Business owner Andy Rougeot vowed to enforce the city of Denver’s camping ban, add hundreds of police officers and make Denver “safe and secure again” in his first TV ad.

Andy for Denver

Business owner Andy Rougeot vowed to enforce the city of Denver’s camping ban, add hundreds of police officers and make Denver “safe and secure again” in his first TV ad.

The ad notes Rougeot’s deployment to Afghanistan and how he “laced up my Army boots.” Rougeout was stationed at Fort Carson after joining the Army as an intelligence officer and he deployed to Afghanistan as part of a special operations command attached to Army Rangers.

“As a small businessman, I wore them while growing a company,” he says. “Now, I’m wearing my Army boots to remind me of the mission at hand, to make Denver safe and secure again. As mayor, I’ll enforce the camping ban, add 400 new police officers, and get the homeless off the streets and the help they need.”

Rougeot, the only Republican in the crowded race for mayor, has raised $786,000, the bulk of which he had loaned to his campaign.

A poll on Denver’s race for mayor strongly suggested candidates who position their campaign as the answer to the city’s high crime rate would attract support among voters. Voters, for example, oppose the idea of ‘defunding’ the police, although it maintains ‘soft support’ among Democrats, according to the the poll.

Also high on their list is homelessness, which has spiraled out of control in metro Denver in the last few years.

The poll shows that a majority of respondents (63%) feel safe in Denver, but 36% don’t. Notably, younger respondents and older residents feel safer compared to those ages in between. For all age groups, in fact, a majority say they feel safe in the city – except for female respondents between 50 and 64. In their case, a majority (54%) of whom say they don’t feel safe in Denver.

An overwhelming majority of respondents (74%) view crime as a major problem or even crisis, while they say homelessness is even more dire, with 96% of voters saying it’s a major problem and nearly half labeling it as a ‘crisis’.

Denver’s all-mail municipal election is set for April 4. If none of the candidates secures more than 50% of the votes, the top two candidates will face off in a runoff election in June.

The poll was conducted by Chism Strategies and Cygnal, on behalf of a client based in Denver.