If you live in Northwest and West Denver, pretty much from the top of the Regis neighborhood to the middle of Westwood, you'll be getting a new House District 4 state representative on Saturday.
Denver At-Large City Councilmember Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez served in the seat from 2019 until earlier this year when she was elected to Council.
With the seat vacant, three announced candidates are vying for the position:
- Retired appellate judge Cecelia Espenoza;
- Former House District 50 State Rep. Rochelle Galindo;
- And teacher and community organizer Tim Hernández.
Here's what you need to know about the candidates, who and how they are deciding to fill the seat, how you can hear from the candidates and words of advice from Gonzales-Gutierrez to represent the district.
How the process of filling the vacancy works:
A vacancy is filled by the representative's party, in this case Democrats. A vacancy committee is formed by Democratic precinct organizers who will go on to elect the new representative. That election will take place on Aug. 26.
On Saturday, community members can attend the committee meeting, which includes a forum between the candidates and the actual voting from committee members.
Check-in for the event starts at 12 p.m., followed by the forum at 1 p.m. and the voting at 2 p.m. It'll take place at Peter Claver Hall at Regis University, 3333 Regis Boulevard. The event can also be streamed here.
During the forum, which will be moderated by Gonzales-Gutierrez, each candidate will be given the opportunity to introduce themselves and they will later be asked three pre-submitted questions from the City Council area representatives, District 1's Amanda Sandoval and District 3's Jamie Torres, along with At-Large Councilmember Gonzales-Gutierrez, and other party officers. The audience will get to ask three additional questions and then candidates will give their closing statements.
After the forum, committee members will announce the declared candidates and allow for any additional nominations. Candidates can then nominate themselves or be nominated by another individual. Committee members will then vote.
If no candidate receives a majority vote, the committee will move to a run-off where the lowest scoring candidate will be removed from the ballot and committee members will vote again to decide the new state rep.
These are the three declared candidates so far (in alphabetical order):
Cecelia Espenoza
Espenoza grew up in Utah and has lived in HD4, on and off, since 1991.
For the past five years, Espenoza has served as captain with the Denver Democrats for HD4's Subdistrict 4B, recruiting new members to the party and working on achieving true diversity and inclusion. Espenoza said while serving and living in the district she's worked "extensively within this community and knows the issues and the struggles that we're facing."
Espenoza has three focuses: gun safety, education and housing. Gun safety is one of the top concerns Espenoza said the community is facing and it's an issue she plans to address as soon as she steps into office.
One measure, and the only measure Espenoza said she's currently committed to, would be creating tax credits for folks who purchase a gun safe or other lockable containers for firearms.
"I think it's important to recognize that what we want is responsible gun ownership and the safety of those guns so that they're not in the wrong hands," Espenoza said. "I'm very truly committed to reducing gun violence and eliminating the fear and the scourge of that violence in our community."
Rochelle Galindo
Galindo was elected to represent portions of Greeley, Evans and Garden City in November 2018 during Colorado's Democratic blue wave.
During her time in office, she co-sponsored several bills including a bill that increased the amount of time a tenant has to cure a lease violation.
But Galindo's time in office was short-lived. In April 2019, several groups moved to recall Galindo. One group was concerned with her stance on an oil and gas bill that prioritized the protection of public safety. Weld County, where Greeley is located, is the No. 1 producer of oil and gas in the state.
Another group took issue with her stance on a bill that would ban public schools from teaching so-called abstinence-only sex education.
Neither group achieved their recall demands because Galindo resigned in May 2019 shortly before she was cited for providing alcohol to a minor, a charge of which she was acquitted. During that time, an allegation that Galindo sexually assaulted a campaign worker also came to light, but police dropped the investigation and Galindo was never charged.
In a statement to the Colorado Sun, Galindo said, "I knew that if I stood by the truth, and trusted in the process, that the truth would shine through...It took a long time, but the truth is known."
Galindo did not respond to Denverite's requests for an interview about her current campaign.
Tim Hernández
Hernández is an 11th- and 12th-grade ethnic and Chicano studies teacher in Aurora, who said he didn't necessarily envision himself running for office.
But Hernández said what's occurred in his classroom and to his students have been "the consequences of political choices." In dealing with those choices, Hernández said he was inspired and asked by community members to step into a political role, especially after his contract with Denver Public Schools was not renewed.
Hernández's three focuses are education, gun violence protection and housing.
Hernández main campaign focus is improving schools through more funding, higher teacher pay and encouraging unionization.
"I'm a part of a generation of Colorado kids that because of the budget stabilization factor, I quite literally never received a fully funded day of my entire public education in the state of Colorado," Hernández said. "I went from that kind of student to a teacher that has to put Amazon wish lists together to get books for class because my school can't pay for them ... I believe in strong public schools but you get strong public schools in two ways: you fully fund them and you make sure the teachers get there and they stay."
Any endorsements from the previous rep?
Gonzales-Gutierrez hasn't endorsed any candidate but she said echoed the sentiments of Hernández and Espenoza regarding the top concerns of the district. She hopes whomever is chosen continues "to put people first."
"My hope is that they are collaborative and that they listen," Gonzales-Gutierrez said. "My biggest thing is that you listen to all the people of the district and not just the ones that are the loudest and the ones that have access and the ones that have resources. The ones that don't have those things are the ones that need the policies that are going to help them the most.
