Election Day is less than a week away, so Denverite hit the city to see what voters are thinking about.
But we didn’t just go for vanilla man-on-the-street interviews. No! We went to a dog costume contest in Highland, a chili cook-off on Colfax Avenue, southwest Denver’s Wellshire Golf Course and Johnny Lee Sandoval’s annual Halloween puppet show to chat with strangers about local politics.
The big ticket this year is Mayor Mike Johnston’s Vibrant Denver bond package, which has been split up into five separate ballot measures. It would approve up to $1 billion in debt for infrastructure projects, paid off with the city’s current property taxes.
Denver voters have almost always approved measures like these in recent years, but we’re waiting to see if a new era in city and U.S. has changed residents’ calculations.
People we met had a range of opinions on the spending plan. One thing we noticed across all these random spots: For some voters, the ballot measures are a referendum on Johnston himself.
People at the dog costume contest said trust in Mayor Johnston is at play in this election.
Highland’s Boulder Street was packed with dogs and their humans last Saturday as Three Dog Bakery hosted its annual costume contest. There were multiple Winnie the Pooh families, a mutt dressed as Ron Burgundy, four-legged dragons and aliens and fuzzy spiders.
It was chaos. By all accounts, everyone had a nice time. And, unsurprisingly, most people weren’t expecting election questions.
A lot of Denverites we met — at the costume contest and elsewhere — had not yet studied the ballot, though most said they planned to. Turnout in these off-year elections is typically pretty low.
Annie Hsieh, however, was up to speed.
She was likely to vote for the bond package, she said, in part because the city can only spend these property tax dollars on debt packages like this. The city says taxes will stay the same whether the measure passes or fails, though Denver could eventually lower the tax rate if voters kept rejecting maintenance and construction proposals.
For Hsieh, it helped that each ballot measure spells out what it’s funding.
“Unless we pass these bonds, we won't have the money to spend. These bonds are kind of necessary,” said Hsieh, whose dogs, Cooper and Willow, were dressed as Tigger and Piglet, respectively.
But some concerns were seeping in. Hsieh was thinking about conversations she’s had with friends, and others she’s seen online.
“I've heard like, ‘Oh, the mayor doesn't know how to budget properly or spend money wisely,’” she told us.
Hsieh said that started with talk about the AI-powered, car-tracking cameras that Mayor Johnston has kept in the city, despite pushback and privacy concerns from residents and the Denver City Council.
“The major issue recently is the Flock cameras,” she said. “People are like, ‘The city council was against it. How is the mayor unilaterally going for this or purchasing this?’ And so that leads to the kind of distress of, 'He isn’t able to spend money wisely.'”
Andrew Gilbride, who was dressed as a farmer with his chicken-costumed corgi, Kiwi, was well aware of that debate. He’s generally supportive of infrastructure spending, but the AI camera issue made him think twice — especially, he said, because Mayor Johnston maneuvered around the city council to keep the cameras operational for several more months.
“[That] kind of really erodes a lot of trust for me, and that's something that I just keep in mind now,” he said. “I do think some of these [bond measures] are good proposals, and I hope they're done well.”
Johnston has promised to let the council make the final decision next year, and he says Flock has agreed to add data and privacy protections.
We asked the mayor if he worried the camera debate might be a problem for his bond push.
“There’s no relation. The bond is about how we make more investment in everyday infrastructure,” he answered. “Disagreement with a police strategy should not affect how you think about whether you want a rec center or a park or a library.”
He described the Flock contract as a pilot, saying it would be canceled if it “doesn’t work for us.”
At a chili cook-off, we heard about burnout — on politics and Colfax construction.
The Colfax Ave Business Improvement District organized the event at the Satellite Bar to support the business while transit construction disrupts the corridor. The little dive’s pool table was covered in crockpots simmering with chiles and chilis, green and red. People scooped samples into little cups and slurped them down, sometimes with a spoon.
Cade Lee, who’s lived in the neighborhood for decades, also said trust was part of his decision to vote — or not. But he wasn’t worried about Flock cameras. Instead, he was frustrated with money he said the city had “wasted” on public art and all the construction blockages outside.
“It’s not worth voting. Because, if it was, we would've never approved this (expletive)," he said, motioning to Colfax Avenue outside. “They don't ask us on (expletive) that matters. They ask us on everything else. Because this (expletive) right here is destroyed. I don't know how many little local businesses are right here — a bunch of my friends and family are feeling it — trust me, it hurts really, really bad.”
To that end, he said, he would not trust Johnston or the city to spend $1 billion on anything.
“I don't dislike the guy. He’s done good stuff. But do I trust him?” he said. “No.”
Meanwhile, Denon Moore, who works with the business district, said she stopped watching the news after President Donald Trump took his second term. She was avoiding undue existential stress, which she said has made her less attuned to national and local issues alike.
“I just really needed to pull back,” she said.
She told us she would absolutely study Denver’s ballot measures and vote by Tuesday, but she added that her fear and anger with the federal government has trickled down to her perception of local politics.
