It has been 36 years since Northwest Denver dumped an incumbent City Council member. In December of 1978 I was still savoring my “surprise” election to the Colorado House and waiting to be sworn into office when I received a call at home from Dutchess Scheitler. She asked whether she and her husband Bill could visit me at home. I hadn’t met either of them during my campaign and had no idea why they wanted to see me. Realtor Larry Perry had represented North Denver on City Council for several terms. What little public recognition I may have enjoyed as a legislative candidate stemmed from my very public dispute with Mr. Perry. During World War I, Denver Council members were extended police powers. Only Councilman Perry took this privilege seriously, mounting a “Kojack” light in his car and racing to police calls in the District.

When I witnessed him blow through a red light at 46th and Lowell Boulevard at high speed, half a block from my house and two small children, I raised a public ruckus. Although the City Council closed ranks and refused to repeal its police powers in an act of collegial solidarity, I was hardly the only voter to find Larry’s antics deplorable. The Scheitlers informed me their son had gotten into a shoving match in the Regis High School cafeteria with Larry’s son. Perry had driven to the campus where he handcuffed and arrested their boy. Bill and Dutchess felt it was time for a new face on City Council. Bill would win a four-way race that spring with 51 percent of the vote, avoiding a run-off. He would later go on to win three more terms before joining the Webb administration. The mayor visited Bill daily during his treatment and later hospice care for a brain tumor.

Northwest Denver replaced its incumbent for the first time in 36 years earlier this week. Susan Shepherd was first elected when Paula Sandoval resigned her seat in order to care for her husband Paul, who was afflicted with pancreatic cancer. Susan won a full term in her own right the following year. Northwest Denver is a sea of small brick bungalows constructed mostly in the 1920s and ’30s. Denver’s housing shortage during World War II prompted the City Council to rezone these plats to R-2, permitting rental units throughout the neighborhood. Both houses I owned in the Highlands had basement kitchens and outside entrances. The home I purchased for $34,000 in 1974 was sold for $430,000 last year only enhanced with a few granite countertops. The Highlands are no longer the next Wash Park. Shortly into the new century developers were scraping off the bungalows and replacing them with paired duplexes selling for $600-800,000 each.Highlanders responded with typical political vigor. They launched a down zoning initiative that stripped the longstanding R-2 zoning in favor of a return to R-1 restrictions designed to preserve the district’s historic housing stock, an effort at which they succeeded. At the same time the Hickenlooper administration was drafting a new zoning code for the entire city, which permitted far greater density on major arterial streets and abutting commercial areas. Shepherd inherited this conflict of values and goals. Developers who were exercising rights extended by the revised code ran into vociferous resistance from neighborhood groups and activist residents. While Shepherd attempted to negotiate agreements that honored the rights of developers and remained sensitive to community values, her efforts were judged to be insufficient. The community was looking for someone willing to throw his or her body in front of the bulldozers. Previous Council members actually helped draft and still later approved the new zoning code, but Susan paid the price.

On election night the first returns showed Shepherd losing by nearly a two to one margin. Surrounded by a dozen supporters in the BBQ house at 31st and Federal, there were no illusions regarding the final result. Susan quickly offered congratulations to her opponent, architect Rafael Espinoza, adding, “The opportunity to serve as Council representative for North Denver has been the privilege of my life.” A less charitable volunteer grumbled, “In three years, after the district has filled up with six-story apartment buildings, we’ll see how Rafael explains the view.” There seemed to be little surprise at the election result. Momentum had passed to the challenger months ago. For political buffs, it was encouraging to find a grassroots campaign that had succeeded.

The several hundred volunteers at Espinoza’s 38th Avenue headquarters were ‘amped up’; proving once again that it often isn’t the candidate’s charisma that energizes a campaign so much as it is the energy of the volunteers that bestows charisma on the candidate. Campaign manager Marie Benedix explained how the organizing committee had picked its candidate before the candidate had considered entering the race. “We staged an intervention,” she laughed. Apparently Espinoza tried to recruit his wife, Kari Mock, but she declined. Benedix then thanked the volunteers and encouraged them to maintain “…your commitment to remain engaged with Rafael for the next four years – no, make that the next 12 years.” Espinoza, a resident of the Jefferson Park neighborhood near Mile High Stadium, apologized for his “…weakness in public speaking” to the amusement of his supporters. He singled out the crucial role of “grassroots” volunteers to a campaign that took several months to raise its first thousand dollars. The campaign’s distinctive black and blue graphics (a political consulting no-no!) were designed by Kym Foster to express Rafael’s status as a non-politician. Her square campaign buttons and black T-shirts are hard to forget. This was a campaign that was still recruiting volunteers at their victory party. Any developer in Highlands will ignore this crusade at their peril.

Jolon Clark emerges on top of field of nine

Development wasn’t the driving issue among the candidates vying to replace Chris Nevitt, who lost his run for city auditor, in central Denver. Simply distinguishing your campaign among the nine that were underway proved a trick. Clark, a long time employee of the Platte River Greenway Foundation, placed first with 27 percent. His opponent will be Aaron Greco at 16 percent each. Clark attributed his success to a vigorous volunteer effort, his Denver Post endorsement and a campaign message that resonated with voters. “I was the only candidate who was born in Denver, attended South High School and has lived in this District most of my life. Even families who moved to Denver from outside Colorado like to see there is a chance for their kids to attend school here, raise their own families and help run their city. I think that helped put the Mayor over the top four years ago. I’m not looking at City Council as a stepping-stone to something else. This is the job I want,” Clark explained. He has just 30 days to tell that story. Both opponents are experienced political campaigners. With fewer voters this will be a contest in voter turnout.

– Miller Hudson is a public affairs consultant. He can be reached at mnhwriter@msn.com.