Paul Noel Fiorino, a ballet dancer, singer songwriter and perpetual candidate for office in Colorado, has again entered the Denver mayor's race.
Fiorino has run for Governor of Colorado five times, U.S. Senate once, and mayor of Denver in 2011 and 2015. He hasn't won a political race yet, except, he said, for when he was elected class president in his junior and senior high schools when he lived in Castle Rock.
"It's a theater. It's a process," said Fiorino, who summed up his platform for Denver mayor as "preservation and conservation."
Specifically, Fiorino wants to see affordable housing preserved so people of all walks of life have a place to live.
"We need to really put emphasis on our workforce and housing and how we're gonna take care of them, but also our seniors," said Fiorino who "just got Social Security." He added that, for the homeless, he wants to strengthen the group of nonprofits that serve that population.
Speaking about recent news on the proposed Safeway and Kroger merger, Fiorino said he doesn't "like the idea of our supermarkets consolidating, because you certainly don't need more food deserts."
Fiorino said he was first called to run for office in 2006 because of cuts to the arts in public schools.
He's "very passionate about freedom of speech through the arts, through journalism, through television and media, which is really a challenge these days."
Fiorino's family moved to Colorado in 1955 when he was just five months old. He graduated from Metropolitan State University in 1974, worked at arts nonprofits and is still active in ballet. He said he will play Drosselmeyer in Ballet Ariel's production of "The Nutcracker" at Lakewood Cultural Center.
"But I think physical fitness arts are really missing in our education," said Fiorino.
Fiorino has so far indicated to the city he will not accept Fair Election Fund matching campaign dollars for this race, and he didn't seem worried that he would likely lose the money race to more established candidates.
"I think my message is really out already. I mean, if you just put in 'Paul Noel Fiorino' and Google me, you know, Google calls me a politician," Fiorino says with a laugh. "I'm just a stinking politician. The lowest of the low, you know what I mean?"
