It’s rare when Colorado gets a jump on the national commentariat. 2020 autopsy reports on the national Republican Party have been hobbled by a cadaver that keeps springing off the examination table claiming the mainstream media is conspiring to circulate fraudulent reports of his November demise. Congressional lemmings will not acknowledge their Zombie leader is choosing to enforce the terms of a suicide pact tucked into their non-disclosure agreements.

Not so in the Centennial State, where our media fairly bursts with post mortems debating whether Colorado Republicans will ever manage a return from the grave. Much of this discussion focuses on the approaching 2022 election and whether Republicans can field credible challengers to Gov. Polis and Sen. Bennet. Their chances are rated as vanishingly small. Polis runs a greater risk, perhaps, since the course of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts are largely beyond his control. You need only glance at Gavin Newsom of California, who was viewed a success story in March and seems a failure today.

Nonetheless, it appears Colorado may weather the few remaining months of widespread infection, illness and death without a catastrophic failure of the state’s economy or its hospital system. That’s not a New Zealand or Taiwan-style success, but our governor can neither close the borders nor enforce quarantines. Good enough is something to be grateful for under these circumstances. The fact Polis was able to attract bipartisan support for his economic rescue package, despite federal malingering, is praiseworthy. Future caterwauling about mask mandates and business closures in 2022 will secure little political purchase, particularly if an effective campaign is launched to re-open small businesses likely to fail.

Since there is always good reason to think about the next election, Denver elects a new mayor in 2023. Republicans will not be a factor in a town that delivered 80% of its votes to Joe Biden. Yet all is not well in the Queen City of the Plains. Former Colorado Republican Party Chair Dick Wadhams, a thoughtful guy, has been expressing concerns recently that Denver is fast becoming “a failing city.” His is not simply the frequent trope that Democrats are turning American cities into hell holes. Rather, the boarded up first floor windows across downtown, the whack-a-mole eruption of tent cities “housing” the homeless, repeated failures at the sheriff’s office in administering the city jail and an unstable public school system troubles Democrats as well.

Over the past half century Denver voters have cycled between experienced “insider Mayors” and outsider challengers. This pattern emerged with the election of Federico Peña in 1983. Bill McNichols served 14 years as mayor and another decade in the Currigan Cabinet, while Peña would have had difficulty locating the Mayor’s Office at City Hall. No one thought Mayor Bill was doing a bad job, although the weather gods and a mishandled Christmas blizzard in ’82 raised questions regarding his grasp on the bureaucracy. Each new generation is anointed with a slur. Yuppies (young urban professionals) were to the ’80s what Millennials are today – passionate, a bit too eager and a little too sure of themselves.

They weren’t keen about bragging rights as America’s premiere cow town. They preferred to “Imagine a Great City” and elected a mayor promising to deliver one. They got a world class airport, an expanded convention center, recognized neighborhood associations and more. In 1989 voters turned to Wellington Webb, former legislator, city auditor and decades-long apparatchik in federal and state government assignments. Webb completed Peña’s airport, despite considerable hiccups, took strides in modernizing the police force and provided a dozen years of competent administration – only to be followed by the brewpub maven, John Hickenlooper. Hick was both an outsider and a longshot when he ran in 2003. Neither his story nor that of long-serving Council member Michael Hancock need to be recounted here.

It feels like time for another outsider will arrive in 2023. This will be a disappointment to the half dozen current council members who glimpse a potential mayor in the mirror, perhaps the city auditor as well. So, who should we be watching? Those possibly taking the Peña route from the legislature include House Speaker Alec Garnett and the always effective Leslie Herod who seems to have a finger in every important issue. Chris Hansen and Emily Sirota shouldn’t be ruled out if the cards fall right. Kelly Brough, boss at the Denver Metro Chamber, also has her fans. And, of course, there are the candidates we don’t know yet.

Voter patience is running short following 20 years of promises to curb homelessness, provide affordable housing and reduce congestion. The U.K. is renting motel rooms for its homeless during COVID, solving several problems at a stroke. A mayor riding into town on a white horse sounds appealing!