She expects she’s not the only one, saying Denverites who have become similarly depressed by national politics might transpose those feelings onto a ballot measure like the bond.
“Sadly, I really do see my faith kind of dwindling in our local government. And I think perhaps that's coming from a larger place of just feeling like a lot of decisions can be made behind closed doors,” she said. “I do have little faith that what we ask for, and what we project, is really being considered. So yeah, I think that I am a little bit jaded right now.”
But not everyone was so despondent. Michael McManus, a Satellite regular who’s known as the Blues Cowboy karaoke star, said he trusts the mayor and will probably greenlight his bond.
“I generally have a favorable view towards government politicians,” he said. “I usually vote for that stuff.”
At the Wellshire Golf Course, a sunny day and (mostly) sunny outlooks.
It was a lovely afternoon for putting and driving as we hung out near the ninth hole at the city’s swanky southeast Denver property.
Susan Horrigan, who was hurrying to make her tee time, didn’t mince words about the bond or the mayor as we marched towards the starter house.
“Absolutely, I trust him. Totally. There are certain people in government I don't trust, but it's not the Democrats, I'll tell you that,” she said.
She was all in on the bond, both because she backs Johnston and because she has a personal stake in its success. Horrigan lives in Park Hill and is hoping Ballot Issue 2B, which would fund parks, will transform the old Park Hill Golf Course into a sprawling regional park.
“I want that to be a park,” she said.
Really, she added, the whole city could use a cash injection.
“We need it so bad,” she told us. “We really need the infrastructure.”
As they finished their day on the course, Jim and Laura Marx said the same. The city has seen some tough years, between layoffs and a pandemic. They believed Johnston when he said investment is the way forward.
“What's the most important, I think, are the cultural facilities, what makes Denver good,” Jim said. “The city has to put itself back together and it's going to take some time.”
Both applauded Johnston’s attempts to steer Denver to better solutions on homelessness, immigration and its budget gap. Jim said Johnston’s appearance before Congress in March earned him a lot of trust.
But a golfer named Kathy, who declined to share her last name and described herself as a Republican voter, said she had an opposite reaction to the Mayor’s performance.
“He's already wasted quite a bit of money in the city of Denver on the homeless, the hotels that he's purchased, and nothing's really happened with that,” she said. “It's not that I don't want to help the homeless. But the way he's doing it, I don't think it's helping.”
So, no, she said, she would not vote to give him more resources.
At a legendary local Halloween show, visitors were thinking about the city’s kids.
The street in front of Johnny Lee Sandoval’s home, off Florida Avenue in the city’s Mar Lee neighborhood, was crowded with visitors on Saturday — as usual for this time of year.
Each October, he fills his yard with hand-made, life-sized marionettes that dance to "Thriller" and "The Monster Mash" as he and his helpers finesse wires hooked up to each of his ghoulish creations: a giant wizard, an undead mail carrier, a demented clown.
Deluvina Martinez brought her great-grandkids to see the spectacle. She’d already turned in her ballot, and said she did greenlight Johnston’s bond package.
Martinez said she’s seen her property taxes rise quite a bit in the 48 years she’s lived in her Athmar Park home, so she wanted to make sure that money went to something constructive. But other issues on the ballot consumed more of her attention. She’s about to welcome her first great-great-grandchild, so school board elections and, crucially, a referendum on Denver’s flavored nicotine ban were of the utmost importance.
“It's always kids for me,” Martinez said.
She voted to uphold the flavor ban, which the city council passed earlier this year. The referendum on the ballot is an attempt to overturn it. (Confusingly, a “yes” vote would keep the ban in place.)
As the life-sized puppets bounced over the lawn, Jon Booker shared another side of this debate. Governments, he said, shouldn’t meddle in an issue of personal choice.
“There's certain adults that, you're old enough, you can make that decision. If you choose you want it, then so be it,” he said.
Cade Lee, who was upset about BRT construction on Colfax, had called the flavored nicotine ban “un-American.”
Lorena DeSantos, who’s lived in Harvey Park for a decade, made a financial argument against the flavor ban.
“If we push out that ban, I think other cities are just going to cash in on that tax money. So we are already going into debt with this bond — and I feel like we have a pretty good chance It's going to pass — and we're going to lose all that tax revenue,” she said.
DeSantos, a teacher, said she wouldn’t risk any more financial hardship for the city. Spending on streets, parks, public health, city facilities and shelter all impact the kids she works with.
But she cannot vote, she said, because she’s a Mexican citizen. Instead, she’s been keeping close tabs on the bond process and has been urging her friends and family to support the suite of ballot initiatives. She knows some doubt how that money will be spent, but she said it should be spent nonetheless.
“We can't just say ‘no’ because we don't like the person leading these bonds and leading the charge on changing things,” she said. “We need to do something.”
Ballots are due by 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 4. Check out our voter guide, and let us know if you have questions about this year’s measures.
