capital among council and with the mayor’s office and with the agencies that are crafting this legislation to change it to where she wants it to be?” he asked. “Absolutely not, and that’s the problem that we have here.”
Watson laughed when debate moderator David Sabados asked if either he or Atlas were aware of who sent the mailers. He did, however, agree with their content, saying that all bills that would create affordable housing need to be passed.
“Not every bill is going to provide housing for all levels and all spectrums of housing,” he said, arguing that policies promoting other levels of affordability can be brought forward later. CdeBaca later rebutted, “Darrell implies that we should accept whatever is in front of us no matter what it is. And I think that should be appalling to voters: that you should expect us to accept crumbs on your behalf when the city has been raped by developers.” She argued against giving developers even more opportunities to take advantage of communities by allowing them to pass legislation with such limited affordability components.
Watson responded that CdeBaca “has demonstrated the inability to work constructively with her fellow councilmembers to pass meaningful legislation. If the councilmember doesn’t believe in the legislation that is before her, she has an opportunity during the committee process and through a legislative process to make a change.”
He continued, saying that CdeBaca has an “inability to actually pass real, affordable housing.” CdeBaca responded, “I think [this is] a reflection of my colleague here not paying attention to what’s happening. [As] I mentioned earlier, I’ve voted on 6,000 bills since I’ve been in office. Ninety-five percent of the time, it’s been in alignment with my colleagues. To be a rubber stamp is not what I signed up to do, it’s not what you elected me to do, and I think that when we talk about working with other councilmembers, we should also value working with community. ... Sometimes they need my vote more than these other councilmembers do.”
Watson did not initially answer the part of the question related to the source of the slanderous campaign mailers, though he later denied any knowledge or involvement after some pressure from the audience.
CdeBaca believes that Westside Investment Partners — the owners of the Park Hill Golf Course and the site’s prospective developers — are behind the anonymous mailers. Considering the mailer’s pro-development position and timing in regard to the vote on the Park Hill Golf Course area plan, "Nothing else makes sense," she told Westword in an interview before the debate. One mailer in particular called out CdeBaca for voting against the redevelopment agreement for the Loretto Heights campus — which is owned by Westside.
CdeBaca sees Westside as responsible for more than just the postcards. “My opponents are bought and paid for by Westside and all the other developers,” she said. She pointed out that Watson shared a campaign table with the developer during the Colorado Democrats' reorganization meeting over the weekend. (She also brought up that the majority of voters at that meeting opposed the Park Hill Golf Course development.)
Atlas said he’s “familiar” with some of the people with Holleran (Westside’s co-developer for Park Hill). Atlas lives on Welton Street, where some Holleran members own businesses and organize music festivals. “But I don’t have any direct relationship [with them],” he said. “I’m not getting a bunch of donations from them like my opponent, Darrell. He’s getting a lot of donations from developers in the community.”
According to SearchLight Denver, Denver’s campaign finance database, Watson’s campaign so far is worth $223,963.74 — more than any other district city council candidate. CdeBaca has raised $150,152.20, and Atlas has raised $53,235.22.
In an interview after the debate, Watson said, “I’ve received contributions or a majority of contributions [from] you name the industry, and I’ve received more contributions from them than Candi CdeBaca. So the developers are giving me more money than Candi.” He added that sitting city council members, former city council members, union members and firefighters also give him money. “There are many industries I’m receiving more money from, and the bottom line is, it’s because I’ve demonstrated a will [and an] interest in listening to the community, working on the difficult issues that are impacting them and actually executing on them,” he said.
CdeBaca says that the Park Hill Golf Course development debate has cast a shadow over the entirety of the municipal elections. “The Park Hill Golf Course is coloring all of our elections because it’s a moral issue, and because it's a complicated issue...and it’s an issue that I think really surfaces our deepest inequities in this city.”
She adds that she thinks the issue has become a kind of moral barometer for people to gauge their overall political compatibility with a candidate. However, she worries that the extreme amount of money and special interests tied to the issue threaten to skew the barometer for many voters. According to CdeBaca, many people rely on mail or TV ads for their election information. Campaign mailers, like those sent out against her, are one of “the most expensive ways to reach voters," she adds, "and the only people who can reach voters in that way have to have a lot of money backing them.”
While CdeBaca’s voting record faced intense scrutiny during the debate, some of Watson’s past actions were also the subject of inquiry. In a story that broke in 2007, during his campaign for the District 8 city council seat, Watson pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor involving hitting a child in 2003. Watson explained at the time that he had been instructed to spank the son of his then-partner multiple times as a disciplinary action.
During the debate, Watson said that the action “is not something that I take lightly.” He then used the experience to illustrate how often the livelihoods of Black men are hindered by misdemeanor charges. “Thirty-three percent of African American males have a misdemeanor on their record,” he said. “Upwards of 25 percent of those folks are in shelters because they can’t find housing because of that misdemeanor on their record.” He said his own misdemeanor happened 20 years ago: “My focus is, what have I done since then? How have I brought community together?”
Atlas, a relative political newcomer who would be one of the youngest to serve on city council if elected, came away from the debate relatively unscathed by criticism of his background. However, his history of working for powerful and high-profile politicians such as Mayor Michael Hancock was brought up. Atlas argued that he could be trusted to be an independent leader because, “I don’t have their support.” He continued, “I’m a younger, different person, and I have a different set of values.”
Notably, Atlas also mentioned that his mother is currently experiencing homelessness due to schizophrenia. This, he says, informs his deep commitment to Denver’s rising homelessness issue. He opposes CdeBaca’s position against the camping ban, saying, “What I would never want to happen is to get that call that my mother died on our streets because we’re allowing encampments.” Atlas believes the camping ban is really put in place “to save lives.”
CdeBaca argued that homelessness shelters often have vacancies as many people would rather stay on the streets. She called for autonomy for homeless people and said that “safe outdoor spaces” are crucial until permanent housing solutions can be put in place.
All candidates see housing affordability as a central issue in this election. Watson thinks it is the number-one issue, while Atlas believes it is the cost of living in general. During the debate, Watson opposed rent control, opting for development as the main housing-crisis solution — especially on the Park Hill Golf Course.
CdeBaca pushed strongly for rent control and other measures such as social housing and community land trusts (which she has worked to implement in the Tiera Colectiva GES in north Denver). She stood firmly against the Park Hill Golf Course development. Atlas also supported rent control and social housing, though he took a softer position than the others. He thinks developing the Park Hill Golf Course is a good idea, but says he will let his position be determined by whether voters lift the conservation easement in April.
This story has been updated February 10 to add additional issues discussed at the meeting.
